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Do you need to believe in love to be able to write romance?

Guest Blog by Suzanne Jefferies

You can write romance source: wwwtabletmag.com
You can write romance
wwwtabletmag.com

Love is a many splendoured thing. All you need is love. Love to love you baby. All the great lyricists know that there’s no more abused word in the entire lexicon than ‘love’. Not only can it heal wounds, but it can also perpetuate them, “But I love him/her, even though he treats me badly, kicked my dog, ran off with my best friend/mother/extraterrestrial neighbour.” Love bites. Why don’t you love me? Love me, love me, say that you love me. See, any good writer knows that the fortunes of love can run from overflowing then end up in the red within moments. And any great writer knows that ‘love’ can and does happen to everyone – it’s our universal glue.

I know what you’re thinking though…you’re thinking boy/girl, girl/girl, boy/boy lurve. Wrong, wrong, absolutely wrong.

All protagonists have some sort of love affair that moves them to do the things they do. To go on an adventure across a shire, to solve a crime that seems impossible, to protect their family, to get that date with the hot chick, to make the soccer team, whatever. Are you going to tell me that your hero/heroine is kinda lukewarm about their romance? Nu-uh. They’re usually fiercely passionate about it, even if they seem reluctant to move at first. Of course, they’re reluctant, who wouldn’t be reluctant? Embarking on any kind of romance runs the risk of having your precious heart absolutely shattered against the rocks of fate, fortune and chance. Hands up to the writer who has not experienced this kind of romance, the kind that has you slaving away, year after year, rejection after rejection, as you refine your craft? Is it love? Abso-frigging-lutely. Do you need to believe in it? Hell, no. It just is.

And we haven’t even got on to the topic of the ‘love interest’. What do they do? Provide complications? Naturally. The course of…, and so on and so forth.

All novels are romance novels at their heart (oy vey, bad pun). They’re a romance between writer and novel, reader and novel, reader and writer, protagonist and goal, protagonist and love interest. You don’t need to believe in love to write it, you just have to need to know how to keep someone hooked. Isn’t that what romance is all about?

About the Author

Suzanne Jefferies is the author of The Joy of Comfort Eating, a contemporary romance novel set in cosmopolitan Johannesburg. The book is currently available at Amazon. Check out Writer’s Support 5-minute interview: Suzanne Jefferies Interview .

Photo credit: U Hill
Photo credit: U Hill

Connect with Suzanne

Twitter:  @suzannejefferies

Website:  www.suzannejefferies.com

Facebook:  suzanne.jefferies7

Categories
Interviews

The 5-Minute Interview: Suzanne Jefferies


Book Title
: The Joy of Comfort Eating

Genre:  Romance

What was your inspiration for writing this book?

The Joy of Comfort Eating CoverEver had somebody pull back your ribs, rip out your heart, use it as a battering ram, then hand it back to you? Sure you have. Every time you get on the dating merry-go-round.

In those moments after my last break-up, when my thoroughly mangled heart had retreated to somewhere in Numbtown, I was nudged by a half-written novel I’d scrawled at least ten years previously. It was about a well-rounded character who gets herself fired from her job as a teacher at an exclusive girls’ high school, while simultaneously falling for the headmaster. It so didn’t work. I’d re-written the story some time back and swopped out the headmaster for a former lover. Still didn’t work. But what if there was something there that was salvageable? In both the manuscript, and in the relationship? I was still licking my wounds from the break-up, with insane Thornton’s fuelled thoughts such as ‘What if he and I had another chance?’ Un-bloody-likely. But what if Charlie had another chance with the love of her life? I started writing.

Why will the reader fall in love with your main character?

I’ve got a soft spot for my heroine Charlie Everson. Here’s why.

1). Shed love to be the good time girl.Charlie’s exactly the type of person you want on a girls’ night out. You know she’ll be the one to crack open the champagne before you’ve even left the office. Sadly, she’s also the one most likely to be caught.

2). She knows what its like to have dream or two go up in flames. Totally unsuited to the political shenanigans of the corporate communications’ Queenswood office, Charlie’s any of us who looks back on her life and wonders ‘how the hell did I get here?’. And instead of setting off on a goal-setting workshop, she decides to swim into the delights of fried food, cake and chocolate. Let me pause there. In fact, I’m going to go do just that. Okay, I’m back (with my Cinnabon), she’s lost her first love, hasn’t had much luck with her second or third, and any attempt at a career in art has gone splat.

3). She doesn’t think cake can save the world, but it doesn’t hurt to try .

 

What is your favourite part of this book?

Favourite bit? Why the HEA of course!

 

If you could give the antagonist in your book one advice, what would that be and why?

One piece of advice? Only one? I’d give then man plenty. Like how to not walk away from arguments. How to say what you’re thinking instead of engaging in verbal gymnastics. Okay, I’ll stop there for now.

 

If you went on a date with the love interest in your book, where would you go?

A date with Brian? Hmmm. A nightlcub in the dodgiest part of town for a little swing dancing and some vodkas and lime. Perfect.

 

Give us the blurb about The Joys of Comfort Eating

It’s the worst day of Charlie Everson’s life. Not only can she no longer fit into her clothes (disaster for any public relations director), but also her first love, the sexy super-successful Brian Tendai, is her new CEO – the last person she ever expected to run into. Seeing him again tumbles Charlie back into her past. Still so many unanswered questions: he’s convinced she left him, she’s convinced he left her. Charlie minimises the ‘ex-factor’. Tell that to her emotions that are running wild.

But Brian’s not there to rekindle their romance. He’s overseeing Queenswood Communication’s recent merger after a hostile takeover. Guess whose name is at the top of the list?

They agree to one night together, just the one, then it’s back to business as normal. Or is it?

The Joy of Comfort Eating is a contemporary romance novel set in cosmopolitan Johannesburg.

How can the reader buy your book?

Currently online, Amazon

How can readers connect with you?

SuzanneTwitter:  @suzannejefferies

Website:  www.suzannejefferies.com

Facebook:  suzanne.jefferies7