As
this is Halloween Week, we thought it the best time to talk about Paranormal
Romances. Join us all week. We won't bite you...yet!
Answer: You create a world that real-life readers can
relate to.
First of all write a
series. Creating an entire alternate world is too much work to undertake for a
one-off novel. Besides a series is the road to success for an author in today’s
marketplace. A series is also an adventure through that alternate world. Your
goal is to draw readers in and make them want to stay through one book then the
next and the next. To do this you must create a world that has reality and
resonance – a world that is relatable.
Then you must immerse
your reader in that world. You must immerse her so completely in your story
world that she’s wants – even needs – to remain there until you release her at The
End. So completely she will miss that world when she’s forced to leave it and be
eager to return asap. Achieve that and you’ve set a powerful narrative hook for
the story and for the series as well. But how do you manage such immersion?
I found an answer to
that is in a book by L.G O’Connor. Hope’s
Prelude – The Angelorum Twelve Chronicles – Book 2.5 is part of a very
big story world. The biggest as a matter of fact because O’Connor’s macro story
world encompasses nothing less than the struggle between good and evil to
determine the fate of the universe. I love big stories and good versus evil but
most authors have difficulty managing the scope of that canvas. Specifically
they have difficulty making the story believable and relatable.
O’Connor manages the
vast scope of her story and the series by anchoring us in credible human
territory. The landscape may be vast but the situation is intimate because at
its heart is a love story and we relate to love stories. This is the powerful
narrative hook we all carry in our romance genre kit bags. We can use it to
make a potentially overwhelming story canvas personal. We immerse the reader in
the world of the lovers and that is our open sesame to immersing the reader in
the alternate world of the story.
But we must do so as
deftly as O’Connor does. At the center of an apocalyptic struggle scenario she
grounds us in a tender love story that humanizes all of the rest and gives it
an up-close-and-personal scale which touches our hearts. I was fascinated by
her faceoff between the forces of good – the Angelorum – and the forces of evil
– the Dark Ones. But I was truly captured by the love between Hope in her
worldly guise as Dr. Sandra Wilson scientist – and her guardian and mate Isa
whom she calls Ishmael.
Their passion is both
human and otherworldly and Isa is one of the most sexy-powerful yet gentle
lovers I’ve ever read. As romance storytellers intent upon creating conflict we
are often forced to situate that struggle between our lovers or lovers-to-be.
The alternate world framework allows us to situate the struggle outside of the
love relationship in the complex universe beyond. O’Connor takes beautiful
advantage of that opportunity by creating a hero who openly adores the heroine.
I found that refreshing and endearing from the start.
However engulfed I may
have been by the multi-layered world of the series – what really grabbed me was
Hope/Sandra and Isa/Ishmael and how much they are besotted with each other and
devoted to each other. Theirs is the kind of relationship we all long to find
in our real-world lives and that longing is the ultimate reader involvement. We
not only want to read about this couple – we want to be part of a couple just
like them.
What deeper hook can a
writer set? How much more relatable can a story be? Does O’Connor’s fantasy
world work? You betcha it does. Check it out at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XKID2UE
and be inspired.♥
Alice Orr’s latest novel
is A Year of Summer Shadows–
Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 2. Visit Alice at
www.aliceorrbooks.com.
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