A Shift in Focus

Lately, I’m hearing more and more about the declining historical romance market. Agents have told me that they just can’t sell historicals unless they are New, Bold, and Different (but not so risky that a publisher won’t take a chance). I’ve heard from more than one that I should write contemporaries instead. But I don’t wanna!

So many authors, formerly historical romance power-houses, have switched genres. Jude Deveraux is now writing women’s contemporary fiction. I used to love her medieval heroes and westerns. Julie Garwood is writing suspense. Lisa Kleypas will be writing her first contemporary novel for St. Martin’s Press. And Kristin Hannah made the jump from historicals to women’s fiction a long time ago. I’m left to wonder, is it a self-fulfilling prophesy? Are their agents advising them to jump and abandon ship for a more lucrative genre? Or do they genuinely want to write something new? What makes a person re-examine their writing persona and shift?

All I can say is, I hope Johanna Lindsey doesn’t go there. She’s just about one of the few historical romance authors who has stuck around through the years.

I do think historicals are in need of a face-lift. Gone are the days of the Regency women who would wear a velvet riding habit with a jaunty feather and swoon in the arms of her hero. And I say to that, “Thank God!” I have a hard time believing that women hundreds of years ago are any different than women now. Yes, it was a paternal society and women’s legal rights were next to nothing. But some traits are universal. If anyone threatened a medieval lady’s children, she’d serve him up for breakfast. While her man was off fighting in the Crusades, it was her responsibility to keep the castle running.

I think we need to see more heroines like these, strong women and heroic men who love them. I’d like to see more of the human emotion, perhaps some commoner romances like the servants of the castle instead of the lord/lady. Instead of abandoning historical romance, I’m hoping that it will undergo a dramatic shift that will renew all the reasons I enjoyed it in the first place. I do think the pendulum will shift and they will come back in a strong way.

And still I wonder, why did these bestselling authors stop writing them? Was it market pressure or personal choice?

Quitting is never an easy thing to do. A few years ago, I took up figure skating. I worked my way through the levels until I reached the point where I would have to pull those 4-hour practice sessions in order to get better. Skating was no longer fun because my skill weren’t getting any better and I had hit the wall. It was a very tough decision to quit, but I knew that Olympic skating wasn’t my dream. Skating was recreational, for fun, and I just didn’t have my mind wrapped around it as a career. I felt so guilty when I stopped, but it gave me more time for other things, like my dream of becoming an author. Now I’m okay with the decision. Maybe someday I’ll go back to skating, just for fun.

Have you ever given up on something in your life? Were there any dreams you had that you were forced to abandon? Did you regret it?