Now, as promised, Heeeere’s Tanya!

With The Best Man in Texas and the upcoming Texas Baby (Harlequin American, Sept. 2010) I got to do one of my favorite things as a writer—revisit a world I’d already created.  It’s like going to see old friends!  I don’t know why it took me so long in my career to start writing connected books because, as a reader, I’ve always enjoyed series.

Fantasy series in particular offer amazing instances of world-building, whether it’s Tolkien’s Middle Earth, C.S. Lewis’ Narnia, George R.R. Martin’s Westeros, or Jacqueline Carey’s Terre D’Ange.  But I’ve also seen amazing world-building in standalone books set in the “every day” world.  Jennifer Crusie’s contemporary romance Bet Me comes to mind.  Her location was no more exotic than Ohio, but she definitely sucked me into that world—I totally wanted to have drinks with the characters at The Long Shot bar and eat chicken marsala at Emilio’s.

To me, reading that book felt very interactive.  A fictional world should never be just a green-screen, the landscaped props behind your characters; it should feel three dimensional.  It should contain a society (which can be as small a microcosm as a family of four or a few co-workers in a dysfunctional office).  And there are certain building-blocks that all societies have shared, from bygone historical days to the present.  Many of these same building blocks appear in most of the sci-fi/futuristic fiction I enjoy, too—whether it’s books, movies or shows.

While I don’t think stories should be written as fill-in-the-blank templates, here are a just a couple of elements to keep in mind if you want to build a world (taken from my workshop World-Building for Your Werewolf, Duke, or Small Town Doctor).  What’s the political structure?  Is it matriarchal?  Militaristic?  Groupthink?  (In the show “House,” I think you could argue that the political structure is tyranny.)

What do the people there value?  Gold, information, a damn good chicken marsala?  A believable world needs both moral values and material values, although material doesn’t always mean money. (“He who controls the spice controls the universe.”)  What the people value can not only make your world more distinctive, it can help drive the plot.

What if the thing they value the most is jeopardized, or the story takes them on a quest that makes them re-examine their values?  In Kresley Cole’s hot paranormal romance Kiss of A Demon King, the heroine was a vegetarian and the hero was a self-confessed carnivore.  While that was by no means the main conflict of the book, it was just one more supporting parallel of the differences between them, how the way of life one of them held dear was initially reviled by the other.  They both had a lot of adjusting to do before they earned their happily ever after.

In my upcoming Texas Baby, most of the hierarchy from the book comes from the office where both the hero and heroine work and the thing most valued to both of them is family.  Societies also have common language, whether it’s a dialect spoken (Elvish, Klingon) or simply regional slang or a catchphrase used between friends.  And all societies have their own stories and legends, whether they’re religious parables sacred and kept by worship leaders or simply a familiar anecdote told every year around the Thanksgiving table.

And thank God for those stories!  I love discovering new stories and new writers just as much as I love telling stories and creating new characters.  My hope is that I write characters other readers will want to spend time with and worlds that they will recognize and want to revisit.

~ Tanya

This just in: Tanya will be HERE! on September 7th! With a wonderful post about world building – you won’t want to miss it!

For me, as a fan of Michaels’ books, her story worlds come alive in the clever choice of details. For The Best Man in Texas, I’ll point to the drive from Katy to Houston. Odd choice? Maybe. (I’ve never claimed to be normal) This moment is certainly a ’small’ part of the scene and comes after many other wonderful layers of characterization and world building for the romance novel as a whole.

But with one simple line, she puts you in the scene with her characters, feeling the traffic, traveling the route, and completely engaged with the heroine on the way to the party. (no the scene isn’t about the car, traffic or route – it’s about the characters).

Michaels creates unique characters and detailed world building for her romance novels that is hard to describe, but a pure joy to read. Her transitions between setting and action are seamless, but add vivid depth and tenderness to her stories. This world building blend of emotion, humor, plot, and setting is something I believe has turned many readers to lifelong fans of her work.

Whenever I read Michaels’ books I feel as if I’ve visited the town, walked into that kitchen, or seen the fire station (The Best Man in Texas). That’s a fabulous way for readers to escape and engage with the characters and story.

Such successful world building for romance novels isn’t an easy skill, no matter how effortless Michaels makes it look. As I’ve said before, if you want to learn from the best, buy Tanya Michaels’ books and get yourself to wherever she’s speaking! (her next release is Texas Baby due September 14!)

Live the adventure!

…and mark your calendars for September 7th, when Tanya Michaels will be here!

My friend asked if, being an intelligent alpha female, I sat back and did some paranormal world building while the men in my life (husband and son) dealt with the wobbling, leaky toilet. No, silly me, I used my computer in an effort to help and wound up smack in the heart of the problem – when the internet resource told me it was a relatively easy fix.

No sense calling a professional when we can do it ourselves!

We’ll call it a family bonding experience and chalk it up to character development. I mean when you’re an alpha female in the thick of wax seals and broken bolts, that’s when you really get to know a person, right? By the way, if my back was healthy, I would’ve been able to do most of it on my own – the way I prefer to tackle home repair.

Truthfully, it wasn’t nasty as much as messy. The wax seals hidden on the bottom of toilets are bizarre and rather impervious (by design, obviously) to water clean up.  So while my husband ran out for replacement parts I stayed home trying to dissolve the stupid thing so we could repair and replace it with something new.

My friend asked me if I used my super laser sword. (Gotta love a friend who’s a reader and a fan). Alas, no sword in my reality, only in the paranormal worlds I build up in my imagination. So once again, many thanks to internet resource! My trusty putty knife, glass cleaner, and a heap of rags worked their last job for our family and conquered the gooey seal of wax.

My friend then says (after hearing the whole story) that it sounded like a good blog post. What? What sort of world does she think I live in that I’d find even blogging inspiration on the bottom of a toilet?

Ah, let’s mark that last question as rhetorical.

It seems my friend is ever so smart – and knows me ever so well – to think I’d use the rather strange events of my real world day here at my blog.

Live the adventure!

Don’t forget to enter the Goodreads Giveaway (over there on the right).  Find all my titles on Amazon and Smashwords in the format of your choice!

Taking that initial place, time, or structure in which your characters will play and layering in the details to amp up the mood will only help you with the world building for a paranormal romance novel. As readers and writers of paranormal romance novels, we expect and enjoy those layers and details that make it more than the average escape reading.

I thought of this layering theme frequently while packing and unpacking as we moved the brilliant daughter back into her dorm room for her senior year. (yes having a high school senior is classed as paranormal activity in my opinion – I swear she was starting kindergarten just last week!) But I digress.

As we dumped boxes in a dorm with the most basic, bare furniture, it was merely the foundation, just a place to keep some stuff. She could make her bed, put her clothes in a drawer, and plug in her laptop and it would start to serve her needs, but it still wasn’t comfy or stylish. So we unpacked and layered a carpet, bedding and shams, closet organizers, bulletin boards and decor, extra lighting and finishing touches, and gradually it became her home away from home for the next school year.

My Shadows of Justice series is set in Chicago, in 2096. But the timing is just the foundation. The story is unwrapped, embellished and highlighted in the layers and details as the characters interact with both the elements of the future and each other.

Find Invasion of Justice in E.J. Steven’s Friday the 13th Monster Giveaway Prize Pack 2!

Don’t forget to register to win the latest Shadows of Justice novel, Veil of Justice, from Goodreads! (details on the right)

Of course you can buy the rest of my books in your preferred format at Amazon or Smashwords today!

Live the adventure!

Not only is it a unique and excellently crafted paranormal romance novel – it’s set in Chicago (well, part of the time) and Chicago is one of my favorite cities.

Read an excerpt of Assassins Honor here

Burns has found a fresh angle in the paranormal romance and her world building for this paranormal romance novel is top notch. Lead characters Emma and Ares have a contemporary place to play that’s fraught with powerful enemies with unique talents.

Three things that made Burn’s world building for this paranormal romance novel (and series) so effective:

Location, location, location: Using real locations, Burns doesn’t gloss over the realities of each one. She makes the Sicari lair on Wacker street in Chicago easy to imagine – the lair, the access and why the Sicari chose that spot.

This isn’t a place tourists or innocent bystanders would travel, and the criminal element works to the secretive advantage and purpose of the group.

The opener: Burns opens with Emma on an archaeology dig, uncovering an ancient symbol. Burns uses this symbol throughout the adventure as it’s significant to all the primary characters and their back stories.

Even though the locations change, the purpose of both Emma’s job and her discovery set a mood and tone within the world Burns built for this paranormal romance novel.

It isn’t an easy world. However Burns’ imagination works, I’m a grateful reader and fan! Her attention to detail in the world building for this paranormal romance novel makes for an impressively delightful and smooth read.

Ares’ Sicari world and honor system are so very different from what Emma has known and both hero and heroine have a wonderfully emotional journey that knits seamlessly with the adventure of their circumstances.

It’s never cliched, no pacing is lost, nothing is introduced that doesn’t have a purpose or solid foundation beneath it. In a word: Believable!

Thank you Monica Burns for successful world building for your paranormal romance novel series.

Live the adventure!

For excerpts, and details about how Assassin’s Honor came to be, visit Monica’s site now. Or better yet, go buy Assassin’s Honor in your fave format from your fave retailer so you’ll be ready for the next installment, Assassin’s Heart coming soon!

You get to make the rules and exceptions, you get to put the spotlight on whatever excites you: cityscapes, creatures, legends, mythology or mystery. This is truly the power of creating great fiction in general and fabulous paranormal romance novels in particular.

Think of world building for your paranormal romance novel as setting the stage. It’s your job to present the best experience to the reader. You want to hone, polish and magnify that ever-important presentation.

Face it, as a paranormal romance writer, you probably have other things on your daily to-do list besides playing with your ‘invisible friends’. In doing those other things (be it a project for the day job or a dinner you put on the table) presentation matters.

So what props illustrate your paranormal romance novel to the best advantage? Where will you place the focus to help your reader dial in to the most important part of the journey your characters are taking?

Some paranormal romance writers keep the spotlight on the smallest of details. Others keep big, sweeping vistas (like space) in the front of their reader’s mind.

Building a new world for your paranormal romance, or re-building a familiar world with your unique perspective, can help your paranormal romance novel stand out from the pack of manuscripts clogging up slush piles and it will set you apart as a paranormal romance writer to follow when your book is finally on the store shelf.

Live the adventure!

This is an amazing quote to keep in mind while building the world of any romance novel, but particularly a world of paranormal romance.

As paranormal romance writers, we can ‘live’ in a world full of beauty and charm or danger and shadows, but always full of adventure! And the best part is, we can create it ourselves.

We can mold the world for our characters to give the best story to our readers. World building is really a vibrant way to bring out the universal truth about the story paranormal romance writers (or other authors) want to tell.

Jawaharlal’s quote is particularly important for writers who are world building for a paranormal romance novel series. It’s a potent reminder that the adventures can be unlimited in a particular setting, or with a particular group of characters.

We just have to keep our eyes and hearts open to the stories within that want to be told.

Sometimes that’s the real challenge, letting the story unfold within the world we’ve built for our paranormal romance. But if you’ve put in the time to create it, be sure you let your characters – and yourself – enjoy it!

Live the adventure!

And not just because I’m teaching an ending’s class this month – that phrase can apply to nearly everything in writing as well.

Whether you’re searching for ways to beef up the world of your paranormal romance novel, or just looking for the cornerstone to build from, don’t be afraid to use what you’ve got – or where you come from!

Recently I was traveling and I saw a huge banner for a Greek festival and bake sale.  While I  managed to avoid the call of the baklava,  I admire culture and deep family roots – probably because I feel so disconnected from my own.

But getting back on point: Ever since seeing ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ I can’t help but admire the built-in resources she tapped to write a great screenplay.

The same concept can apply to world building for your novel.

One thing that made the movie so worthwhile was her loving approach and unique perspective on the world and family that raised her. She brought her world to everyone – Greek and not-as-Greek – and made us all love it.

It really doesn’t matter what genre you write – something has to become the setting for the novel.

If you’ve got a family history or culture – I say use it. Is the town you grew up in perfect for hatching villains or heroes? When you’re building a world for your paranormal romance novel, you get to decide.

You can take the quirks that paint that town (or family, or school or culture) one color in your mind and emphasize or downplay them to match the world you’re building for your readers.

It’s a great freedom and a fun responsibility when you’re world building for a paranormal romance novel and using what you’ve got – or where you come from can be a wonderful way to tie life to art.

Live the adventure!

Control Freaks!

Yup it’s true, though no official studies have been done (at least none that will be cited here) control freaks are sure to have a good time when building a world for their very own paranormal romance novel.

Think of the possibilities! You can defy the laws of gravity as they apply to your twenty-something immortal characters or their forty-something human counterparts (please help me believe there’s a world somewhere with an antidote for gravity).

World building is like the ultimate Lego kit for paranormal romance writers.  There would probably even be fewer pieces cluttering up the floor (unless you borrow your kid’s set while he or she’s at school) Either way, your imagination brings it all to life.

You make or defy the laws, you create the colors and decide if they’re bright or muted and what they might signify.

What an opportunity for the latent – or not so latent – control freak.

We’re talking some serious benefits here. Don’t like the government – develop your own. The world building for your paranormal romance novel can have all the political intrigue and machinations that’s right for you.

Like spring – have more than one! Remember what Tolkien did with Hobbits and meals? Come on, let your inner control freak free – look at what bugs you, what you can’t contain or control, and create a world you’d love to live in!

Then add in some characters with special skills and appeal and - ta-da – you’ve got a novel you can’t wait to write! That’s what world building for paranormal romance is all about – creating that special place for you and the characters to enjoy and play in every day.

Live the adventure!

There are many factors to consider when you’re world building for a paranormal romance novel and I’ve covered a bunch of them in previous posts.

But at some point you have to wonder…does size matter? Is bigger the best way to go when you build a world for your paranormal romance novel? Should you go all out and make the world bigger than life?

Only if it’s necessary.

No that isn’t a cop out. When you read your favorite paranormal romance writers, is the setting – the world – the key ingredient? Think about it. It’s a backdrop and the best authors in the business make it as big a factor as it needs to be.

I recently read a paranormal romance set in post apocalyptic Chicago. I didn’t even know the city name until the second chapter – and that was fine, the focus was on the action and immediate conflict.

Even after I knew where (and when) they were, I didn’t see much of the city – didn’t need to. There were a few clues, enough to keep the story grounded, but more of the time element came from the characters and plot conflict.

It was ideal – to read only what mattered and advanced the plot. The author did a masterful job keeping the spotlight where it needed to be for the genre: on the characters involved in the paranormal plot and romantic plot.

That’s not to say I don’t enjoy seeing more of the world – when it makes a difference or has an impact on the choices characters make in the novel.

I can assure you, the author knew every nuance of the world her characters played in – that’s why it felt so seamless as a reader when she showed me only what I needed to see to enjoy the current story.

So while you have to do the background and research for world building no matter when or where you set your paranormal romance novel, you don’t have to feel obligated to include daunting passages of big description.

The detailed world building of your paranormal romance novel shouldn’t overshadow the excitement, fun, and romantic adventures of your characters.

Live the adventure!