Because I am apparently a genre-jumping gremlin, my WIP is neither contemporary romance OR dystopian. From me, you’ll always have to expect the unexpected, so I’m branching into (drum roll…) romantasy. AND because I can do nothing the “right” way, I looked those usual romantasy tropes right and their eyes…
My brain kind of went, What if tropes… but… wrong?
Hence, the blond guy isn’t evil. The love triangle is just one man making catastrophically different choices. And fated mates? It’s a problem, not a prize.
The Ties That Bind Us, chapter 5
Isobel’s piercing gaze slinked over his body to land on his eyes, and the entire world slowed to a crawl, then restarted in double-time.
Her face was poetry. Lovely and lyrical.
But it was also unmitigated ruin.
She was like the last breath before a leap from a building. She was the morphine that hid torture behind synthetic pleasure. She was the tremor that warned of a life-ending earthquake.
In the space of one second, she snapped every cell in his body in half, and put them back together in a different order, and all he could think was I know you.
But how did he know her? How had he already memorized every curve of her body?
Her eyes widened, and even in the dark, he could see the color drain from her exquisite face. Her tanned skin went ashen.
What do you think about pushing trope boundaries? Are you all for it? Or do you prefer to stick to the tried and true? Would you read a multi-POV romantasy that turns all the tropes on their heads?
“We—we just keep moving forward.”
“Which way is forward?” he demanded, releasing me. He dug his fingers into his hair and paced away. “I had one reason to keep going, even though avenging her won’t change what happened to her. I just wanted retribution, and I figured I’d do as much damage as I could before the NAO discovers I’ve betrayed them and executes me.” He looked up and glared at me. “And then you.”
I froze. “Me?”
“Harrison threw you at me, and you couldn’t have been more destructive if you were a fucking grenade.”
My breath caught. “What?”
“I won’t survive this,” he said, making each word clear and sharp, like he thought I might not understand. “I can’t do this forever. I don’t want to do this forever. I can’t keep killing people like this, and I have weeks at most before they discover me.”
I needed to argue, to plead even, but the raw anger in his voice, the sheer agony in the cracks of his mask forced me to stillness.
“I was fine with it,” he snapped, eyes flashing. “I wanted to die. Until you.”
As I get closer to launching the romantasy, I’m curious what draws you to a cover. Is it the colors? The illustration? Do you have an artist you love? What are your all-time favorite covers? I am open to all suggestions!
Lately, I’ve been struggling with a raging case of Writer’s Block. What used to flow like water is now a bit more like tree sap. I wish I could churn out 10k words a day like I used to. I was a MACHINE.
Maybe I’ve used it all up 😂
Fellow writers, PLEASE give me all your tips and tricks for getting out of the slump!!
Regardless, I delivered three beautiful baby boys yesterday, and Florida is marginally warmer than the rest of the country, so I’ll count my blessings.
Well, that’s it for now! Come see me with Christy Schillig and Libby Tanner Valentine’s Day weekend at Blinking Owl Books in Fort Myers and Books on Third in Naples. I can’t wait to see you!
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