There is a theory that occasionally makes the rounds of Romancelandia.  So please bear with me while I play devil’s advocate for a moment…

The theory is that the idea of Romance—and Romances as a literary genre—are little more than thinly-veiled rescue fantasies.

Now, before anyone jumps on their gender-defensive high horse (as I did), let’s consider it.

How many romances have you read in which the hero saves the heroine from mortal danger?
Rescue.
Or he snatches her from the jaws of a routine existance, introducing her to sexual excitement, a purpose in life, or the promise of a better future?
Rescue.
Don’t most of us heave even a little sigh when the hero bends her backward, his lips forcing her surrender, saving her from her poor, dull self?  Or feel ourselves go all smooshy when he sweeps her off her feet and carries her away?
Rescue.
Even the unsuccessful rescue can move us.  Sure, maybe the bad guys got their hands on the heroine…but not without the hero risking life and limb to prevent it.  And if he should shield her with his body, or sacrifice something that was important to him for her sake?  Sometimes just the THOUGHT of it—a warrior who’ll shield her from harm?  Does it make your heart flutter,  make you heave a little sigh?
Rescue.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking…
“Yeah, but what about the stories in which she saves HIM, or the gritty new heroines who are more likely to step up and kick ass than stand on a hillside, frock blowing in the breeze as they scan the horizon for their hero?”

The ‘anti-rescue’ heroine.  She’s become popular in action/romance, films, and tv—most likely because she’s been something of a rarity in the past, whose very existence is a reaction to those predecessors who needed…rescuing?

There’s no judgement implied in this post.  Chances are the damsel in distress supplies something that’s lacking in the hero.  And heroic men would, no doubt, be attracted to women in trouble.  But it does provide food for thought.

Are the romances you’re reading/writing really “rescue fantasies”, and would the idea of that bother you?

Well. This is the last week for NaNoWriMo. How’d you do? Did you make that goal of 50,000 words?

At the time of this writing, I did not. Who am I kidding? I only made it about halfway. But you know… that’s about 20,000 more words than I had on November 1. And even though I didn’t make it to the end and I didn’t get a shiny pretty certificate that says I finished NaNo ‘07, it’s all good.

I got to know my characters the more I wrote about them. And I totally fell head over heels in love with my hero. He’s definitely a beta male, something I’ve never written before. My heros have been strong and burly. Alpha all the way. But the beta… yeah, there’s something to be said for that.

At any rate, I do have the nice beginnings of a good novel. All about a painter and his long lost love. It’s tragically romantic. Okay, not really but it is a good love story about him finding his one true love. I’m enjoying spending time with him and my heroine.

And as for the heroine…she’s a daydreamer. She tends to project HUGE fantasies of the object of her affection. She thinks things will work out one way, but they end up working out a totally different way. And her friend is a very chic and elegant gal who is screaming for her own book.

So I have a great cast of characters who are all doing their job - telling me what to do!

So. How’d you do? Didja make it?

I am so excited to have the ladies blogging with us! How very exciting for us and the Chica-readers. Y’all are in for a real treat!

Welcome our newest Chicas ~ YAHOO

Oh, we need t-shirts or something. hmm-hmm, miss t-shirt designer, get busy

And . . . did someone mention December prizes to be given away?!?! How exciting. Oh wiat, I get to give them, not receive them . . . COOL! Even better. I  *heart*  giving away gifts, especially during the holidays. Hmm, maybe a new book and a basket or something . . . (but shhh, don’t tell, we wouldn’t wait to give too much info away before it happens.) . . . and imagine if I had a cool t-shirt (enough of the hints!)

It’s exciting when things get shaken up a bit. You never know what might happen or what you may read. I can already feel the mental juices flowing waiting to get rolling (could be a little leftover sugar rush from Thanksgiving–but whatever works )

Tis the season to be a cold, harried shopping fool!!  We here at Southern Fried Chicas wanted to get all our faithful readers *cough* something special.  We pondered for days, had meetings, brainstorming sessions–the works!!

We finally decided that the best thing we could do was give you more to read!!!! That’s right folks…MORE TO READ!

Starting Sunday the fabulous and wonderful and oh-so-talented Tanya Holmes will be joining us on a permanent (weekly) basis.  That’s right…blogging on SUNDAY!

Followed by…….what you thought I was done?  NO No NOOOOO mas petites!  We have more!  Much more!  The first Wednesday of every month….starting a week from THIS Wednesday….the fabulous, talented and incredibly funny Vanessa Jaye will be joining us.  And I think we’re giving away some prizes in December (if the vague rambling half-coherent emails slugging past last week were any indication)…so stay tuned I’m sure someone will announce something at some point  :yes:  .  I’ve got a book due *coughsobcough* so I’m going to slide back into the abyss now, but before I do I want to say I’m personally THRILLED to have Vanessa and Tanya (who are both as wonderful a bloggers as they are talented writers) joining us.

So, there you are.  Still digesting, huh?  Gorged yourself on the Thanksgiving dinner?  Worked too hard in the kitchen?  Feel like all you want to do is sit and veg out?  Maybe even feeling a little down with the prospect of the holidays looming over you?

Well, here’s the perfect solution.
S-T-R-E-T-C-H.
No, I’m not referring to working the abs and arse (although there is that too, lol).
I’m talking about stretching those writing muscles, considering flexing them in ways you haven’t been doing.
Writing in povs, genres, styles, or lengths you’d never considered before.

I’m currently in the middle of trying to finish two projects.  I certainly didn’t need to deviate from that path—being a slow writer, I need to make use of every moment.
But last week I saw a contest that caught my eye.  250 words of short fiction, loosely based on a lovely photograph.
And durnit, I just had the urge to see if I could do it.
Wrote the story, then gritted my teeth to delete an extra scene, adjectives, adverbs, descriptive passages, etc., until it was nearly bare-boned 250 words.  Like pulling out my own fingernails, let me tell ya.  I loved some of those words.

But it was a challenge.  I love a challenge.  And it was worth it.

I think that stepping outside of our own self-made little boxes occasionally not only stirs the creative juices, but helps give us more confidence in our abilities.
How about you?  Have you flexed your writing muscles lately?  Hmmm??? 

Happy Thanksigiving everyone!

Today, I will…

…be eating lots and lots of turkey;

…eyeing all the desserts but only eating one;

…visiting with my family;

…napping during football.

Here’s hoping everyone has a fabulous turkey day. :)

Now back to your regularly scheduled holiday…

So I totally stole this from Ames–told you I would!

Thanksgiving is an odd time if you have a big family who all live within a 3o miles radius. It’s often a balancing act to see which house you will visit and when. Especially daunting when you have small kids who are easily annoyed and hard to entertain for hours on end–it’s not as if they’re bad–but after about hour seven in a sweater and seeing relatives who don’t even know how to use a computer because they’re older than dirt, the kids’ nerves have worn thin!

This year, I had an epiphany. I would host Thanksgiving at my house for the dh’s family (thankfully his dad, step-mom and brother are going to another state so we didn’t have to make plans around that extra schedule this year–that’s thankful #1). I have so far also invited BFF Sandy (thankful #2–did I remember to tell her I’d kill her if she doesn’t show . . .hmm . . . ). And last night I also invited my oldest Bro (thankful #3–we actually get along now that were are both adults chronologically, him, well  . . . good thing he doesn’t ever read my blogs!). My mom is a harder sell, so far, as far as I know she will be by her lonesome, probably watching the boob-tube all day. I tried, but what more can I do? She takes to ultimatums even less now than she did when I was 16.

I have so much food I don’t even know what to do. I have cleaned every inch of parts of the house people will be–my bedroom: don’t think so, this kids’ rooms: enter at your own risk, there are some things even a mother shouldn’t have to do! (actually two of the kids’ rooms are clean with little to no bribery and mega threats of game system forfeiture)

But all in all life has been good. I have made some great new friends this year for which I am uber-thankful. Got to spend time with my dear friends in good times and in scary, but times we could hold each other up when need be and laugh at silly crap when no one else gets the joke! I have had some wonderful writing experiences and haven’t hung up the towel though I may have wanted to a few times.

With so many things to be thankful for it almost seems a need for an extra day Maybe two to get all the thanks out. Hmm . . . That sounds like a good idea. Eh, I will just drink a couple extra glasses of wine, think I told everyone thanks and leave it at that–works for me

*PSA……if you would like to be Chica for a Day and come guest blog…speak up.

**PSA TWO: Raine won the Restless Dawn writing contest. Take a minute to go read her entry if you haven’t. It’s awesome!

Okay if you read my blog post tomorrow at Naughty and Spice you are going to see the same if not a similiar post. Karen came up with the brilliant idea of giving thanks and instead of posting on Poignancy which I might post later this week (it was a really good post when I wrote it in my head last night while laying in bed–shush) I’m going to repeat myself!

I’m going to do something I rarely do. I’m going to share some rather personal stuff (And I hope in return ya’ll will share what you’re thankful for or maybe something important you’ve learned this year). (more…)

Let me make one thing perfectly clear.
I am NOT an obsessive personality.
I’m not obsessive, not it the least little bit, and…and…

Hmmm.
Wait a minute…don’t exactly like where that sentence is placed.  I think it might be better down…

Here.  Yes.  Now, where was I?

One day this week, I stayed up until 6:00 a.m. to finish reading/editing a few chapters for a submission before going to bed.  No, it wasn’t Nano.  No, not a deadline.  And never mind that I had to be up at 10:30 and work the next day, or that I’d had little sleep the night before, or that I’d be dead on my feet, etc.  I was going to finish going over that piece, one freaking word at a time, and get it mailed that night—er, morning, because I’d told myself I would.

I am not obsessive.  There are things, however, that I can obsess about.
Like not being able to find something.  If I can’t find something here at home, and I know durn well it’s here SOMEWHERE, I will look for that sucker come hell or high water, even if it means trashing the whole house to find it.

Inevitably, I do.
And I prefer to think of it as determination, thank you.

Are there things you obsess about in your writing?  In your reading?  In your daily life?

C’mon now, speak right up.  Your secret’s safe with us.

So. I’m still plugging away at NaNo, shockingly enough. I hit the 14K mark around the beginning of the week. The goal is to write 2,000 words a day, but that just doesn’t seem to be working. Most of the time.

Sometimes, though, I have this incredible surge of writing and I sit and go for about an hour nonstop. It’s a Zone Moment.

Anyway.

I was talking with some writing buddies the other night and one of them hit on something that made a lot of sense. She said she can write the first 30 pages and then she gets stuck. Nada. Zilch.

So I started thinking about my own writing and I realized - I do the very same thing. I get about 30 pages in and then…nothing. Not.a.damn.thing.

With NaNo this year, I’ve forced myself to sit down and write something almost every day. I say almost because I haven’t been at the keyboard every day like I should have. But sometimes life interferes with the writing, sadly, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it but accept the fact that Life is in the bloody way.

But I digress. Again.

I realized as I started working back on my WIP I’m doing for NaNo that I had the 30 Page Slump and that I stopped writing the book just becuase, well, I didn’t want to write anymore. I can tell you, I still don’t want to write. Especially when it feels like my head is going to explode (frigging allergies) and the last thing on the planet I want to do is sit down and write. For this month, while I cough and hack away, I forced myself to sit down and write those scheduled words whether I wanted to or not.

One day I got 2500 words in and I felt totally awesome. The next day…nothing. The next day 500. The next day 1000.  Once I started back on the book again, I realized…hey I kind of like this book. I kind of like these characters. I kind of like the storyline. I still kind of don’t have a plot.

It kind of feels good to write again.