Does Love Equal Romance?

 

That is the question I ask my devoted (if tiny) readership.

In other words, does a story with love as its central theme means that it is a Romantic Novel?

I ask because I had (and still have) a difficult time classifying this blog’s name sake book within a specific genre. Commercial fiction seems a bit bland and as long time readers know, I am not a fan of romance or some of its associated tropes.

Yet at the story ultimately revolves around a couple who find each other, break up and…well it forces the MC to face the truth about himself. Sounds romantic, doesn’t it? I mean, if it is, I should not deny it, I’ll just end up sounding like a snobbish idiot (as Donna pointed out in a recent post).

Lets go back to the ye olde bullet pointes to see if we can sort this out. The story has the following elements:

• Main character is a guy. 1st person narrative, full stop.  No heroine to the rescue.
• A romantic plot involving the MC and a local woman. Not a plot tumor,as it is central to the character’s development, but it is one of several things that happen to and done by the MC during the story.
• Sex: Yes please! But no throbbing this or pulsating that! In fact I pan to black (so to speak) when the action gets heavy. Also, no torn t-shirts, dangling panties or naked chests, well, there is this one time, but for the MC, is definitely a turn off.
• Focuses less on “will they or won’t they” and instead focuses on what happens after they do.
• It’s not just about romantic love, but also love of self, family, nation, place and even strangers.

So, am I in denial or what?

Help please!

—–

Still plenty of time to dive into your local newspaper, news website or gossip column and come up with a fun seed for the “Behind the Headlines BlogFest” (click on the link for instructions). Starts Monday, April 5. Can’t wait to read your entry.

Oh, and I can’t believe I forgot to post this, but I wrote a guest post for  Plot Bunnies (formerly Crimson Ink). Thanks to the lovely Mireyah for posting it. Go check the it out as well as the rest of her most excellent blog. Rupert Jr. will thank you for it.

—–