First some news–my next book about Jane and the Damned is coming out in October and now has a title, Jane Austen: Blood Persuasion. I’ve also seen the cover but I can’t show it to you yet. Cool! This illustration is my favorite still from the book trailer of Jane and the Damned.
Following last week’s post about the pros and cons of different historical periods it seems only natural (to me anyway) today to delve into subgenres. Lucky us, we have so much choice in the sort of books available and the merging of once-discrete subgenres. It can be confusing! So here’s a field map to some scenarios and how they’d play out.
Hero wears
- Quietly elegant clothes made by London’s top tailor. You know, the exclusive one only the Big Guys know about.
- Pants so tight you really don’t notice anything else and a shirt that unbuttons all the way down
- Subtly scented oil
- Quietly elegant clothes made by London’s top tailor but cut to accommodate the wings or any other little (or big) extra(s) and/or martial arts weapons
Heroine wears
- Demure sprigged cotton, bonnet, gloves, the whole shebang
- Red satin with a dozen tiny buttons down the back etc.
- Subtly scented oil
- The usual sort of Regency stuff but with many hidden pockets for stakes, knives, martial arts weapons
They go for a walk in the woods.
- He picks flowers which she and her chaperone squeal over with delight
- Not much walking going on here
- Even less here
- A possible declaration of love is thwarted by an attack by the creatures of darkness
He retires to the library to
- Sigh gently over a half-composed poem and figure out how best to serve the needy and poor on the estate
- Above, pants optional. Some of those tenants are very needy.
- Enter the orgy room through the false bookcase (note: they’re all false. No time for reading in this world!)
- Plan strategy to eliminate creatures of darkness
Hero and heroine ride together in a carriage
- When the chaperone falls asleep, they allow their hands to touch for one precious, poignant moment
- Athletic goings-on strain the framework of the carriage
- Above, but chaperone, coachman, and postilions join in
- Fierce fight as creatures of darkness or whatever swarm over the vehicle
When they arrive in London, the heroine agonizes over whether she’ll receive
- Vouchers for Almacks
- Invitations to soirees full of hot, young, single Dukes
- Invitations to orgies
- Invitation to summit to fight off creatures of darkness, which are now becoming tedious to me and will catch a mysterious virus and slink back to whence they came
The heroine becomes pregnant after
- The marriage night, thank you very much
- About page 35 but she doesn’t realize it until everyone else has, including the exasperated reader
- Pregnant? I don’t think so
- Hero assures her the creatures of darkness are vanquished. But wait…
Your suggestions?