How many times have you started reading a new book with eager anticipation, only to discover by around page 8 that it’s the same-old, same-old storyline? And yet, these books sell, and sell, and sell. You know what they say, that there are no new stories, only new ways of telling them. Yet as I read through the loglines, the back cover blurbs, the short synopses, I think… haven’t I already read this book? Instead of Blake and Brooke, it was Cal and Kate; one took place in New York, the other in L.A. He was either a financier or a corporate mogul, and she varied between a savvy business owner and a compassionate social worker. They were in bed by page 30 and angry with each other by page 100. They were walking wounded, made stupid decisions, faced unexpected outside traumas and ultimately made up. Welcome to Romance Novels 101.
Of course I’ve over-simplified and generalized and stereotypified. But honestly, it’s more true than not that the elements are all there. Clearly, there’s still—always?—a market for these tried-and-true plots. So what happens when an author flips out and writes something really different? Is love still love if it happens in an unconventional setting… between off-the-wall characters… when all bets are off about the future?
I wasn’t thinking about any of that when I wrote Unmasking Paulie Bingham, my erstwhile “contemporary alternative romance” due out this summer. I wasn’t thinking about anything, really. I was just writing. Writing about a strange [read: unstereotypical] couple who find love and struggle to keep it. They meet with unusual challenges and get hurt and do dumb things. They fight and make up. Oh, wait… this is sounding just like the “every” book I described above! Except that… this sweet couple faces one challenge you don’t usually find in those typical romance books. So maybe—just maybe—Paulie Bingham’s unique story will inspire a crooked smile and a happy sigh.
Coming this Summer from Beacon Street Books.