By Ane Mulligan
Hello. My name is Ane Mulligan and I don’t write romance.
There. I’ve confessed. However, it’s not totally accurate. I hope my nose doesn’t grow. You see, I did write two: A Magnolia Blooms in Winter, which will come out this November from Firefly in the Southern Seasons Collection, and Love is Sweeter in Sugar Hill, in the Coming Home ~ A Tiny House Collection, May 2017.
When I wrote A Magnolia Blooms in Winter, it had a different name and was for an indie collection of Christmas romances. Then Firefly wanted it for their collection, and the other one wasn’t going anywhere, so I sold it to Firefly, who renamed it. I love the new name.
Then some writing buddies decided to do a collection and I said I’d join them. We agreed on a tiny house being the connection for all seven novellas. For some unknown reason, mine turned into a romance.
You would think with two critique partners who both write Inspy historical romance, I’d have it down. Right? Wrong, little scribe. In fact, one of the comments from Michelle Griep on a scene was, “This sounds like a trussed up turkey!” Uh … yeah. She was right.
I can get the smoldering eyes description down. I can get the tingles when he touched her hand. But thoughts … not so much. Fortunately, my CPs helped me turn my hero into a sigh-worthy one.
When I titled this post, I paused on the word “unromantic” in the title. Actually, I am a romantic in the true meaning of the word, but not in the sense of romance. I’m a bonafide writer romantic, meaning I see a story everywhere. I see old homes, some empty and falling down and right away, I’ve got a story about who lived there and what happened, adding whether the house haunted—that depended on the windows.
Hubs rolls his eyes and keeps driving. And that’s where this confession gets personal. My hero-husband is a Brit. But don’t conjure up images of Hugh Grant. Believe me … not all Brits are romantic like him. Don’t get me wrong; my Brit tries, but somehow he’s not the model for a novel hero. What? You think I’m mean? No way. I’m just realistic. I think I’ll stick to women’s fiction and leave the romance to people like Denise Hunter and Kim Sawyer.
Ane Mulligan writes Southern-fried fiction served with a tall, sweet iced tea. She’s an award-winning novelist and playwright. She resides in Sugar Hill, GA. You can find Ane at her website, Amazon Author page, Novel Rocket, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+.