Hi, Pat Rice here, filling in while Loretta gracefully collapses on her fainting couch, hand across her eyes, and calls for the smelling salts. Or Nyquil. Viral advertising has nothing on viral blogging apparently.
I thought while the other wenches are recovering from excesses of deadline fever or out gallivanting about in the fall leaves, I’d sneak in here and discuss the dreary literary topic of Themes.
But of course, being the non-literary neanderthal that I am, our discussion will not follow literary rules and conventions. 
Good ol’ boy Webster describes theme as “a subject or topic of discourse or of artistic representation (guilt and punishment is the theme of the story)” or “a specific and distinctive quality, characteristic, or concern.” I knew better than to consult a good ol’ boy about literature. Even Webster barely has a clue about a subject that consumes entire college courses.
I’ve frequently been asked what the themes of my books are, and I always answer “prejudice.” Fits right in with guilt and punishment, right? And really, if you look at any of my books, the answer is quite correct, as far as it goes. In the MAGIC series, we have the obvious prejudice of the logical Ives against the supernatural or psychic, represented by the Malcolms. We could have an entire discourse on gender prejudice right there.
Class prejudice is another good one—rich versus poor, country versus city, educated versus ignorant. I have entire volumes of prejudice at my command. The problem is, I use prejudice as a conflict, not specifically as a theme. Not in my opinion, anyway.
I prefer to think of Theme as the Lesson Learned or preached or hinted at or garbled, as the case might be. In the historical fantasy I’m currently writing, prejudice plays an enormous role—the wealthy nobleman of a pacifist country versus a Breton maiden living in abject poverty in a military society. Heck, they’re even bigoted about their “powers.” Being a Guardian is far superior to being a mere mermaid.
But I don’t think that’s what my book is about. My book is about learning to work with others. It’s about cultural differences and how it affects our thinking. Not that the casual reader will notice, mind you! This is romance after all, so it’s also about finding love in all the wrong places. <G>
So, do readers ever think about themes in genre fiction? Am I defining “theme” correctly or am I way off the map? (Remember, I’m an accountant and the last literature course I took was a hundred years ago!) Are themes important to you? To romance? Should I just be writing about characters boinking in exotic locales and not worry that they learn how to get along in the society around them? Not that I’m gonna pay attention if you say yes to that last, because I like writing my hidden agendas. Have you noticed them in the works of many romance authors?