Anne here, and this month's "Ask-a-Wench" question is: Are there any particular subjects or themes that you often return to in your novels?
We start with Mary Jo: Themes I return to over and over are reconciliation and second chances. I like characters who have faced great adversity, maybe even broken under the strain, yet manage to heal and become "stronger in the mended places." This covers my many tortured heroes, and a goodly number of tortured heroines as well.
I suppose the most intense version that I've written is Kenzie Scott, the hero of my recently re-released contemporary novel, The Spiral Path. He had a childhood that is described by another character as "about as bad as you can imagine." In the world of illusion that is the movies, he's become a major star of action and adventure movies, a magnetic and enigmatic celebrity.
And then, because he's a celebrity and a target of resentment, his life shatters and he has to rebuild it again on a more solid foundation. The woman he loves helps him, and he helps her with her own not insignificant issues. They and their marriage create second chances as they come to terms with their lives--and a deeper happiness that will carry them through anything the future might bring.
Pat says: Underlying all my stories, in some form or another, there are themes about prejudice, keeping an open mind, and working together. I’m not sure it’s possible to write a romance without those themes showing up. My Malcolm witches may sneer at pragmatic Ives men and vice versa—until they’re forced to work together and realize that they’re better as one whole than two separate parts. My Mystic supermen disdain the weak chaos of war-torn Europe, but ultimately, they learn to appreciate the freedom necessary to reform.
My characters are sometimes scorned by society for their beliefs, their name, or their lack of wealth. They may think themselves short and frumpy or frivolous, weak, and of no importance—until someone comes along and shows them how important they really are, and that they really matter. Everyone is different. We all have flaws, but we need to be reminded occasionally of our strengths. Instead of tearing each other down, we ought to be reaching out and building each other up.
And now for Nicola: Like a number of other Wenches I do like the theme of reconciliation. I’ve lost count of the number of books I’ve written where there is an element of old flames being rekindled. It’s a trope I first became interested in after reading Persuasion, by Jane Austen. I like the idea of second chances, and that you can change, grow and see things – and people - in a different light. Perhaps deep down I’m hoping that if we make mistakes they can sometimes be put right!
I also like exploring the idea that there is more below the surface than meets the eye. Sometimes my characters make judgements about each other based on assumptions and I love to challenge that and look at what lies beneath. My Scottish Brides trilogy featured a lot of the these I enjoy reading and writing about. The Lady and the Laird was an old flames story and One Night with the Laird was a look-beneath-the-surface story.
Andrea/Cara says: I tend to write characters who don’t fit neatly into the conventions of their society and chafe against the rules and restrictions in order to stay true to themselves. It’s not easy being different—having an imagination that takes them to places others don’t go, or having dreams that don’t conform to the expected pathways proscribed by the usual order of things takes courage. And so rebellion can’t help but be a source of conflict, stirring self-doubt, fears, loneliness as they march to the beat of their own drummer. How they fight to find their place in the world is a theme that weaves into my books in a number of different forms. Love is, of course, the ultimate and elemental source of strength and redemption for them, no matter the trials they endure. Even in my latest release, Murder on Black Swan Lane, which is mystery where romance is a less obvious part of the story, love and friendship is a subtle thread that weaves through the story, giving strength and support to both the heroine and hero,as well as the secondary characters, and ultimately allowing them to triumph against adversity.
The "Second Chances” trope also is one I enjoy working with. I think few of us go through life without making mistakes, and I like to believe that happy endings don’t always have to follow a simple, straight path to happen. Sometimes the twists and turns and bumps in the road can make them that much sweeter when finally you overcome all the obstacles standing in the way.
Joanna says: Half on purpose, half unconsciously, I work with a couple themes again and again. I do distrust simple answers to complex problems.
Sometimes we give our support to imperfect people and institutions. I try to build ambiguity into my fictive world. Fr’insance, in Forbidden Rose, Hawker and Doyle come to a greenhouse at the ruined chateau that’s been ransacked by the Revolutionaries. The plants destroyed. The glass broken, pane by pane.
Hawker: “The boys in that stinking little village waited years to do this.”
Doyle: “Did they?”
Hawker: “They dreamed of it. They’d sit in those pig houses in the village with the shutters closed and the wind leaking in. When they were cold, they’d think about these fancy weeds up here, being coddled, all warm and happy behind glass. They were freezing in the dark. Up here, they were growing flowers.”
Doyle: “That’s solved, then. No more flowers.”
Sometimes there are no easy answers and men and women of good will disagree. I want to give the characters different and conflicting beliefs. It’s part of making them uncomfortable, which is good, from a writer’s point of view.
And back to Anne: Looking back over my books, I realize the theme I most often return to is "redemption thorough love." I might write about a character who can't let go of the past, a character who's been damaged by something they did or was done to them, perhaps something for which they can't forgive themselves. Sometimes a character is on a negative pathway in life because of the choices he's made or the situation he's found himself in and how he's reacted to that. Perhaps he's been judged (or misjudged) and decides to live up to that false view of himself — until he falls in love.
Falling for the heroine (or hero) is the catalyst that begins this process of change.
Love for another forces them to confront the demons of their past, to try something different, to forgive—themselves as well as others—the past and move forward. As we all know, changing our behavior, our attitudes, our beliefs and our habits is not easy, simple or painless, but a true hero or heroine will try, struggle, and eventually succeed. It's one of the things about romance I love most — the celebration of hope and love and the courage to change our lives for the better. Probably the most intense example of this was in my book, His Captive Lady, which explores the power of love and redemption on several levels.
Over to you, wenchly readers— tell us a favorite theme of yours in romance (or any kind of literature) — and a book that explores it.