Guest Blog: Melodie Campbell: MY CHARACTERS HATE GOING TO BED aka Why We Write Romance

(As usual, this post will sit on the wacky side. But there is a serious message behind it all.Why?Why do we spend hours and hours alone in our garrets, piecing together romance stories that may never earn us a living wage, or even see the light of day? Are we insane? Or, as I pose, does writing keep us sane?)

Rowena is arguing with Thane. Cedric meets Soren the demon for the first time. Kendra can’t choose between Richard and Logan…or is it that young cousin of the Viking Warlord, what’s his name?

Gina and Nico are planning an art gallery heist. Uncle Seb is about to kick the bucket, and he didn’t die ‘cleaning his gun.’ Pete is caught with counterfeit moolah, and slips through the portal to Land’s End…

No, wait a minute. Wrong book. Wrong series. Even wrong genre! Plots, you’re getting yourselves mixed up.

It’s 3:15 AM, and all is not well in my head.

I’ve come to the conclusion that my characters hate going to bed.

Like little children, they race around in my head, determined to have yet another adventure. Problem is, they stumble over each other in their bid for freedom. Series start mixing in decidedly zany ways.

(Okay, back to the point of this blog.)

WHY AUTHORS WRITE:
We authors control what our characters do during the day. It’s one of the things I love about writing: the ability to control the world in a way we can’t do in real life.

I can’t control the real world. Sometimes the script being directed from above is pretty painful. In my case, it contains an autistic brother and heartbreaking care-giver burdens I can do nothing about.

But I can control the world I create in words.

In my romance fiction, I control my characters, put them where I want them, alter their lives, change the time, the year, the setting, give them astonishing adventures and dramatic endings– it’s glorious, unfettered control.

But at night, even they go wild.

In the wee hours of the morning, my head is a playground for creative creatures, both human and fantastical. They have adventures even I haven’t thought of yet.

So here’s a job for you scientists out there. Figure out a way to capture the nocturnal plotlines that create havoc for us authors as we struggle to give our brains some needed snooze-time.

And in the meantime, can you guys please keep it down in there?

BIO:
Melodie Campbell. Billed as Canada’s “Queen of Comedy" by the Toronto Sun (Jan. 5, 2014), Melodie Campbell achieved a personal best when Library Digest compared her to Janet Evanovich.

Winner of 9 awards, including the 2014 Derringer and the 2014 Arthur Ellis (Canada) for the screwball comedy, The Goddaughter’s Revenge (Orca Books), Melodie has over 200 publications, including 100 comedy credits, 40 short stories, and seven novels. She is the Executive Director of Crime Writers of Canada.

BLURB:
Top 100 Amazon Bestseller)

“Is that a broadsword on your belt, or are you just glad to see me?”
When Rowena falls through her classroom wall into a medieval world, she doesn’t count on being kidnapped – not once, but twice, dammit. Unwanted husbands keep piling up; not only that, she has eighteen-year-old Kendra to look out for, and a war to prevent.