A First Kiss Is Still A First Kiss: Romancing the Mid-life Reader and Heroine A Basic Renovation Sandra Barletta December 2008 Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Creative Writing (romance) Faculty of Creative Industries Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Gove i Statement of Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made. Signature: Date: ii Abstract Through its depiction of heroines, romance fiction has the capacity to reflect the attitudes and concerns women face in society. However, the depiction of heroines in romance novels is bound by the constraints publishers place upon them. A vibrant, passionate mid-life heroine gets pushed into a subgenre where romance no longer exists as an option, while a mid-life reader in search of a romance heroine to identify with is relegated to novels where romance is a marginal issue, rather than the main impetus that leads the story. This study, and the novel A Basic Renovation, addresses a neglected demographic of reader and heroine who are marginalised within the romance genre. As well, it gives reasons why heroines need not be characterised in particular roles or situations as they age, and a rationale for why their underrepresentation as romance heroines should end. iii Keywords Ageing, fiction, publishing, romance, romance novels, romance writing, women & ageing, women & fiction iv Acknowledgements To my love, my husband, and my friend Dr John Barletta who doesn’t mind crinkled clothes. Without his encouragement, patience, wit, and wisdom, I would not have had the opportunity to pursue my writing whilst shirking the ironing. For their candour, keen eyes, and support, I extend thanks to the members of the QUT Romasters cohort; Lisa Barry, Marilyn Carey, Catherine Cockburn, Melynda Genrich, and Lousie Ousby. I am indebted to Elle Gardner and Kate Cuthbert for being such expert readers of romance. They kept me true. And finally, my gratitude also goes to Dr Glen Thomas, Fearless Leader and advisor extraordinaire. His knowledge, guidance, sense of humour, and ability to deal with a kooky writer-cum-scholar is most impressive. 1 A First Kiss is Still a First Kiss: Romancing the Mid-life Reader and Heroine Missing in action I write romance novels. I read them too, a lot of them, especially contemporary romance, and I enjoy them tremendously. However, over the past few years I have found something has been missing. The escapist fantasy is still there, yet once I hit 37 it started to become difficult to find characters I could relate to. Specifically, it was getting hard to identify with twenty-something heroines. Since, as Kent (2006) contends, contemporary romance readers like to see their lives and experiences reflected in what they read, where are the forty-something heroines, the divorcées back on the dating scene for a second time, the woman who regrets putting her career before love or marriage, or the girl who has made to forty—or fifty—without finding Mr. Right? Mid-life heroines do exist within contemporary fiction, but the majority of them seem to live in novels such as Goldsmith’s The First Wives Club and Landvik’s Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, novels where the heroine is no longer interested or engaged in romance because she is apparently too old. The notion that a heroine, as well as a female romance reader, passing the invisible line into middle age will shift away from romance in favour of these non-romance storylines because she is, as Transita Publishing (2008) suggests, “facing challenges and opportunities of the exciting and difficult time of later life,” is a faulty assumption. As a student in the Creative Writing (romance) Masters cohort at Queensland University of Technology’s Faculty of Creative Industries, I wrote A Basic Renovation, a romantic comedy that features a heroine and hero who are both over forty. The novel caters to a seemingly forgotten demographic of adult readers still interested in being swept away into the fantasy of romance. While a number of romance publishers seem to think a woman of a certain age will only identify with heroines who live in a passionless future of menopause and comfy slippers, this just is not so. By focusing on the central love story A Basic Renovation demonstrates that age need not be an issue in a romance novel. The novel includes subplots of multigenerational romance and incorporates issues that deal with elderly parents, divorce, single-parenthood, and family dynamics. This study is both a discussion of the creative context and evolutionary process of writing a romance novel, as well as a commentary and argument that identifies a neglected demographic of reader and heroine who are marginalised within the romance 2 genre and industry based solely on age. This paper examines how the over-forty heroine is pushed from romance into other subgenres where romance plays a negligible role, and identifies a gap that exists between romance and the novels the publishing industry offers to middle-aged readers of romance who want mid-life romance heroines. The novel and this exegesis are weighted 65/35 respectively. The changing face of heroines Once upon a time a boy met a girl. They fell in love, struggled to overcome obstacles that kept them apart, and lived happily ever after. This has been the construct of a romance since the times of Heliodorus and his Aethiopica, the Ethiopian story that ends with the marriage of Charicleia and Theagenes. Romance stories in the twenty-first century still follow Heliodorus’ basic fantasy premise. Boy still meets girl, they encounter a few stumbling blocks, and wind up with that all-important Happily Ever After (HEA). What has changed is the heroine. As centuries passed, she has morphed from Andromeda, the damsel in distress Perseus rescued from a sea monster, to the wise- cracking girl-Friday, ass-kicking, vampire-slaying, woman-with-attitude who is still- looking for that HEA. She has become a bride, mother, divorcée, or widow and developed meaningful friendships as she has dealt with the ups and downs of life. Today’s romance heroine is fully fleshed out, reality-based in the fantasy of a romance novel, but there is one thing that has not happened to a heroine on her transformational journey in romance. She has not aged a great deal. The Romance Writers of American (RWA) defines a romance as a novel with a central love story and an optimistic, emotionally satisfying ending (2008a). There are no explicit restrictions on what a writer can include in a romance beyond the central love story and HEA. While this paper does not include an examination of Harlequin-Mills & Boon category (or series) romance of sheiks, billionaires, and tycoons or the historical romance of stolen princesses and mystery dukes in the discussion of contemporary romance novels, current modes of thought (Parv, 2004; Regis, 2003; Snitow, 2001; Thomas, 2007; Thurston, 1987), cast romance fiction of all kinds as essentially escapist fantasy. Gillies-Siedel (1992) states “fantasy is the most important element in popular fiction” (p.159). The word fiction means fantasy. Fiction frequently draws from real-life in order to tell a story. For example, Tan (2003) asserts she has often used memories of her own feelings to create her works of fiction. Mussell (1984) suggests literature, 3 which includes works of fiction like Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (1989), is not real life. In a similar way, romance fiction frequently uses the fantasy/real-life blend, an aspect that is appealing to many readers of contemporary romance. Juhasz (1988) states, “as it happens to the heroine, so it happens to the reader” (p. 240). Being able to identify with a heroine, the issues she faces in the contemporary story, and knowing there will be a HEA, is an engaging part of reading romance, and part of what Fowler (1991) refers to as “anticipatory delights of this fiction” (p. 99). However, while real-life issues like divorce, widowhood, and being overweight are acceptable issues an author can address in a romance novel, conventions in romance publishing appear to contend that getting older cannot be part of an escapist fantasy. This convention suggests readers will not want romance stories featuring romance heroines older than thirty-five even while there is nothing in the criteria for what makes a romance that supports this unwritten rule. Uncapher (2006), a writer who contributes to the All About Romance website forum, discussed the issue of age and romance novels, claiming not just the publishing industry is uncomfortable with the idea of ageing heroines. She states, “It’s not only younger people who find the idea of an older reader disconcerting. It’s…those of us who have passed that 40th birthday. It’s a subject we avoid.” Since conventional discussions about romance suggest that it is escapist fantasy, and ageing is a fact of life some women would like to escape, it can be acknowledged that there are some who are unwilling to allow any sense of real-life into romance. Ageing, a natural process of life, can only fit on the pages of a novel like Nancy Thayer’s (2003) The Hot Flash Club, since it is geared towards an older female reader who understands the changes that occur in a woman’s life. In support of including realism in romance, novelist and essayist Jenny Crusie (1997) explains that romance fiction can reinforce reality.