I often enjoy a good fantasy and enjoy them even more if they have a romance! Please welcome fantasy romance author Kay Murky!
I was wondering about difference between Fantasy Romance, and Romance in Fantasy, and thought to look up the meanings at http://www.dictionary.com -
Romance:
1. a novel or other prose narrative depicting heroic or marvelous deeds, pageantry, romantic exploits, etc., usually in a historical or imaginary setting.
2. the colorful world, life, or conditions depicted in such tales.
3. a medieval narrative, originally one in verse and in some Romance dialect, treating of heroic, fantastic, or supernatural events, often in the form of allegory.
4. a baseless, made-up story, usually full of exaggeration or fanciful invention. "
Fantasy:
1. imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained.
2. the forming of mental images, especially wondrous or strange fancies; imaginative conceptualizing.
4. Psychology. an imagined or conjured up sequence fulfilling a psychological need; daydream.
That brought a smile to my face, for the definition of Romance is actually a perfect definition of the Fantasy genre as we know it today.
So the way I understand it, the difference between the Fantasy Romance (sub genre of modern Romance Literature) and Romance in Fantasy is that if you take the Romance out of Fantasy Romance, the plot collapses - if you take the Fantasy out of the Romance, then your basic plot should still be intact. The fantasy drives only certain parts of the plot and character building, and provides the setting.
The other side would then be true for Romance in Fantasy. If you take the Romance out of the Fantasy work, your basic plot should still stand strong. The Romance should be incidental in so far as it is used to either add a twist to the plot, or assists in the building of the characters.
The above is a very simplified look at it, but for me, it works.
I have grown up reading both Romances and Fantasies. In fact, that's how I learned English, as there were not a lot of these two genre's available in my native tongue. Therefore, when it came to writing, I tend to want to put the two together as well. I love High Fantasy, but I adore a good fantasy novel with a great epic love story interwoven into the pages. Or even a humorous flirtation between the characters to add spice to the tale. It just makes the whole more realistic and enjoyable for me. And as with most authors, I write what I love.
I love Fantasy, and I am a sucker for a love story.
There are so many different forms that love can take, so there can be romance in just as many different situations. An Epic Fantasy leaves itself open to so many different forms of romance, that it’s hard not to indulge yourself, as I have to blushingly admit I had done in my new release, KIRDAI: Spark & Dagger:
There is the warmth of the love that grows between husband and wife, based on mutual understanding and respect. Then there is the young, smooth talking politician who gets tongue tied around a certain lady mage. The hero's first brush with a physical and emotional entanglement was too much of an temptation to resist, and the staunch Warrior Prince who finds himself falling in love with a woman who is just as reserved and as strong as he is, but whose situation put her out of his reach.
There are the bromances and the flirtations one find among young people thrown together constantly, and then there are the ultimate love of the Halshin, the bonded pairs of human and dragon, who grows so close, that they cannot live without each other.
But the dragons themselves are the ultimate lovers in this tale. With their close mental relationship with their human partners, they drag the poor frail beings along with them when they take everything to the extreme, and then make it seem commonplace:
…. [: I think they should declare tail chasing the Onlashian national sport. :} The dragon's words when he strengthened the contact with Dai were accompanied by an emotion of deep satisfaction, and a sated feeling. {: There is nothing like a good chase, and some time spent in a private cave. :}
{: You're shameless. :}
{: What? I am a dragon! I know not that thing called shame! Not about something as natural as this! :} …..
Or a dragon would put the whole thing into a simple perspective, such as when the Healer Commander catches her draconic partner drooling after one of her colleagues:
...{:… you've been thinking of a way you could get Karragh to look at your tail! I've seen you watching him as well. I think you're hoping that I really do fall for Geshar, and try to trap him, which would give you reason to let go of your self imposed celibacy and make a play for the fehrarkon commander. :}
Tanika turned quickly, just in time to see Minelbet pull her neck into her shoulders.
{: Aha! I'm right! Why don't you just flirt with him? I think I saw him looking at you that way too, you know! :}{: If you remain celibate, so do I. :}
{: It's different for me, Onquilan. I have to think of the House. Once mother passes, I'll be responsible for all those people. Even if I don't have her knowledge of the Law, and I never want to be advisor to the Kron as she is, I cannot shirk my responsibility. So I cannot just jump into bed with any man because I feel like it. :}
{: Why not? Your mother did, otherwise how would you be here? :}
{: That's different. She had a legal heir contract with my Zentinni father! :}
{: I don't see the difference. A tailchase is a tailchase, no matter how much parchment you throw at it! :} From Minelbet's mental tone it was obvious that she was very close to a sulk…."
And all this needs to run through the tale like a golden thread. If the thread was gone, the cloth would still be whole. But it would be lacking in the richness that the emotion of Romance brings to any tale.
Fantasy without Romance would be champagne without the sparkle - unpalatable.
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