My editor, Matrice, on the amount of romance that they’re looking for in the Luna books:
The romantic levels in the LUNA titles do vary a lot–and that’s just how we want them. In some cases it’s stronger and in some cases less so. For an ongoing series, in particular, there can be more of a “potential”–for a stand-alone title, there should be a stronger connection.
This makes me feel a lot better. I don’t know why, exactly, but I’ve been very nervous about the lack of romance in URBAN SHAMAN. Not because I think it should be there, because it would in fact be totally inappropriate to the story, but perhaps because there’s been a great deal of discussion about the amount of romance in other books, and I keep having the uncomfortable feeling that someone’s going to say, “This is great, except I’d like you to get Jo and Character X to confess their feelings for one another by the end of chapter 19,” and the thought makes my head implode.
Now, on any logical level, this is ridiculous, because Matrice wouldn’t have bought the book if she were worried about the lack of romance in it. (There is at best a glimmer of potential romance. This is not a book with a romantic subplot worth mentioning.) Logic, however, seems to be in sparse keeping on this topic, because I’ve genuinely been fretting about it for weeks. During a chat last week Matrice said that it was the tone of the books that was most important, and that settled me some, but her above quote finally makes me feel all better about it.
Silly writer. :)
My reading of US left me with the idea that there was romance lurking under the surface all over the place. W., maybe not ALL over, but more than a hint.
Well, good. That’s actually sort of how I see it, but I’d never say it was a romance, see, so. :)