Frances Pauli on Speculative Romance

Please welcome Frances Pauli!

  

Frances is kicking off a new feature on my blog that features authors who have books or stories published by L&L Dreamspell, my publisher.  Frances has a story, Forbidden, featured in the anthology, Dreamspell Fangs Volume 1.  She is a multi-published author of speculative fiction. 

Romantic Speculation

I’ve always considered myself a die-hard speculative fiction fan. Of course, I’m old enough that we just called it Sci-fi and Fantasy, and it was all lumped neatly onto one shelf. Still, I remained loyal to that shelf, and I devoured the books there. I also enjoyed related movies, comics, and television series in science fiction universes.

I never would have admitted that it was the romance I was watching for.

Don’t get me wrong, I prefer an alien setting, a far distant future and a great deal of ship to ship battle around my romance. But while the genre was what got my attention, in fact, it was the romantic sub-plots that kept me watching. I was Specrom before it even had a name.

I’ve confessed before that I thought the whole point of the Star Wars trilogy was to see who Lea ended up with. The battle between rebels and empire played a lovely background symphony, but really, I mean who was she going to pick? I only recently even noticed Stormtroopers, and let me tell you, it’s not for their military applications.

My love affair with Star Trek has similar fatal romantic flaws. I watched relationships. The space part rocked, don’t get me wrong. But as a fan, it never was my focus. I rifle through my favorites in my mind, Alien Nation, Babylon 5, Firefly, and I come out a romance fan every time. Correction--a science fiction romance fan.

I’m so glad they have that now.

Except, really, we always did. We had authors that you knew would give you a good dose of fluttering heartbeats along with your aliens. Actually, we had a lot of them. Even the male authors tended to provide a good, solid romantic plot along with the primary conflict. It was equal opportunity science fiction, something for everyone.

Still, I’m a very happy woman today as well. Today, we have the cross-genre explosion. Today, romance comes in every flavor of the rainbow. (And some new, completely made-up flavors too) And in keeping with tradition, I can still find that flutter in places on the strictly sci-fi shelf too. I know how to look for it. I’ve had years of practice. But, depending on my mood, I can go for the Science Fiction Romance section, where the stress is on the heaving, or I can find my gems on the Science Fiction and Fantasy shelf for a slightly subtler dose.

It’s a pretty good world to live in and even better to write in. I have a tendency to write like I read, across the spectrum. Sometimes I find stories at my fingertips that barely straddle that line, and sometimes they race off toward the Romance shelf. Very rarely, they only whisper of romance. No matter what, though, they are all speculative. They have aliens…or elves. Maybe that’s a statement in itself. Maybe all the time, I was a science fiction and fantasy fan after all.

Maybe the romance drew me, and the spaceships, the magic, the stormtroopers were what held me. And then I think, maybe it doesn’t matter. A good story, after all, is a blend of all good things.

Thank you so much for having me visit.

Thanks for being my guest!  Here is some more information on Frances and her books:

Frances Pauli writes Speculative fiction with romantic tendencies. Her

Changeling Race urban fantasy trilogy is available through Mundania

Press LLC, and her science fiction romance series, Shift Happens can

be found there as well. She also writes SpecRom novellas for Devine

Destinies and has self published the first book in her Space Opera

series, Space Slugs. More info on Frances and her writing can be found

at: http://francespauli.com/

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