More on why I'm loving urban fantasy right now

During my post last week about alpha males, I started a digression but decided to listen to the editor inside me and sliced it out to save for another post...
And reading both Sinead's post about Cinderella in a modern world and Molly's post about baby poop, dog poop and people pooping on category romance, made me think about my digression again.

The topic is really back to my often touched upon subject of why I'm not writing category romance at the moment. And while my reason is certainly not disdain -- I have huge admiration for writers who can write good category romance -- there probably is at least an element of ambivalence. It's not what I read. In fact, romance full stop isn't what I typically read, and as we all know trying to write something you don't love just doesn't work.

I really loved writing the women's fiction books I've written, but alas, they have yet to sell and so digging up the motivation to finish another was proving hard.

So, imagine my delight on discovering a sub-genre of romance that I actually love -- urban fantasy. Writers like J.R. Ward and Kelley Armstrong and Eve Kenin have really opened my eyes to what's possible in that genre. That it's possible to combine suspense and mythology and world building and whatever the hell you want, within a romance. (Eve's DRIVEN is futuristic... but I think it has more--or at least as much--in common with urban fantasy as with science fiction.)

I could go on for ages about why I like urban fantasy when it's done well (and hate it when it's not done well), but what I was thinking about, during my edited out digression on the alpha-male post, was why I personally struggled with category romance -- or contemporary romances full stop -- when I tried to write them. Now, some of it was certainly the aforementioned ambivalence, (not to mention my real-life preference for beta-type men) and some was just learning curve. I'm less ambivalent now, having seen how great these books can be when done well, and having improved my writing and storytelling skills, I expect if I tried again I might have more success.

But one of the core problems I had would still exist, and that's how hard it is to create believable romantic conflict in a contemporary setting that's strong enough to carry the core plot of a book (and doesn't repulse my feminist ideals***). (The recent popularity of romantic suspense backs up my theory here, I think... Readers are obviously enjoying having a big slice of suspense along with their romance plot.)

Why is creating a strong romance conflict in contemporaries so hard? I've thought about this a lot and this is part of what I've come up with:
I think in our modern, everyone's-in-touch-with-their-inner-child and way-too-familiar-with-psychobabble world, it's really hard to build an internal conflict between a man and a woman, who are obviously into and right for each other, where readers don't want to shake the characters and say, "get over it", or "get some therapy" or "freaking talk to him/her about it already." Without the help of society's rules or other taboos (that you have in historicals) or race and family obstacles that have become antiquated in today's society, it's hard to come up with believable and fresh new devices to keep a man and a woman who love each other apart.

Now, some writers of contemporary romance handle this brilliantly. Molly O'Keefe, for example, solves this conundrum, (based on my analysis anyway), by having great external conflicts between the couple, and/or by making a lot of the hero's and heroine's internal conflicts relate to someone other than the other half of the couple -- a parent, a child, a sibling, themselves... Yes, those internal conflicts complicate the developing relationship, but their conflicts deeper than the weak I've-been-hurt-before-so-I'll-never-love-again-type conflicts all to common in so many contest entries I read (and even in way too many published books I've read).

I can't tell you how much I admire writers who can make me believe in a couple and their problems in a contemporary setting. But so far, I've been unable to do it.

But add a fantasy element? some suspense? some danger? and let me make up some rules and even new religions to keep my hero and heroine apart? -- and it's fun, fun, fun. For me, anyway.

Time will tell whether or not an editor and readers will ever love what I'm working on as much as I'm enjoying writing it. But what a feeling to find something to write that you truly, truly enjoy in a genre that's actually popular. I felt that way when I started my first women's fiction, too.. but the market had fallen apart by the time I finished it and landed an agent. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen to me again. At least I can skip the find an agent step this time.

Am I alone in my recent urban fantasy obsession? Who else should I be reading?

*** I'm now regretting adding the line about feminist ideals... I did it on my final edit of the post and wish I hadn't. I was thinking about Sinead's Cinderella woes... but did not in any way mean to imply that contemp romance these days is about men saving women or the books put women in down or back in time. That's an antiquated stereotype about the romance genre that I know isn't true. I'd edit my post, but then Kristin's comment wouldn't make sense... So, I'll just say. Ooops. Didn't mean it the way it came out. And I fear it takes away from what I wanted to say with this post... That it's way easier (for me) to write romance when you (I) include elements other than just romance... That it's really hard to carry an entire book with just a romance plot and I admire writers who can do it.