I love romance, but more than that I love an epic love story. I relish couples who struggle and fight for love, who make mistakes, wrong turns, painful decision and are ever captive by a true love inescapable. I've wanted to write a romance novel that would an epic love story since I read Gone with the Wind in 6th grade. The definition of an epic love story for me. I don't know if I'm doing that. Scarlett was a product of her times. Messy. Complicated, but the issues relevant for her era I think were less emotionally gut wrenching even though emotionally captivating--enough to get a reader to stick with Scarlett for over a thousand pages and still love her at the end.
I hated that they wrote a sequel. I liked the story as it was. The possibility of happily ever after created for Rhett and Scarlett in my own mind, instead of the invention of writer who couldn't possibly really know what happened because Margaret Mitchell was dead. I read Scarlett. This is no indictment of the book. I just think it was better Margaret Mitchell's way.
The Half Shell Series is romance, so my series won't end without a clear happily ever after. But will my readers love Chrissie and Alan in all their imperfection, wrong turns, enduring love as I did Rhett and Scarlett for a story of true, imperfect, painful, passionate, and romantic love. I don't know, but I enjoy having the possibility of that.
I wish you Peace.