How many of you had experienced, during our youthful years, embarrassment trying to be romantic? Girls slipped with her high-heel shoe, when trying to impress the man she loves. Boys were losing their voices when they attempted to talk to the girls they were fascinated with. I am one of them who had this experience. Blips and Blunders could record such episodes. After successfully courting him or her, one day, it is all over, as he or she had to leave, and the romance comes to an end. Sounds predictable.
Later, William slowly walked toward Theresa and Kuala Lumpur Subang International Airport. She was going away for good. She had quit her job and intended to immigrate to Australia.
“Don’t leave me, Theresa. Please tell me you are not going.”
“I’m going, Will. There is nothing to stop me.”
I love you, Theresa. I want to marry you!” Theresa smiled and held William’s face.
Page 207 – THE EURASIANS
Introduction
Everybody knows what romance is all about. Being a teenager, this is the first emotional happiness or trauma that happened to them that they can’t understand. It reemerges back in our early twenties, and sometimes, again to reappear during the prime of human’s middle age. These uncomfortable or compelling encounters made people translate their experiences into dramas or romance novels.
Romance novel history
When I talked about romance, many will say, I am just continuing to reinvent the wheel. It had been spoken over and over again since ancient times. That is why we have dozens of romantic stories from ancient Greece like Daphnis & Chloe and The Ephesian Tale.
In the late middle ages, William Shakespeare made an excellent presentation, among them Romeo and Juliet, which is considered to be among the most beautiful plays in the English language. Shakespeare’s drama displayed romantic emotions through theatre.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, many romance novels emerged on a big scale. Among them are Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
In the 1930s, the British publisher, Mills and Boon began releasing hardback romance novel, and by 1950s, began offering the books for sales through newsagents across United Kingdom.
In the United States, modern romance novel fiction was born in 1972 with Avon Publication of Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower. During this time, the “bodice ripper” romance novel started the “follow the principals into the bedroom.”
Romance novel genres
Romance stories are a type of style that places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people; in the case of my novel, four people. It could further be sub-divided into various genres, such as fantasy, science fiction, even horror. As for The Eurasians, it could be categorized as historical and thriller.
Many considered romance genre is mainly for women, but I think many men, too, could get engrossed with this. From my own experiences and watching other men, they could be emotionally affected by romance until they are capable of becoming disconsolate, no matter how macho they were.
Defining what is romance
According to the Romance Writers of America, the main plot of a mass-market romance novel must revolve around two people as they develop romantic love for each other and work to build a relationship.
The romantic theme is about the circle of life. As quoted by Aaron Johnson, one of my main characters in The Eurasians, like a thunderous rainstorm, so dark and gloomy, will be replaced by brightness and sunshine. So even earlier on, if we face failure in love, romance, career, or business, eventually, we will overcome this by turning it to success, if we persevered.
Leslie Gelbman, President of Berkley Books, defined the romance genre as making “the romantic relationship between the hero and heroine… the core of the book.”
Evergreen romantic titles
Tim Gibson from The Telegraph said, among the everlasting romance stories of all time are;
- Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare
- Anna Karena, by Leo Tolstoy
- Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
- The Thorn Birds, by Colleen Mc Cullough.
How I wish my story could be one of them!
Conclusion
If men and women could exist without the need to experience romantic moments, I doubt the world will have drama, playwriting, novels, even movies. Just imagine! Everything we come across in life would be flat and uninteresting. Living in this world would be boring. What say you all, for I love to hear your comments and suggestions?
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