Commercial Fiction and Literary

Ann has a name.
You need to get a grip.
Read, write and think as you wish.
Let others do the same.

Hi Lynn,

So glad you didn't leave us! Your dad should have encouraged you and been proud of your achievement. Of course, you are right about fiction being entirely made up. We are not down on romance fiction writers or their books. I have been less than honest with you, and I apologise.

I put together two anthologies, Forever Friends and Forever Travels. One of the contributing authors, Chelle Cordero, writes romantic fiction. She has stories in both anthologies. Her story in Forever Travels immediately follows Ann's story. I wrote this about Ann's and Chelle's stories:

Ann Levingston Joiner's story, From Belfast to St. Joe, is a work of historical creative non-fiction. The trip across the Atlantic Ocean in a self-built ship is about the Levingston family. One of the children of that family, Samuel Hiram Levingston was Ann's great-grandfather, who was among the founders of the ship-building industry along the Texas Gulf Coast. From anecdotes and family diaries, Ann has pieced together a story about that great adventure to the New World.

Chelle Cordero is an accomplished romantic fiction writer. Her story, Stormy Weather, about a Florida holiday in the hurricane season has all the ingredients of a good romance: girl meets boy; girl takes instant dislike to boy; boy has to win her over ... and, as with all good romances, there's a happy ending!

***

There are good romantic fiction writers, and if this is something you really want to do and you are prepared to work hard and learn, then you may one day succeed. There will be lots of rejections (as painful as your dad's) along the way, and I cannot promise that your work will ever be good enough for a publisher. However, I do offer my best wishes, and if you need any help, just ask.

Ghost Orchid is about a young woman's search for roots and the answer to the question: Is love eternal? It is not a romance novel, though as Betty says, romance and love are such integral parts of life that most any story is enriched by their inclusion. The love in Ghost Orchid is a broader experience: lovers, friends, family and more. The love question is wrapped around the relationships and whether they have an eternal element. The expression of love in Ghost Orchid is not graphic but rather provides an opening for the reader's imagination to fill in the context details. The environment is a key element of the story, the focus on the beauty and serenity of the Everglades and the rare and mystical ghost orchid. These multiple elements classify the story as literary fiction; however, to get a publisher, the paranormal aspect was emphasized and it is listed as either literary fiction or paranormal mainstream.