Murder, Mayhem, and... Romance???

Romance in Mysteries

By Liz Lipperman

Since this is my first post, I'll introduce myself to those who don't yet know me. I am a retired nurse, married to my high school sweetheart with two grown children and 4 absolutely adorable grandchildren who are the love of my life. I've been writing seriously since 2002 when my Chinese fortune cookie read, "You will be an accomplished writer." I knew right then and there I had no other choice since I had started and stopped writing so many times before. (I still have that one!)

I lost a lot of good years thinking I was a romance writer until finally one day my agent bluntly told me I was a mystery writer. Talk about a rude awakening. In retrospect, I should have known, since all my stories had dead bodies, explosions, and gruesome murders. After I started writing what I should have been writing all along, I sold a cozy series to Berkley. Not the stories I had already penned, mind you. I sold on proposal after the editor read the first book of my ghost mystery series and loved it but couldn't use it. She asked if I could write a cozy series. Now, here's where it gets good. That same story is the one that Terri bought because she loved all the sassy, bad words!! Is anyone out there surprised?  Right after the sale, I blogged that she would probably have to tone it down to which she responded that she had no intentions of doing that. I love her!!

Anyway, I'm so glad to be a part of your incredibly friendly group and hope I can contribute an occasional thoughtful blog. I have my own blog, and I am part of two others as well, so I can't be here as often as I would like to, but I will contribute. I promise.

The blog below is one that first appeared on my own blog after I was on a library panel not too long ago. Since my background includes being a "romance" author, most of my stories still contain a lot of sexual tension and romance. Anyway, when I researched the subject, I found this article and thought it was worth sharing here. Hope you think so, too.

      On Friday I was on a panel with five other authors at the Mansfield Texas library. The event was sponsored by the Friends of the Library and was billed as Mansfield Writes. My friend, Diane Kelly, who writes the humorous Tara Holloway mysteries, organized the event, and each of us did a presentation on some aspect of publishing/writing. I chose the topic romance in mysteries, a subject that is near and dear to my heart since I write what I call romantic mysteries.

I read an interesting article about this on Mystery.Net.com. Did you know that romance with mysteries started way back when Gothic novels were popular? Think Kathleen Woodiwiss and Rosemary Rogers. In those days a young, naïve woman found herself in the middle of a horrible storm, usually alone, with screams coming from the attic or some similar scenario. Our young heroine would rush up to see what was going on, only to be rescued by a dashing, brooding, handsome man. Today we call that heroine TSTL – – too stupid to live.

Fortunately, as women’s lib cranked up, so did writers. Modern-day heroines no longer went up to the attic alone after hearing screams unless there was a very compelling reason, and even then, they didn't go without a flashlight, a cell phone, and sometimes a Glock.

In 1943 Phyllis Whitney penned mysteries aimed at a modern female audience. Mary Stuart followed, and from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, we saw an emergence of suspense novels with pronounced romantic elements. Finally, in the 1970s, Mary Higgins Clark introduced us to a new version of romantic suspense with her women in jeopardy novels. This has always been my favorite genre to both read and write, although I get confused sometimes as to what exactly I do write. My heroines always find themselves in jeopardy, but there's a fine line. Romance can be found in all my books (romantic suspense), but you never know who the killer is until the very end (mystery.) Born a rebel, I love breaking the genre rules.

I can only hope the readers who have been kind enough to take a chance on me – – even some who like me – – aren't aware of these rules. They only know what they enjoy reading, and hopefully, I'm included on the list.

I ended my presentation with this little tidbit. After a particularly exhausting sexy encounter with her mate, the female praying mantis bites off his head and eats it.

Moral of this story – – even Mother Nature sees the importance of combining murder with good sex.

What about you? Do you like a little romance with your mysteries? One lucky commenter will win a signed copy of the first book in A Dead Sister Talking Mystery, titled HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE, when it releases in May. I'll post the winner at the end of the day after random.org chooses one.