My First Blog for Fierce Romance!

Hi Fierce Friends!
Tess Mallory here. I’m new on the Fierce Romance blogspot and am very excited to be here! Vonda tells me that a lot of the bloggers are talking about paranormal romance this week, and as a paranormal romance author myself, what better way to begin my stint here?

Today I was thinking about my start in the rombiz (short for romance business, as we in the biz like to call it. Not really. I made that up. I have a weird sense of humor. I’ll try to keep it under control. Ahem.) When I sold my first Time Travel romance, the sub-genre had just begun to build up steam, along with the equally unusual and popular futuristic romances. “Ghost” romances were also hitting their stride. While futuristics were obviously Science Fiction-based stories, Time Travels and Ghost romances were fantasy-based, or, dare I say it—-supernatural. None of these types of romances were labeled ‘paranormal’ at the time, but they certainly opened the door for what came next—vampires, werewolves and shapeshifters!

It’s funny to me now to think that no one sees anything particularly strange about a romance with any or all of these elements, but when the sub-genres first began, these were ground-breaking books! Ghosts in romances? Time Travel? Vampires? Crazy! But oh, so much fun—and so much money for the publishers as the popularity of these books grew! When the Dark Side showed up and started taking a bite out of the market too, the term ‘paranormal romance’ began to show up as well. As the ghoulish creatures of the supernatural world sunk their teeth into romance (are you catching all these amazing puns?) Time Travel began to take a back seat to the evolving paranormal sub-genre.

However, I’m very happy to announce that TT is making a comeback! The genre responsible for helping start the whole sub-culture of strange and unusual tales, combined with the usual hot hero and feisty heroine, is rising from the dead like those frustratingly popular vampires. And now, finally, TTs are labeled ‘paranormal romances’. Which makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Einstein taught us Time Travel is impossible, so how in the world are we supposed to get those hunky guys and gutsy girls back to a romantic time in history? Enter the paranormal, or supernatural element!

When I started plotting my new book for Berkley Sensations, HIGHLAND ROGUE, I wanted to introduce a ‘time travel device’ that would really catch a potential reader’s interest and be filled with mystery and supernatural possibilities. I came up with the idea of having my heroine stumble—literally—on a carving of a tri-spiral, or triskele, in the floor of an ancient cairn. Each of the three spirals is supernaturally connected to a different time period in the past.

In Highland Rogue, my heroine, Maggie, and hero, Quinn, soon come to know that somehow the spirals are a portal, a doorway, between the twenty-first century, and the year 1711 But when they open that door, the two are catapulted across time and space, and in the process, risk being separated not only from each another, but from their very souls. Is it magic, an ancient time machine, or something otherworldly that sends Maggie to the past and Quinn to the future? Whatever causes the spirals to work (me to know, you to try and find out! ha!) the story definitely falls into the paranormal range, and that makes me very happy!

I love hearing from readers of paranormal—and other kinds of romance—and welcome your comments here and your emails. Write me at tessmallory@yahoo.com, and please visit my websites, www.tessmallorybooks.com/, www.sff.net/people/tessmallory, and my MySpace at www.myspace.com/tessmallory.

Also, I love LOLcats!! Here’s one just for all of you on the subject of Time Travel.