Exploring Genre - Rural and Medical Romance

by Nicki Edwards

This year, the cross posts between Christian Writers Downunder and Australasian Christian Writers are focusing on genre. So far, we’ve had posts on meeting genre expectations, in Space Opera and Superheroes, Portal Fantasy and Secondary World Fantasy, Poetry, Free Verse and Verse Novels and Regency and Historical Romance . 

Today, I'm looking at the place of Rural and Medical Romance.

I like what Iola Goulton said in a previous post that book genres are like food. If we go out to our favourite restaurant and order the usual and something different is served, we are disappointed, especially if we’ve been eagerly anticipating that familiar taste.

Book genres are a bit like ice cream. I have two or three flavours I keep going back to – English Toffee, Honeycomb Crunch or Cookies and Cream.

It’s kind of funny my tastes are so narrow as I’m one of those odd people who thrive on change, but when it comes to food and books, I’m always drawn to the familiar.

For me that means romance and women’s fiction. 

So what is romance, why is it my favourite flavour and why do I write medical-rural romance?

Romance can be classified into many sub-genres - contemporary, erotic, historical, rural, paranormal, regency, young adult, medical, Christian, romantic suspense . . . you get my drift. The list is probably never-ending.

All romance novels have a central love storyline and an emotionally satisfying ending. Beyond that, they can be set in any time or place and have varying levels of sensuality from sweet to spicy.

Women’s fiction are women-centred books that focus on women’s life experiences. These books are generally marketed to woman.

My latest book, One More Song which comes out in November 2017 is being marketed as both romance and women’s fiction.

When I started writing in January 2014 I was encouraged to “write what you know” and “write what you love”.

What I know and love is medicine and nursing, and it is from this I draw my writing experiences. I also love the gorgeous rural backdrop that sits behind small town Australia. I love the people in regional and rural communities and therefore it seemed a natural fit for me to write heart-warming medical dramas set in small towns.

My books explore the realities and complexities faced by people in regional and small towns with plots involving dramatic accidents, illnesses and critical medical situations. Think McLeod’s Daughters meets A Country Practice with a touch of All Saints thrown into the mix!

People ask why the rural romance genre is popular and why my books have sold so well. I think readers have an appetite for stories set on the land and they love strong, ordinary, everyday Aussie heroes and heroines. Whether it’s the city girl finding a new life in the country, or rural characters living their lives working the land, there’s something relatable for all readers whether they live in the country or the city.

Lucky for us writers of this genre, readers can’t seem to get enough of our stories. Perhaps because there’s something romantic and almost mystical about the Australian outback. Or perhaps because many city dwellers have an escapism mentality when it comes to the idea of a tree change or ‘escape to the country’. Ironically, ask any farmer and they’ll tell you there’s nothing romantic about living in the middle of nowhere!

Obviously authenticity is crucial in rural romance as with all genres. A country person can tell a mile away if a writer is faking it. It’s the same with the medical side of my books. Anyone with a bit of medical background and Dr. Google can be my harshest critic. I have to get my facts right.

What I love about writing small town medical romance is that the story is all about the community and the people, not just my hero and heroine. The setting is as important as the story because when people in small communities are thrown together into a medical emergency or crisis situation it makes for great dramatic fiction, especially when my heroine is the medico saving the day. I love demonstrating nurses and doctors working together doing amazing things because that’s what I see every day when I’m at work.

As a medical-rural romance writer I get to tackle all kinds of interesting rural and medical issues, whether it’s the problem of depression and suicide in the bush, or the complexities of care people in small towns face such as the lack of facilities and equipment or trained medical staff. I love showing how small towns rally together and just make things happen.

Despite tough publishing markets in recent years, the romance genre continues to do well but for all its market success, it still encounters a lot of snobbery from readers. There’s a dismissive attitude towards it. Additionally, as a Christian, one thing I’ve encountered is the presumption that if I write romance it’s probably smutty. This couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s a huge range of sensuality in the romance genre and my books are at the sweet or “clean” end of the scale with closed door, fade-to-black sex scenes.

The exciting thing for me as a romance author is our readers are extremely engaged and they’re voracious readers. It’s not unusual for a romance reader to admit to reading a book a day! I’m blessed with how the romance reading community have embraced me and my books and I’m also fortunate to be part of a group of romance authors who have a website specifically set up for readers who love rural romance. You can check it out here: www.australianruralromance.com)

Nicki Edwards is a city girl with a country heart. Growing up on a small family acreage, she spent her formative years riding horses and pretending the neighbour’s farm was her own.

Nicki writes medical rural romance and when she isn’t reading, writing or dreaming about rural life and medical emergencies, she can be found working as a Critical Care Nurse in the Emergency Department or Intensive Care Unit, where many of her stories and characters are imagined.

Nicki and her husband Tim, a Pastor, live in Geelong, Victoria. With four teenage/young adult children, life is busy, fun and at times exhausting, but Nicki wouldn’t change it for anything. Visit her at www.nickiedwards.com.au to find all her other books.

Nicki’s latest book One More Song published by Pan Macmillan Australia will hit the bookshelves on November 28th, 2017 but is available to pre-order now wherever e-books are sold.

Exploring Genres - Free Verse and Verse Novels

by Jeanette O'Hagan

In the last Genre Post - Valerie Volk ably spoke for the value and place of poetry. (You can read her post here.)  Before we move on to another genre, let's explore a little more the possibilities of poetry.

Often when we think of poetry, we think of rhyming couplets, but there are, in fact, a wide number of poetic forms and traditions. There are traditional forms like couplets, sonnets and ballads; humorous forms such as limericks; or more challenging forms like villanelles and sistenas. There are also Japanese forms such as haikus and tankas, Arabic or Burmese forms etc and modern forms like found or shaped poetry.

Today, I'd like to explore two - the verse novel and free verse.

Verse Novel

As Valerie reminded us, the verse narrative (a story told in verse) is as old as story telling, itself.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer's Iliad and Beowulf are all ancient stories told through poetry.  While much of the Bible is in prose - Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations and most of Job are told poetically. Hebrew poetry relies more on structures such as parallelism, chiasmus (x-type pattern), assonance (similar sounds) and word puns, than rhyme and rhythm. Chaucer and Shakespeare used poetic verse. At a popular level, local stories were expressed in ballads - such as 'The Man from Snowy River'.

Since the eighteenth century and the rise of the novel, prose has replaced poetry as the preferred way to tell stories.

However, in recent decades, the verse novel has emerged as a popular genre, particularly in young adult literature. In a verse novel the narrative is told either entirely, or in part, by poetry. It also includes characters, point of view, dialogue, narration, description, and other features appropriate to writing a novel. The poetry may be traditional form with strict rhyming and meter, but it is often told in free verse.

Calvin Miller's powerful trilogy - The Singer, The Song, The Finale - is an allegorical and poetic retelling of Jesus' life, death and resurrection that helps one see this pivotal story with new eyes.

More recently, Michelle Dennis Evans has published Sink, Drift or Swim - a young adult, free verse novel about Rina's fishing trip with her dad. It an engaging and dramatic tale told from Rina's point-of-view in her distinctive voice.

Why not just tell the story in prose? By choosing free verse, Michelle Evans brings both a vividness and a focus to Rina's experiences and thoughts. It enables Michelle to tackle a serious subject with a light hand. I think it adds to the impact of the book.

So, what is free verse?

Free Verse

Usually, when English speakers think of poetry, we think of rhyme and meter (or beat), e.g. 'I'm a poet, and I didn't know it.' As I mentioned above, other cultures use different devices. The Hebrews especially liked parallelism, Japanese poetry often focuses of syllables. However, with English poetic forms we also have blank verse (meter without rhyme) and free verse (which may include rhyme, but isn't tied to a particular meter).

Free verse uses other elements such as assonance, metaphor, image, alliteration, the senses, themes, pacing, white space and other visual elements such as changes in font or how the letters are aligned to convey meaning and emotion.

While there is both a discipline and indeed a refining process in using a particular poetic form like a ballad or a villanelle - there is a freedom in free verse which I particularly enjoy.

Often poetry is a way of expressing the inexpressible, of allowing deep emotions eloquence and crystallisation. Free verse gives freedom to vary the rhythm and pace. Also, I find an element of play and fun with free verse.

Here is an example from my own work - but I'd also urge you to check out poets such as Michelle Dennis Evans or Cameron Semmens 10 Poems that can really help you through a tough spot and his other books or perhaps some of the poems in Glimpses of Light, especially Sue Jeffrey's 'Sight' or Mazzy Adams 'Journey' for great examples of free verse.

Thunderstorm

The teacher’s voice drones on

Futt, futt, white dusty blades whirl

the fan rotating overhead

listlessly pushing the hot humid air

around the temporary aluminium heat box.

At last the sonorous school bell rings

Books slap shut, chairs squeal, pushed backwards

“Class dismissed” “Homework due on Monday”

and we jostle and stream out into the turbid air.

Moisture beads on my upper lip,

my forehead and armpits drip.

Overhead white cotton candy clouds tower.

I adjust the strap cutting into my shoulder

and daydream my way home.

Clouds roil and collide

stacking ever higher

their underbellies bruised in aubergine tones.

The sudden hush of bird song,

a fitful wind stirs

harrying leaves along gutters

eyes seared by silver flashes

sonic booms reverberating

watery missiles pelting down

stinging arms and face

water sluicing through flattened hair

burrowing past turned up collar

flowing in plump streams

pooling and gurgling

overflowing in the gutters.

My shoes squelch

with each liberated step

until laughing and gasping

I hug my slick school bag

and run as I laugh

attempting to chart a path

between the silver rain drops

flying towards home.

Jeanette O'Hagan ( First published, Judge's choice, Poetica Christi Inner Child, 2014)

So - if you have an inkling to write poetry - but have always got bogged down in meter and rhyme - why not give free verse a go?


***This is a cross post with Christian Writers Downunder.***

Images and poems © Jeanette O'Hagan

Jeanette O’Hagan first started spinning tales in the world of Nardva at the age of eight or nine. She enjoys writing secondary world fiction, poetry, blogging and editing.

Recent publications include Heart of the Mountain: a short novella, The Herbalist's Daughter: a short story and Lakwi's Lament: a short story. Her other short stories and poems are published in a number of anthologies including Glimpses of Light, Another Time Another Place and Like a Girl. Jeanette is also writing her Akrad’s Legacy Series—a Young Adult secondary world fantasy fiction with adventure, courtly intrigue and romantic elements.

Jeanette has practised medicine, studied communication, history, theology and a Master of Arts (Writing). She loves reading, painting, travel, catching up for coffee with friends, pondering the meaning of life and communicating God’s great love. She lives in Brisbane with her husband and children.

Find her at her Facebook Page or at Goodreads or on Amazon or on her websites  JennysThread.com or Jeanette O'Hagan Writes . if you want to stay up-to-date with latest publications and developments, sign up to Jeanette O'Hagan Writes e-mail newsletter.