We love having guests here on Plotmonkeys, especially new authors we discover and love.
Both Carly and I have read & adored a new book by author Ruthie Knox, called RIDE WITH ME. The story is about a pair of strangers doing a cross-country bike ride, and how they fall in love more and more with every mile they travel. It’s fun, sexy, sassy, contemporary, with a great, strong heroine and a wounded hero who’s so darn sexy and adorable!! We’re really excited to have Ruthie here today, so please give her a big Jungle welcome! (And one lucky commenter wins a copy of the book!)
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Thanks to Leslie for inviting me to visit Plot Monkeys!
Let’s talk about epilogues, shall we? I’ve had epilogues on the brain lately. I’m trying to write this new book — it’s about a rock climber heroine and a park ranger hero, and it’s pretty fly, if I do say so myself — and it seems to want to have both a prologue and an epilogue. This is a prospect that makes me faintly ill.
See, I’m generally not a fan of epilogues. In fact, I dislike them so much, I actually put it in my bio: “Ruthie abhors an epilogue and insists a decent romance requires at least three good sex scenes.” Way to lay it all out there, Ruthie. Nothing like making arbitrary rules in your bio to set yourself up for an embarrassing failure when you break them sooner or later. (Sooner, as it happens.)
But here’s my beef with epilogues: I feel like romance authors often use them to put a great big bow around the happy-ever-after. Like, See? My hero and heroine are blissfully happy! It’s three years later, they have 2.5 children, and they’re still knocking boots on the laundry room floor. All is well!
Which is good, of course. I want the hero and heroine to be happy. I just . . . actually, no, sorry. I’m not sure I do want the hero and heroine to be happy — not that sort of happy. Because here’s the thing: I live in the happy-ever-after. I have a husband and a kid, and I actually sort of want the hero and heroine to be normal people. I want them to still be in love three years later, but if they have a baby, and if the heroine decides to breast feed, I want her to be bleary-eyed and greasy, and to shoot Flame Eyes of Death at her still-handsome, grotesquely well-rested husband when he says, “You get to sleep in this morning, honey. I’ll handle everything.” I want her to think, ‘Get’ to sleep in? Seriously? THIS IS YOUR CHILD. YOU PUT HIM IN MY BODY, AND I AM DOING ALL THE WORK. STOP BEING SO EFFING SMUG.
Not that this has ever happened to me.
I guess what I’m saying is that the happy ending is, for me, one moment. It’s a respite. After a few hundred pages of conflict and strife, the hero and heroine deserve a few minutes to breathe and rest easy in the comfortable space they’ve made through their mutual disclosures, their lifting of burdens, and their hot smexin’. But nobody gets to live in the happy-ever-after moment forever. Not even romance novel characters. Being in love is hard work. So why doesn’t anyone ever write an epilogue with hero and heroine bickering and irritating the crap out of each other, but still obviously in love? That would be an epilogue I’d want to read.
What about you guys? Do you like epilogues, or do they drive you batty? Why? One lucky commenter will be randomly chosen to win a digital copy of Ride with Me, which is the book I’m supposed to be promoting, but I got a little distracted. Ride with Me does not have an epilogue. On the other hand, it *does* have tent sex. Winners will pick up their copy through Net Galley. Good luck to all!
Ride with Me, available from Loveswept on February 13, 2012!
In this fun, scorching-hot eBook original romance by Ruthie Knox, a cross-country bike adventure takes a detour into unexplored passion. As readers will discover, Ride with Me is not about the bike!
When Lexie Marshall places an ad for a cycling companion, she hopes to find someone friendly and fun to cross the TransAmerica Trail with. Instead, she gets Tom Geiger — a lean, sexy loner whose bad attitude threatens to spoil the adventure she’s spent years planning.
Roped into the cycling equivalent of a blind date by his sister, Tom doesn’t want to ride with a chatty, go-by-the-map kind of woman, and he certainly doesn’t want to want her. Too bad the sight of Lexie with a bike between her thighs really turns his crank.
Even Tom’s stubborn determination to keep Lexie at a distance can’t stop a kiss from leading to endless nights of hotter-than-hot sex. But when the wild ride ends, where will they go next?
More About Ruthie:
Ruthie Knox figured out how to walk and read at the same time in the second grade, and she hasn’t looked up since. She spent her formative years hiding romance novels in her bedroom closet to avoid the merciless teasing of her brothers and imagining scenarios in which someone who looked remarkably like Daniel Day Lewis recognized her well-hidden sex appeal and rescued her from middle-class Midwestern obscurity. After graduating from Grinnell College with an English and history double major, she earned a Ph.D. in modern British history that she’s put to remarkably little use.
These days, she writes contemporary romance in which witty, down-to- earth characters find each other irresistible in their pajamas, though she freely admits this has yet to happen to her. Perhaps she needs more exciting pajamas. Ruthie abhors an epilogue and insists a decent romance requires at least three good sex scenes.
To learn more, visit her website: www.ruthieknox.com.
Leslie Kelly used to say she wanted to be a doctor when she grew up, but then she discovered Nancy Drew books. Being a flashlight-under-the-covers-nose-in-book reader throughout her childhood, she couldn’t think of anything else she’d rather do as an adult than continue to lose herself in fictional stories. Her real life marriage of 20 years to the man of her dreams is a constant reinforcement that happily-ever-afters really can happen…and that they’re worth writing about. Living in Maryland, Leslie spends her non-writing time laughing a lot with the above-mentioned romance hero and their three daughters. Though an author of more than thirty sexy, contemporary comedies, she has recently branched out to write dark romantic suspense under the pseudonym Leslie Parrish.
Blazing Midsummer Nights
Dirty Little Secrets
Karma
Through The Night
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I have to say that the cover alone would have me buying this book! It’s
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I read this book over the weekend and really enjoyed it! I loved how Lexi and Tom pushed each other.
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So happy to hear it! Thanks, Alison!
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Isn’t it, though? I just want to lick him.
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Oh, whoops. That was supposed to be a reply to Carol. *hangs head in shame*
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This sounds pretty good. I look forward to reading it.
I feel the same way you do about the epilogues. I want them to be happy but like every day people as well. It can be done I’m sure.
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Thanks! I guess I’ll find out. :)
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Wow…the cover alone has me curious about this book! :)
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Hey Ruthie :)
LOL on the epilogue — I don’t know that I would want a bickering couple in the epilogue, but I’m with you on the fact that if all the epilogue does is say “hey look, they can make babies” then that’s a waste of pages.
I used to tell writing students that their conclusions should be as interesting as their beginnings, perhaps leaving a question or a new train of thought apparent for the reader, and I like it if a fiction epilogue does that, as well — maybe introduces a new character or gives us something interesting or new.
Of course, there might be plenty of authors who try to experiment with this sort of thing, and then are cut short in editing (you can’t do that!), or by reviewers or readers who would flay them for having a bickering couple in the epi (which is why they say you can’t do that)… LOL
Anyway, cool blog. :) And hello to Plot Monkey friends :)
Sam
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Interesting! Except when it’s a teaser for the next book, I can’t think of any romance books that do this. Can you?
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Nope… not unless they are wrapping up something unresolved in the book, or as you say, introducing the next.
It all makes me wish books had blooper reels…
Those would be fun…
Sam
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Not a fan of epilogues. I remember a book where the last chapter was perfect and the ending line was awesome and then came the epi to explain more. Not necessary!
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I agree! Though sometimes I think readers just want to linger at the end . . . much to ponder.
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You got me at the cover. Welcome to the Jungle!
Leslie…I was thinking about “Once Upon a Time” as I was watching this week’s episode. Part of the problem with “Prince charming” is that there’s a “Prince Charming” in multiple stories, and he overlaps (like he’s in Snow White, Cinderella, so, thus the Kathryn and Mary Margaret storyline, etc), so that’s I think maybe, what the writers in the show were maybe trying to do or figure out how to work it. They sort of got in a pickle, there.
I am heading back to bed. So not feeling good.
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True Katie–I haven’t watched this week’s yet. Got distracted by Dr. Who Sunday night…lol!
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I’m an epilogue fan. I like the bow with it all prettily wrapped. I totally get what you mean about the realism of romanclandia love vs actual marriage. I blog about that very phenomenon here: http://www.lynnesilver.com/2012/01/10/get-it-together-tuesday-for-better-or-for-worse/
Can’t wait to see how you handle the epilogue issue in future books, but for now I’m off to download Ride with Me. The abs on the cover Plus a road trip story has me itching to read.
-Lynne
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Yay, thanks! Interesting post. I love romance novels that are set within marriage, though they’re a bit thin on the ground (discounting marriage of convenience . . . which I also love.)
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Ride with Me sounds like a good story!
Everyone have a great day.
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I hope so, but no immediate plan. I suspect I have to sell bunches of ebooks first
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Hi, Ruthie. Welcome! Yes I loved this book. Really did :) As for epilogues – I like them IF I have to tie up OTHER things too – like its the last book in a series, and I want the lead secondary character to have his say about all that went on (Maybe I did this in the Hot Zone and maybe I didn’t I can’t remember) but like you, I don’t need it to wrap up the story. To me if you need it to wrap up the story, you’ve ended your book too fast or too soon!
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It also drives me bonkers to get an email asking “what happened to characters X and Y” and will you do a follow up story? Well, this is a Romance and as such it has an IMPLIED happily ever after, so no I won’t be doing a follow up to them. And like Ruthie said, if I did, would they really want REAL life to intrude? LOL.
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Thanks, Carly! I agree — though I was flattered when a (male) reader said he wanted another book about Tom & Lexie.
http://www.plotmonkeys.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/whipbanana.gif
(I don’t know what that emoticon means, but I needed to use it.)
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Thanks for sharing Ruthie! Your book sounds wonderful and what a cover you have there!
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I don’t really feel one way or another with the epilogue. Sometimes it’s nice to know what happens but there was one series I read where the epilogue took place several years down the road and kind of gave away some of the next book. Little hints to whet the appetite I don’t mind, but too much was revealed.
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Welcome to the jungle, Ruthie!
I read Ride with Me over the weekend and loved it! Tom and Lexie were both such strong and fun characters.
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Yay, thanks!
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Hi Ladies! Ruthie your book sounds really good. I can’t wait to read it. I really like epilogues but they are not always necessary. With some stories I love seeing how they end up years down the road.
Congrats on the release and have a great week!
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Ruthie, I admit to being a prologue/epilogue whore…
I love them. I really like seeing a glimpse of the couple in an epilogue, but it definitely doesn’t have to be baby-and-white-picket-fence. Just a little something that shows me they made it beyond the white-hot courtship face.
Thanks again, so much, for being here today!
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Thanks, Leslie! (Also, like your typo — “white-hot courtship face” — what does that look like, exactly? Passionately anguished, no doubt.)
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lol…obviously brain and fingers did not connect on that one!
Will choose a winner & be in touch!
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I have heard lots of good stuff about this book. It is actually on my wish list. I dont mind an epilogue, but a really good story doesnt really need one. Love to win a copy of the book. :)
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This book is on my TBR list…hope I can get a copy of it soon, it sounds really good.
I love epilogues…I love getting a glimpse into the future of the couple.
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I recently finished a book with an epilogue. It took place one year later showing how the families had gelled together. It was a tender scene. It wasn’t necessary but it added a little color to their joined lives.
Epilogues are not necessary but sometimes a little knowledge about the character’s future relationship makes us believe they will survive a rough start.
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I don’t care if a book has one or not, but I’ve never read an epilogue I didn’t enjoy. I like the extra wrap up.
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I’m hearing lots of love for the epilogues here! I’m beginning to see the lure . . . I think I’ll just have to learn to write epilogues that don’t make me gag. :)