Are there strict rules for writing romance novels?
PR: People like to think of romance writing as paint by number, and it’s really not that, but the strict rule is that the main plot line has to be about a man and a woman falling in love, and it has to end happily ever after. Those are the only strict rules. But in terms of marketing, they’re getting lighter and lighter, and my writing was getting more serious. So that just wasn’t selling. The plot lines weren’t working. During the two years off, I wrote another historical romance that was a little more serious that Kristin and I both loved, but we couldn’t find anyone to buy it. Finally she said, “This just isn’t your genre any more. What you want to write is not selling.” She told me to take some time off and figure out what I wanted to do. I’d already been playing with this idea [for Hester], with this hot thing in the market of spin-offs from Jane Austen and Tom Sawyer, and Ahab’s Wife was a bestseller. NW: Was there any problem to try to sell a book of literary fiction after havin
