For a short time when I was a kid, I wondered if I really belonged with my family. Okay, sometimes, I still wonder but now I have good reasons. My family... don't get me started.
But as a young child, I fantasized that maybe, it was possible, that I was a fairy princess accidentally abandoned in a flower field and discovered by the mortals now raising me as their own.
Unfortunately, appearances were too hard to deny. I have my dad's crooked smile and my mom's chin, and look enough like my older sister to be mistaken for her. I had to face the facts that I was where I belonged, a mere mortal, and my magical powers weren't simply lying dormant until I came of age. Darn!
But the idea of the orphan heroine still appeals to me. One of my early favorites was Sarah Crewe in Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess, an early influence in what became my Edwardian set Thornbrook Park.
I fell in love with Jane Eyre on first reading, at age ten. I still love Jane enough that I wrote Jane Slayre once the mash-up craze took off following Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. But of course, the idea behind PP & Z actually came from Quirk Books publisher Jason Rekulak (featured in the New York Times the other day with a shout out to Jane Slayre, yay!).
And of course, the Harry Potter series. An orphan, with magic! Be still my heart.
Yes, I love a good orphan story. How about you? Do you love orphans? Or maybe you prefer arranged marriages? Kidnapping? Damsels saving guys from distress? What are your favorite romance tropes?
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| I'm the little one on the right. |
But as a young child, I fantasized that maybe, it was possible, that I was a fairy princess accidentally abandoned in a flower field and discovered by the mortals now raising me as their own.
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| With Grandma, and my older sister. Still waiting for those powers to kick in. |
Unfortunately, appearances were too hard to deny. I have my dad's crooked smile and my mom's chin, and look enough like my older sister to be mistaken for her. I had to face the facts that I was where I belonged, a mere mortal, and my magical powers weren't simply lying dormant until I came of age. Darn!
But the idea of the orphan heroine still appeals to me. One of my early favorites was Sarah Crewe in Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess, an early influence in what became my Edwardian set Thornbrook Park.
I fell in love with Jane Eyre on first reading, at age ten. I still love Jane enough that I wrote Jane Slayre once the mash-up craze took off following Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. But of course, the idea behind PP & Z actually came from Quirk Books publisher Jason Rekulak (featured in the New York Times the other day with a shout out to Jane Slayre, yay!).
And of course, the Harry Potter series. An orphan, with magic! Be still my heart.
Yes, I love a good orphan story. How about you? Do you love orphans? Or maybe you prefer arranged marriages? Kidnapping? Damsels saving guys from distress? What are your favorite romance tropes?
I love variety so I enjoy most of them. As a child my older sister convinced me I was adopted which is hysterical because I look just like her and my mom :)
ReplyDeleteI think people who did not have adoption fantasies were probably tricked by siblings just like this into adoption fears. :) When it comes down to it, family is family and biology isn't always involved.
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