Irene Vartanoff: From Comics to Romance
What do comics and romance have in common? They are both ways to tell stories. My guest today Irene Vartanoff began as a writer for DC comics. Today she writes romance. But let me allow her to tell her story.
Welcome Irene…
When did you first start writing and when did you finish your first book?
My professional career started with writing a handful of comic books decades ago for DC Comics. Since then I’ve worked in a variety of non-artistic roles for many publishers, including Marvel Comics, Harlequin, Bantam, and others.
I segued from comics to writing novels accidentally. I had a ball editing and later writing online romance comics early this century (I love saying that!). When that company’s comics experiment ended, I looked around for something else to write. A paperback publisher had just opened a new line of female action fantasy novels and had a contest going. The prize? Publication.
I decided to enter the contest and write an action-oriented fantasy novel about the comic book world I knew so well. Worried that I might lose steam partway into the story, I sought a source of support. I wanted to challenge myself, but I also did not want to set myself up to fail.
That’s when I discovered NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month challenge. Each November, NaNoWriMo is the online host for a writers’ challenge: write 50,000 words in just one month. You create an online identity and post your daily word count and encourage each other along the way. All you have to do is write 1,667 words per day, and in 30 days you’ll have written 50,000 words, which equals a short novel. Thousands of people of all ages take the NaNoWriMo writing challenge every November. I did write my 50,000 words in November, checking in constantly and posting my word counts online.
In the next months I added thousands more words and revised my story. Finally it was done and I submitted Temporary Superheroine to the publisher. I felt great. I’d done it! I’d written a complete novel! I haven’t looked back. Since then I’ve written at least one million words and published fifteen of my novels.
Where do you get your ideas?
I’m a longtime romance fan, so when I started a sweet Western romance series, Selkirk Family Ranch, it was natural for me to mentally mine the romances I’d read for situations and character types. Captive of the Cattle Baron features a domineering hero because I’ve always wanted to give domineering heroes their comeuppance. And I did. I continued the abduction theme of the series with Saving the Soldier, in which the heroine kidnaps the hero. Yes, really, she does, not that the result is exactly what she’d planned. Cowgirl Rescue, the third book in the series, involves a very crooked strip poker game that creates an enforced visit to the isolated Selkirk ranch and several reversals of who’s in charge. As I focus on how each character is likely to act and react, the ideas for twists and turns come to me naturally.
How did you choose the genre you write in?
I think my genres choose me. When I got the idea for Second Chance Reunion, I intended a romance in the old-fashioned style about a heroine who has yearned for an unattainable man for years, a man she hasn’t seen since a terrible tragedy wrecked his life. Once I brought them together for what I thought would be a romantic reunion in which she would help him make a new beginning, the story started to twist. Another man appeared, a very attractive man with a major grudge against my hero. Or was he my hero after all? As my heroine learned the full story of the tragic past, including her own past, I realized I had written a Gothic romance. Although I did inject a couple of light scenes near the conclusion, basically this was a story full of drama and angst. The book’s first cover showed a cheery romantic cliche, which did not represent the main mood of the story. The current cover, which I love, emphasizes the brooding darkness of this fraught reunion in the New Mexico desert.
Second Chance Reunion by Irene Vartanoff
Gothic romance in the classic tradition
An isolated mansion, a brooding hero, a strong heroine—and another man equally haunted by the tragedy of the past. Which man holds the key to the heroine’s future happiness?
Hollywood film editor Sara Finer has loved brilliant movie director Lucas Steel from afar for years. She finally has a chance to win his heart when she’s sent to his New Mexico desert retreat, but there’s a catch. Lucas abandoned his career after the accidental death on location of his ex-wife. Sara’s mission is to convince him to finish the film—a hot-button issue made hotter by the sudden appearance of his bitterest rival.
Two tortured men fighting over the haunting memory of a long-dead lover—and over Sara’s love and loyalty today. This stand-alone sweet contemporary romance keeps the bedroom door closed yet tackles predatory Hollywood behavior past and present.
Buy
Learn more about Irene Vartanoff
Website: http://www.irenevartanoff.com
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