Today I'd like to welcome L. Blankenship, author of
Disciple, a fantasy romance series. Today she joins us to discuss romance in fantasy. Be sure to check out the series.
Romance
The romance genre is huge, popular, and
has clear requirements: that two people overcome the obstacles preventing them
from being in a relationship. The ending is a "Happily Ever After,"
or at least a "Happy For Now," for the main characters.
Fantasy novels often include a romantic
relationship as a sub-plot -- a complication of the main business of saving the
world, slaying the dragon, whatever adventure we're on. Sometimes these
romances end happily. Sometimes they don't.
I wanted to write a solid fantasy novel
where the romance wasn't just a subplot; I wanted it to be deeply entwined with
the action. Free of the required "happily ever after," the story
could take a different approach to some of romance's tropes. Mix them up and let
the painful results play out.
And I could get as gritty and explicit as
I needed to -- I don't care for glossing over details, in fantasy or in
romance.
The result was Disciple, a hard
fantasy romance in six parts.
Excerpt
After spending the day debriefing the
king on the results of their mission, Prince Kiefan
leads Kate into a quieter
part of the castle...
He still held my hand. No voices, nobody
nearby to see us. I swallowed a nervous lump in my throat, wondering where he
meant to take me. And what he meant to do there. Surely I didn’t have to worry
whether anyone would hear me scream… was there anything he could do that I’d
need to?
My cheeks warmed.
Slim pillars held up a graceful stone
arcade. Between them, we walked onto frost-burnt grass. A gnarled apple tree,
leaves golden and half fallen to the ground, stood ringed by a waist-high
juniper hedge. Beyond, the castle wall rose sheer and seamless. To either side,
the watchtowers bulged from its face and spiked up like smooth horns. I had to
crane my neck to find the tips, and in doing spotted the catwalks that
connected each tower to the roof of Castle Kaltkern. The garden lay below the
keep, hemmed in by saint-cut cliffs on both sides.
A crescent garden, I saw now. To either
side, more fruit trees dropped their leaves, and the rose bushes had gone bare
for the winter, but the juniper hedges held their green. Under the central
apple tree waited a broad wooden bench. By my hand, still warm in his grip,
Kiefan led me toward it and a tangle of hopes and fears snapped tight around my
heart.
He didn’t sit, though. He stood under the
tree and looked up. “Sometimes I can get some quiet here,” he said. “When
Mother isn’t seeking solitude herself.”
I looked up, too, into golden leaves and
dark branches. Blue, beyond. “It must be lovely in the spring.” I could imagine
the trees hazed by white blossoms.
“And in the summer, when the roses are
out, the scent hangs like a fog between the walls.”
He still held my hand. My nerves eased, I
sidled closer to his shoulder. He smelled of sweat, under his layered woolens.
“You spent the afternoon at swordplay?”
He nodded, bringing his gaze down to me.
“I thought he would send for the captain, but Woden tossed me a sparring sword
himself. I nearly dropped it when he chose one and stood at guard.”
“You sparred with a saint?”
Kiefan shook his head, disbelieving it
himself. “I saw him spar with Captain Aleks, once. She said it was her most
valuable lesson.”
“You lived to tell. You didn’t ask him to
give you quarter?” I risked a smile.
A chuckle. “He gave none, that’s true. I
won’t know how many bruises I have until morning, I’m sure.” He tugged out the
collar of his cote to feign checking inside. “We spoke about the lamia, and he
told me I was using my kir to keep their teeth off me despite the close
quarters. The beginnings of a kir-shield. With training, I’ll be able to
control it more.”
“We all learned something out there.” I
looked up as a chilly breeze sent a few more leaves spinning from the branches
and caught a wince on Kiefan’s brow. “Are you hurt? A headache?”
“A little.”
I knew what that meant. I put my hand on
his fresh-shaven cheek and turned his head toward me to call his kir. It glowed
in answer, revealing a few tangles on his meridian, but I got no further in
checking him.
Kiefan leaned over and kissed me,
wrapping me in both strong arms. Coaxed my mouth open to spar with his tongue.
He left me breathing harder with my palm still on his face.
I combed my fingers over the ridges of
his Blessing at the back of his neck and pulled him down for another. His arms
tightened on me. His lips made their way to my throat and his tongue tracing
the hollow there stabbed a shiver into my spine. My pulse surged.
With a hard breath, he buried his face
against my neck and squeezed me till I squeaked. I clung to his shoulders, my
feet lifted an inch off the ground. He held me warm and safe, despite the cold
breeze.
“You must come to Prohzgrad with us,” he
said against my neck. “Cure me with a kiss each night.”
I swallowed a sudden lump. “You’re going
away?” I managed to ask through his grip.
Disciple, Part II on sale now
along with Disciple, Part I
Disciple, Part III coming in late
2013
Disciple is complete in
six parts and will make a lovely doorstop
when all 400k words have been published.
Goodreads links:
Goodreads giveaway!
Begins Monday April 15
I'm giving away a bundle of BOTH
paperbacks:
Disciple, Part I and Part II.
