“The Scarlet Circus is a magical collection of love stories, where love is often an act of courage and intelligence. Jane Yolen has a true storyteller’s voice.” —Anne Bishop, New York Times bestselling author of the Black Jewels series
From ecstasy to tragedy, with love blossoming shyly, love at first sight, and even love borne of practical necessity—The Scarlet Circus, the fourth volume in Yolen’s award-winning short fiction series brings you passionate treasures and unexpected transformations. This bewitching assemblage, with an original introduction from Brandon Sanderson, is an ideal read for anyone who appreciates witty, compelling, and classic romantic fantasy.
Available Format(s): Trade Paperback and Digital Books
The Scarlet Circus, the fourth volume in Yolen’s award-winning short fiction series brings you passionate treasures and unexpected transformations. This bewitching assemblage, with an original introduction from Brandon Sanderson, is an ideal read for anyone who appreciates witty, compelling, and classic romantic fantasy.
“The Scarlet Circus is a magical collection of love stories, where love is often an act of courage and intelligence. Jane Yolen has a true storyteller’s voice.” —Anne Bishop, New York Times bestselling author of the Black Jewels series
A rakish fairy meets the real Juliet behind Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. A jewelry artist travels to the past to meet a successful silver-smith. The addled crew of a ship at sea discovers a mysterious merman. More than one ignored princess finds her match in the most unlikely men.
From ecstasy to tragedy, with love blossoming shyly, love at first sight, and even love borne of practical necessity—beloved fantasist Jane Yolen’s newest collection celebrates romance in all its glory.
Other short story collections by Jane Yolen in this series The Emerald Circus: 9781616962739 How to Fracture a Fairy Tale: 9781616963064 The Midnight Circus: 9781616963408
***
Table of Contents
Sans Soleil
Dusty Loves
Unicorn Tapestry
A Ghost of an Affair
Dark Seed, Dark Stone
Dragonfield
The Sword and the Stone
The Sea Man
Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn
Peter in Wonderland
The Erotic in Faerie: The Footnotes
Library Journal Top Titles Forecast for Early 2023 Foreword Passion Pursuit Featured Title
“Surprising, entertaining, romantic stories in the tradition of folktales and legends reimagined. As skillful as The Emerald Circus (2017), thematically warmer than The Midnight Circus (2020), this volume’s central thread is love. Featuring an introduction by Brandon Sanderson, it collects more of Yolen’s reimagined narratives, many of them previously published. But fairy-tale endings are not guaranteed: Characters choose badly, and death and other sadness enters in. Julie appears from her grave, mourning Roman, in a wry rewrite of Romeo and Juliet narrated by an elf. Several tales are about the power—for good or ill—of belief; merfolk, djinn, and ghosts play major roles. There is time travel and some real history as well as appearances by Merlin and Arthur, Alice Liddell, and many brave and independent young women. The rich and varied plots and tones are matched by advanced but suitable vocabulary—fortuitously, lambent, incorporeal, slatterns, sepulchral, and legerdemain, for example—much of which young readers will be able to decipher from the context. Occasional poems are interspersed among the stories. The fully realized details bring to life both this-worldly and otherworldly settings. Yolen enthusiasts will be rapt, and new fans will be won. Endlessly imaginative, superbly crafted tales that stir the heart. (story notes and poems).”
—Kirkus
“For this whimsical collection, World Fantasy Award winner Yolen (The Midnight Circus) brings together 11 fantastical shorts centered on romantic love. Yolen’s trademark fairy tale styling is on display throughout, with vivid, pithy prose animating each quirky flight of fancy.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The Scarlet Circus is a magical collection of love stories, where love is often an act of courage and intelligence. Jane Yolen has a true storyteller’s voice—a voice that makes the writing disappear so that only the stories remain.”
—Anne Bishop, New York Times bestselling author of the Black Jewels series
“All these years, and Jane Yolen still reduces me to helpless, gibbering admiration. I’ll read anything with her name on it, even if it’s just a damn grocery list!”
—Peter S. Beagle, author of In Calabria
“In the fairy tales and poems of Jane Yolen’s The Scarlet Circus, there are curious permutations of haunting, mesmerizing love stories. . . It’s in these splendid spaces between the book’s winking tributes to sentimentality and its swerving surprises that an unabashed sense of romance lingers.”
—Foreword
“Jane Yolen spins captivating tales of whimsy, romance, brave knights, dragons, and twist endings. It was like reading the Grimm’s fairy tales as a kid—it has that same timeless feel. I was immersed in every story.”
—Heather Wallwork, author of Entwined
“The Scarlet Circus is a charming bouquet of love stories from a heady array of fantastical viewpoints. Here be magic, and romance.”
—Susan Palwick, author of All Worlds Are Real and Flying in Place
“Jane Yolen is a national treasure. Cozy up, and let the master take you beyond the fields you know.”
—Sherwood Smith, author of Crown Duel
“The Scarlet Circus is a magnificent and beautiful anthology from a master storyteller! Jane Yolen’s stories and poems reach directly into your heart and fill you with the loveliest kind of magic. I absolutely adored it!”
—Sarah Beth Durst, award-winning author of The Queens of Renthia series
“Jane Yolen is not only one of the best writers I know of, she’s also consistently excellent. A Grand Master, old-school style!”
—Mercedes Lackey, author of the Valdemar series
“This is also the perfect book to read while commuting, or if you need a break from heavy topics, or just want to add a touch of magic to life! Seriously, it’s so charming. I highly recommend you give this book a try to fall in love with fantasy and storytelling.” —Tales Untangled
“With romantic tales inspired by history, dragons, and literature, The Scarlet Circus is a bright romance anthology marked by people’s agile maneuvers.”
—Foreword
“I love fantasy and these stories were perfect. I enjoyed each and every one.”
—The Booklover’s Boudoir
9/10 “A must read for all fantasy short story fans, and I think it is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a unique take on a love story this Valentine’s season. Yolen expertly weaves together a tapestry of romance, with the weft made of magic and the warp made of humanity’s joys and tragedies.”
—The Library Ladies
10/10 Universes. “I greatly enjoyed The Scarlet Circus and found many more gems of Yolen’s to treasure and carry with me. This collection has an inventiveness that is belied by the ease of Yolen’s writing. I can’t wait to read more of her short stories through Tachyon’s collection series.”
—A Universe in Words
5/5 stars. “This isn’t your typical romance novel though. That romance has a broad definition and doesn’t always have a happy ending. In fact, some of the stories are quite dark. I really like it when Jane Yolen takes a story you think you know and turns it on its head.”
—The Neverending TBR List
“The Scarlet Circus is another fantastic collection by a master storyteller, one that should be added to every fantasy lover’s library.”
—Witty and Sarcastic Book Club
Praise for the volumes of the Jane Yolen Circus Collection series
“Jane Yolen is, simply, a legend. The powerful fairy godmother of every writer working in mythic fantasy today. In these dark and wonderful stories, that legend proves itself true over and over again, a sure hand pulling aside black and gauzy curtains to reveal a blaze of genius that will light up all the secret places of your heart.”
—Catherynne M. Valente, author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
“Look this way, look that; blazing her consummate imagination against the shadows of human sorrow, Jane Yolen has done it again.”
—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked
“Haunting stories from a modern master.” —Kirkus
“[S]ings with magic, darkness, and wonder—perfect for anyone who has ever loved a fairy tale.”
—Meagan Spooner, author of Hunted
“An engrossing collection that will linger in readers’ minds long after reading, and a perfect (re)introduction to Yolen’s rich well of fantasy horror. For fans of Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, and Leigh Bardugo.”
—School Library Journal
[STARRED REVIEW] “These delightful retellings of favorite stories will captivate newcomers and fans of Yolen as she once again delivers the magic, humor, and lovely prose that has attracted readers for years.”
—Library Journal
“Jane Yolen at her best, telling stories you’ve never seen before but have known all your life, and stories as familiar as your left hand that you barely recognize, spun from shadows and moonlight and breathed through silvered glass.”
—Patricia C. Wrede, author of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles
“Yolen takes well-known fairy tales and splits them apart, sometimes leaving them still quite familiar and other times shining a light from an unfamiliar angle to reveal new truths and possibilities”
—Margo Kelly, author of Unlocked
“A master storyteller at her best.”
—Chanda Hahn, bestselling author of Reign
“I enjoyed every story in this diverse collection. I liked the fact the stories are all different so I never knew what to expect with the next one. The stories all touched on the strange and fantastic in some way, some more than others.”
—The Book Lover’s Boudoir
“Each story is whimsical and delightful. Every character is engaging and wonderful to read. The love between the characters delves into depths and unexpected permutations, full of delight.”
—The Nameless Zine
“Five stars. Just gorgeous.”
—Nonstop Reader
Photo by Jason Stemple copyright (c) 2015
Jane Yolen has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of America and the Aesop of the twentieth century. She is the author of over four hundred books, including children’s fiction, poetry, short stories, graphic novels, nonfiction, fantasy, and science fiction. Her publications include Owl Moon, The Devil’s Arithmetic, Briar Rose, Sister Emily’s Starship and Sister Light, Sister Dark.
Among Yolen’s many honors are the Caldecott and Christopher Medals, multiple Nebula World Fantasy, Mythopoeic, Golden Kite, and Jewish Book awards; the World Fantasy Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Science Fiction Poetry Grand Master Award. She is also a teacher of writing and a book reviewer.
Yolen lives in Western Massachusetts and St. Andrew, Scotland.
Praise for Jane Yolen
“The Hans Christian Andersen of America”
—Newsweek
“The Aesop of the twentieth century”
—The New York Times
“Jane Yolen is a gem in the diadem of science fiction and fantasy.”
—Analog
When asked what I write by researchers, interviewers, school children, adult audiences, and people I meet at conferences, I normally answer, “Everything!” But then I hesitate charmingly and add, “Except sport stories, cowboy stories, and romance novels.”
But I am lying. (Definition of an author/storyteller = liar. It runs in the family.)
You see, I have published well over 400 books, plus thousands of poems and a huge basket load of stories. So when I really want to parse that answer, I need to think about my output. And then I remember that way (back in the 60s/70s/80s) I published two children’s picture books about baseball. So, yeah, I have written sport stories.
Even earlier, I wrote a children’s picture book about the wild(ish) west. It had tumbleweeds and all.
But no romance novels. When asked, about that, I reply: “I am in my mid-eighties. The research alone would likely kill me.”
However, I have a brand-new husband after fifteen years of widowhood . . . who knew!!! And there is a lot of “interesting” research on love and love affairs available, and I have spent years on other research projects (including three Holocaust novels), none of which have killed me.
But that begs another question: I am also forgetting the many short stories and poems in the SF/fantasy genre that I have published over the years in magazines, collections, anthologies, many of which have a romantic tinge or a full-out romantic assault as the through-line. Yeah—not romance novels, but a lot of romance all the same. Many of those stories (my favorites) you will find in this book.
And I have also written songs of love as well, a number of which of which have been performed by bands.
The difference is that these stories are either science fictional or fairy tale-ish or fantastical. Humans fall in love with mermaids or mermen, or selchies or fairies or half-breed redcaps, or magical birds or magicians or . . . hard to rule anything out when you write genre.
And, come to think of it, some of my SF and fantasy novels include long and involved romantic storylines, like Briar Rose which is based on the fairy tale but set in the Holocaust, or like the Great Alta Saga that has magic and a prince, or like The Curse of the Thirteenth Fey, which is full of fairies (not the little people with wings kind though), or like Except the Queen, co-written with Midori Snyder, and that book includes a romance between a couple of middle-aged fairies and humans.
OMG—I HAVE written romance novels. Turns out I am a complete romantic! Who knew!
However, please note: there’s a difference between “romantic novels” and capital R Romance Novel. The former has a measure of love story woven into its arc (think of War and Peace) but it is not just about the love story . . . or the lovers that you thought it was going to be about. But a Romance novel is driven entirely by the love story, even though there may be a decoration of history draped over its shoulders. The Romance Writers Association’s definition of the genre, which is capital-R Romance, is quite specific: “a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.” As you can see, they are quite rigid in the happily-ever-after aspect expected in each novel, whereas the stories in this book may have sad endings, compromised endings, or joyous ones. In other words, real life. Except also magical and fantastical and science fictional . . . of course.
So, I guess I have to redirect those questions from researchers, interviewers, et al to say that I have written fantastical stories and books that include Romance as well as True Love, with a bit of snogging and touching and kissing and other stuff. And if this makes me a writer of Romance Books, then perhaps we need to redefine the concept, not redefine me.
So—here’s a challenge: using a few common definitions of love and romance culled from the Internet, how do they wrap their loving arms around the stories in this book?
Here is Google’s definition: “A feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.” What about how I love my Prius? My dog? Or my grandkids? My country? No romance here but still love.
This is Wikipedia’s basic definition: “Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a strong attraction towards another person, and the courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings.” The term “person” is so human-centric. What about those selchies and mermaids and . . . ?
The Wikipedia entry also includes this definition from the Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Family Studies: “Romantic love, based on the model of mutual attraction and on a connection between two people that bonds them as a couple, creates the conditions for overturning the model of family and marriage that it engenders.” Why just people? Why just two? And again, we have a human-centric idea (and ideal) of a love relationship. Building a family when one of the partners is a selchie or a mermaid or a redcap means having to redefine—through story—the definition of love (and also the definition of ‘people’? Lots of science fiction romances count the non-human as ‘people’). Of family. Of sex or contentment or passion. Or release.
However, I am a storyteller, not a sex counselor. I am not writing these stories to help anyone, or to lecture on how to create a permanent relationship with a ghoul, or have an extra-marital affair with a ghost. I am simply telling a story. If along the way it entertains, amuses, even arouses, or touches the reader deeply, then my work is well done.
The Scarlet Circus
Jane Yolen
“The Scarlet Circus is a magical collection of love stories, where love is often an act of courage and intelligence. Jane Yolen has a true storyteller’s voice.”
—Anne Bishop, New York Times bestselling author of the Black Jewels series
From ecstasy to tragedy, with love blossoming shyly, love at first sight, and even love borne of practical necessity—The Scarlet Circus, the fourth volume in Yolen’s award-winning short fiction series brings you passionate treasures and unexpected transformations. This bewitching assemblage, with an original introduction from Brandon Sanderson, is an ideal read for anyone who appreciates witty, compelling, and classic romantic fantasy.
The Scarlet Circus
by Jane Yolen
ISBN: Print: 978-1-61696-386-6 Digital: 978-1-61696-387-3
Published: February 14th, 2023
Available Format(s): Trade Paperback and Digital Books
The Scarlet Circus, the fourth volume in Yolen’s award-winning short fiction series brings you passionate treasures and unexpected transformations. This bewitching assemblage, with an original introduction from Brandon Sanderson, is an ideal read for anyone who appreciates witty, compelling, and classic romantic fantasy.
“The Scarlet Circus is a magical collection of love stories, where love is often an act of courage and intelligence. Jane Yolen has a true storyteller’s voice.”
—Anne Bishop, New York Times bestselling author of the Black Jewels series
A rakish fairy meets the real Juliet behind Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. A jewelry artist travels to the past to meet a successful silver-smith. The addled crew of a ship at sea discovers a mysterious merman. More than one ignored princess finds her match in the most unlikely men.
From ecstasy to tragedy, with love blossoming shyly, love at first sight, and even love borne of practical necessity—beloved fantasist Jane Yolen’s newest collection celebrates romance in all its glory.
Other short story collections by Jane Yolen in this series
The Emerald Circus: 9781616962739
How to Fracture a Fairy Tale: 9781616963064
The Midnight Circus: 9781616963408
***
Table of Contents
Sans Soleil
Dusty Loves
Unicorn Tapestry
A Ghost of an Affair
Dark Seed, Dark Stone
Dragonfield
The Sword and the Stone
The Sea Man
Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn
Peter in Wonderland
The Erotic in Faerie: The Footnotes
Library Journal Top Titles Forecast for Early 2023
Foreword Passion Pursuit Featured Title
“Surprising, entertaining, romantic stories in the tradition of folktales and legends reimagined. As skillful as The Emerald Circus (2017), thematically warmer than The Midnight Circus (2020), this volume’s central thread is love. Featuring an introduction by Brandon Sanderson, it collects more of Yolen’s reimagined narratives, many of them previously published. But fairy-tale endings are not guaranteed: Characters choose badly, and death and other sadness enters in. Julie appears from her grave, mourning Roman, in a wry rewrite of Romeo and Juliet narrated by an elf. Several tales are about the power—for good or ill—of belief; merfolk, djinn, and ghosts play major roles. There is time travel and some real history as well as appearances by Merlin and Arthur, Alice Liddell, and many brave and independent young women. The rich and varied plots and tones are matched by advanced but suitable vocabulary—fortuitously, lambent, incorporeal, slatterns, sepulchral, and legerdemain, for example—much of which young readers will be able to decipher from the context. Occasional poems are interspersed among the stories. The fully realized details bring to life both this-worldly and otherworldly settings. Yolen enthusiasts will be rapt, and new fans will be won. Endlessly imaginative, superbly crafted tales that stir the heart. (story notes and poems).”
—Kirkus
“For this whimsical collection, World Fantasy Award winner Yolen (The Midnight Circus) brings together 11 fantastical shorts centered on romantic love. Yolen’s trademark fairy tale styling is on display throughout, with vivid, pithy prose animating each quirky flight of fancy.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The Scarlet Circus is a magical collection of love stories, where love is often an act of courage and intelligence. Jane Yolen has a true storyteller’s voice—a voice that makes the writing disappear so that only the stories remain.”
—Anne Bishop, New York Times bestselling author of the Black Jewels series
“All these years, and Jane Yolen still reduces me to helpless, gibbering admiration. I’ll read anything with her name on it, even if it’s just a damn grocery list!”
—Peter S. Beagle, author of In Calabria
“In the fairy tales and poems of Jane Yolen’s The Scarlet Circus, there are curious permutations of haunting, mesmerizing love stories. . . It’s in these splendid spaces between the book’s winking tributes to sentimentality and its swerving surprises that an unabashed sense of romance lingers.”
—Foreword
“Jane Yolen spins captivating tales of whimsy, romance, brave knights, dragons, and twist endings. It was like reading the Grimm’s fairy tales as a kid—it has that same timeless feel. I was immersed in every story.”
—Heather Wallwork, author of Entwined
“The Scarlet Circus is a charming bouquet of love stories from a heady array of fantastical viewpoints. Here be magic, and romance.”
—Susan Palwick, author of All Worlds Are Real and Flying in Place
“Jane Yolen is a national treasure. Cozy up, and let the master take you beyond the fields you know.”
—Sherwood Smith, author of Crown Duel
“The Scarlet Circus is a magnificent and beautiful anthology from a master storyteller! Jane Yolen’s stories and poems reach directly into your heart and fill you with the loveliest kind of magic. I absolutely adored it!”
—Sarah Beth Durst, award-winning author of The Queens of Renthia series
“Jane Yolen is not only one of the best writers I know of, she’s also consistently excellent. A Grand Master, old-school style!”
—Mercedes Lackey, author of the Valdemar series
“This is also the perfect book to read while commuting, or if you need a break from heavy topics, or just want to add a touch of magic to life! Seriously, it’s so charming. I highly recommend you give this book a try to fall in love with fantasy and storytelling.”
—Tales Untangled
“With romantic tales inspired by history, dragons, and literature, The Scarlet Circus is a bright romance anthology marked by people’s agile maneuvers.”
—Foreword
“I love fantasy and these stories were perfect. I enjoyed each and every one.”
—The Booklover’s Boudoir
9/10 “A must read for all fantasy short story fans, and I think it is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a unique take on a love story this Valentine’s season. Yolen expertly weaves together a tapestry of romance, with the weft made of magic and the warp made of humanity’s joys and tragedies.”
—The Library Ladies
10/10 Universes. “I greatly enjoyed The Scarlet Circus and found many more gems of Yolen’s to treasure and carry with me. This collection has an inventiveness that is belied by the ease of Yolen’s writing. I can’t wait to read more of her short stories through Tachyon’s collection series.”
—A Universe in Words
5/5 stars. “This isn’t your typical romance novel though. That romance has a broad definition and doesn’t always have a happy ending. In fact, some of the stories are quite dark. I really like it when Jane Yolen takes a story you think you know and turns it on its head.”
—The Neverending TBR List
“The Scarlet Circus is another fantastic collection by a master storyteller, one that should be added to every fantasy lover’s library.”
—Witty and Sarcastic Book Club
Praise for the volumes of the Jane Yolen Circus Collection series
“Jane Yolen is, simply, a legend. The powerful fairy godmother of every writer working in mythic fantasy today. In these dark and wonderful stories, that legend proves itself true over and over again, a sure hand pulling aside black and gauzy curtains to reveal a blaze of genius that will light up all the secret places of your heart.”
—Catherynne M. Valente, author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
“Look this way, look that; blazing her consummate imagination against the shadows of human sorrow, Jane Yolen has done it again.”
—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked
“Haunting stories from a modern master.”
—Kirkus
“[S]ings with magic, darkness, and wonder—perfect for anyone who has ever loved a fairy tale.”
—Meagan Spooner, author of Hunted
“An engrossing collection that will linger in readers’ minds long after reading, and a perfect (re)introduction to Yolen’s rich well of fantasy horror. For fans of Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, and Leigh Bardugo.”
—School Library Journal
[STARRED REVIEW] “These delightful retellings of favorite stories will captivate newcomers and fans of Yolen as she once again delivers the magic, humor, and lovely prose that has attracted readers for years.”
—Library Journal
“Jane Yolen at her best, telling stories you’ve never seen before but have known all your life, and stories as familiar as your left hand that you barely recognize, spun from shadows and moonlight and breathed through silvered glass.”
—Patricia C. Wrede, author of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles
“Yolen takes well-known fairy tales and splits them apart, sometimes leaving them still quite familiar and other times shining a light from an unfamiliar angle to reveal new truths and possibilities”
—Margo Kelly, author of Unlocked
“A master storyteller at her best.”
—Chanda Hahn, bestselling author of Reign
“I enjoyed every story in this diverse collection. I liked the fact the stories are all different so I never knew what to expect with the next one. The stories all touched on the strange and fantastic in some way, some more than others.”
—The Book Lover’s Boudoir
“Each story is whimsical and delightful. Every character is engaging and wonderful to read. The love between the characters delves into depths and unexpected permutations, full of delight.”
—The Nameless Zine
“Five stars. Just gorgeous.”
—Nonstop Reader
Jane Yolen has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of America and the Aesop of the twentieth century. She is the author of over four hundred books, including children’s fiction, poetry, short stories, graphic novels, nonfiction, fantasy, and science fiction. Her publications include Owl Moon, The Devil’s Arithmetic, Briar Rose, Sister Emily’s Starship and Sister Light, Sister Dark.
Among Yolen’s many honors are the Caldecott and Christopher Medals, multiple Nebula World Fantasy, Mythopoeic, Golden Kite, and Jewish Book awards; the World Fantasy Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Science Fiction Poetry Grand Master Award. She is also a teacher of writing and a book reviewer.
Yolen lives in Western Massachusetts and St. Andrew, Scotland.
Praise for Jane Yolen
“The Hans Christian Andersen of America”
—Newsweek
“The Aesop of the twentieth century”
—The New York Times
“Jane Yolen is a gem in the diadem of science fiction and fantasy.”
—Analog
Visit Jane Yolen‘s website.
A Little Bit of Loving
Introduction by Jane Yolen
When asked what I write by researchers, interviewers, school children, adult audiences, and people I meet at conferences, I normally answer, “Everything!” But then I hesitate charmingly and add, “Except sport stories, cowboy stories, and romance novels.”
But I am lying. (Definition of an author/storyteller = liar. It runs in the family.)
You see, I have published well over 400 books, plus thousands of poems and a huge basket load of stories. So when I really want to parse that answer, I need to think about my output. And then I remember that way (back in the 60s/70s/80s) I published two children’s picture books about baseball. So, yeah, I have written sport stories.
Even earlier, I wrote a children’s picture book about the wild(ish) west. It had tumbleweeds and all.
But no romance novels. When asked, about that, I reply: “I am in my mid-eighties. The research alone would likely kill me.”
However, I have a brand-new husband after fifteen years of widowhood . . . who knew!!! And there is a lot of “interesting” research on love and love affairs available, and I have spent years on other research projects (including three Holocaust novels), none of which have killed me.
But that begs another question: I am also forgetting the many short stories and poems in the SF/fantasy genre that I have published over the years in magazines, collections, anthologies, many of which have a romantic tinge or a full-out romantic assault as the through-line. Yeah—not romance novels, but a lot of romance all the same. Many of those stories (my favorites) you will find in this book.
And I have also written songs of love as well, a number of which of which have been performed by bands.
The difference is that these stories are either science fictional or fairy tale-ish or fantastical. Humans fall in love with mermaids or mermen, or selchies or fairies or half-breed redcaps, or magical birds or magicians or . . . hard to rule anything out when you write genre.
And, come to think of it, some of my SF and fantasy novels include long and involved romantic storylines, like Briar Rose which is based on the fairy tale but set in the Holocaust, or like the Great Alta Saga that has magic and a prince, or like The Curse of the Thirteenth Fey, which is full of fairies (not the little people with wings kind though), or like Except the Queen, co-written with Midori Snyder, and that book includes a romance between a couple of middle-aged fairies and humans.
OMG—I HAVE written romance novels. Turns out I am a complete romantic! Who knew!
However, please note: there’s a difference between “romantic novels” and capital R Romance Novel. The former has a measure of love story woven into its arc (think of War and Peace) but it is not just about the love story . . . or the lovers that you thought it was going to be about. But a Romance novel is driven entirely by the love story, even though there may be a decoration of history draped over its shoulders. The Romance Writers Association’s definition of the genre, which is capital-R Romance, is quite specific: “a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.” As you can see, they are quite rigid in the happily-ever-after aspect expected in each novel, whereas the stories in this book may have sad endings, compromised endings, or joyous ones. In other words, real life. Except also magical and fantastical and science fictional . . . of course.
So, I guess I have to redirect those questions from researchers, interviewers, et al to say that I have written fantastical stories and books that include Romance as well as True Love, with a bit of snogging and touching and kissing and other stuff. And if this makes me a writer of Romance Books, then perhaps we need to redefine the concept, not redefine me.
So—here’s a challenge: using a few common definitions of love and romance culled from the Internet, how do they wrap their loving arms around the stories in this book?
Here is Google’s definition: “A feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.” What about how I love my Prius? My dog? Or my grandkids? My country? No romance here but still love.
This is Wikipedia’s basic definition: “Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a strong attraction towards another person, and the courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings.” The term “person” is so human-centric. What about those selchies and mermaids and . . . ?
The Wikipedia entry also includes this definition from the Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Family Studies: “Romantic love, based on the model of mutual attraction and on a connection between two people that bonds them as a couple, creates the conditions for overturning the model of family and marriage that it engenders.” Why just people? Why just two? And again, we have a human-centric idea (and ideal) of a love relationship. Building a family when one of the partners is a selchie or a mermaid or a redcap means having to redefine—through story—the definition of love (and also the definition of ‘people’? Lots of science fiction romances count the non-human as ‘people’). Of family. Of sex or contentment or passion. Or release.
However, I am a storyteller, not a sex counselor. I am not writing these stories to help anyone, or to lecture on how to create a permanent relationship with a ghoul, or have an extra-marital affair with a ghost. I am simply telling a story. If along the way it entertains, amuses, even arouses, or touches the reader deeply, then my work is well done.
Other books by this author…
The Midnight Circus
Jane Yolen
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