The Globe and Mail discusses ways in which romance novel publishers are constantly reinventing themselves.
From the piece...
In an unlikely combination merging mixed-martial arts (MMA) and romance, Her Son’s Hero tells the story of Dominic Payette, an MMA fighter who falls in love with single mother Fiona MacAvery. But Fiona has an aversion to violence that stems from her desire to protect her son, a victim of schoolyard bullying, and she initially resists Dominic’s advances.
Written by Toronto writer Vicki So under the pseudonym Vicki Essex (“You can’t spell my name without sex,” she says), Her Son’s Hero is a classic tale of opposites attracting – but wrapped in an unorthodox package.
As the world’s largest publisher of romance fiction, Harlequin releases 110 titles a month in 111 countries around the world, and the company is constantly looking for a fresh take on the boy-meets-girl love story.
“We really do take the cue from the authors. If they can deliver a story that is authentic and emotional and grips the reader – whether it involves an alien or someone who has been very wounded in terms of having gone to war and lost a leg because of an amputation because of an injury – it’s just such a huge range of things,” says Dianne Moggy, vice-president of Harlequin’s series and subsidiary rights. “There’s nothing that’s really taboo in terms of what type of hero you can have – or heroine – or what are the conflicts and the things that they’re dealing with.”
