Nicole Laurent

           When I started my novel, the foremost thing in my mind was romance.  I am a romance junky, and over the years I had definite preferences in what I liked to read. Like most readers, I have gone through phases.  For a long time I preferred historical romances.  Don’t we all fantasize about being the sassy heroine who reforms the dashing rake?  After I overdosed on historical romance, I moved on to contemporary.  Then I discovered paranormal romance.  What can I say?  Vampires and werewolves can be sexy! This segued into reading romantic suspense. 

 

            I then felt I needed a break from pure romance.  My husband brought home a box of books from a co-worker who somehow found out about my addiction. (Traitor!) In that box, I discovered the world of mystery and crime.  In about a month, I read all seven of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series (This was a while ago, as she’s currently in editing on 15), over ten of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone series, and a handful of books by John Sanford.  But I overdosed again.

 

            I started searching out women’s fiction. Some authors I enjoy are Jodi Picoult, Anita Shreve, Luanne Rice, Barbara Delinski and Kristin Hannah. While there may be elements of romance in women’s fiction, it is usually not the primary focus. If there are love scenes, often they are vague or implied. What really differentiates women’s fiction from romance is that women’s fiction tends to address more serious issues, hot button topics, and often revolves around friendships, family and moral decisions.  These books really make you think.

 

            When I started writing What’s Left Unsaid, I knew the story I wanted to tell.  The central focus would be a woman finding love the second time around.  But she is a divorcé, a mother and friend as well.  It speaks of the realities of finding love where you least expect it and when you think your life has no room for it.  The story also speaks of a woman who is the mother of a young child and knows all too well that her child must come first, above all else.

 

            The central focus of What’s Left Unsaid is romance.  Like many romances, it has the build up of tension which eventually leads to the couple making love.  And it’s not in the very least vague. But right underneath that are the issues of being a single mother, dealing with an ex-husband and trying to find the woman within who she had never really discovered to begin with.

 

             I have done research on literary agents, as they are the ones who will see your book inquiry first.  Some agents do not accept romance submissions and others do not accept women’s fiction. But what if your book is a little bit of both?

           

            Of course, I panicked. I have to know who will accept my submission, and when I submit, I have to tell them my genre. So I did what any crazed, unpublished author would do, and sent an emergency email mid-meltdown to my friend and editor, ‘L’.  It went something like this:

 

            Nicole: “OMG! What’s my genre?! I have romance.  I have women’s issues!  I  have sex!!!”

 

            L: “Women’s fiction/love, second time around.”

 

            Nicole: “Oh.”

 

            Crisis averted, I have a genre.

 

            ~Nicole