Share your cookie romance plots please!

[Laura RyeParticipant]

Hello writers! I am late getting started but not yet giving up. Can you share what romance plotline you’re doing for your cookie?

Off I go to check out more of Tammi’s resources in Training Grounds… (Has anyone found anything specific to romance?)

[MoiraParticipant]

@Laura – I’ve been out sick since last Friday, so I’m starting late, too. My convertible cookie is a 2nd chance epilogue for the couple in book 1 of my series (which I am still writing) with the idea that you can read the HEA in the Epilogue and will want to read about how they first met in Book 1 or the other way around. I’ve started thinking of it as a side quest as the couple will be in the other books so I have to think about what easter eggs I can add and where I need to be more minimal with the engagement of characters/story lines. I am very aware that this is a more challenging cookie than I probably needed to take on for the first time, but I’ve been noodling it for ages and it seems really fun. Plus, I have the chance to tweak the other books to bring things together nicely if I need.

I haven’t looked at the Training Grounds, but will do so soon.

I keep thinking back to Tammi’s statement “knowing they are going to end up together isn’t a spoiler” and that makes me more confident that I can pull this off. And, if you are looking for ideas and want to meet up by zoom sometime, I love brainstorming!

[Isla ElrickParticipant]

Oh, boy. Mine is kind of weird. Fantasy romance, for the record, here.

Mine is based on the ballad “The Twa Sisters,” where one of the aforementioned sisters is murdered and ends up getting made into a … haunted harp …? And the hero takes her (the harp) to find justice, and they fall in love a bit along the way.

So, fantasy supernatural, uh, ghost romance. Yeah, it’s a lot.

My only other idea was “Sexy Rumpelstiltskin” so…

[MoiraParticipant]

“Sexy Rumpelstiltskin” *giggles*

[Linda CardilloParticipant]

Mine is historical romance, and it took me a few research dives into Irish history in the early 20th century before my plot started to reveal itself. My cookie is a prequel to my family saga series, First Light, which starts at the beginning of World War II and follows two families who consecutively own a piece of land on Chappaquiddick Island, part of Martha’s Vineyard. The parents of the female protagonist in the first book are Irish immigrants, which is why I went back to Ireland for the prequel. Catriona Scannell has the “voice of an angel,” which results in her being offered a scholarship to a convent school in Dublin in 1904 and the expectation that she will take vows as a nun when her education is finished. At the school, she is mentored by a vibrant young nun whose brother is involved in the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an underground organization that ultimately is behind the 1916 Easter Rising. Catriona gets pulled into the cause for independence, falls in love with Liam Keaney, renounces her intention to become a nun, and flees with Liam to America when he is wanted for his revolutionary activity.

I tend to go down rabbit holes when I first start writing, but I find such nuggets that I can’t resist. Who knew how active nuns were during the fight for Irish independence? Not only were they educators of future revolutionaries, but they acted as spies, couriers (it’s amazing what you can conceal under a nun’s habit), and providers of havens for escaped guerillas and their ammunition.

[Trisha MessmerParticipant]

Wow, that’s going to be hard to write something short. Kudos to you for tackling that!

[Kristy MalloryParticipant]

Hi, Laura,

My convertible cookie is a prequel to my existing contemporary romance/romantic suspense series. All my books are set in a fictional casino, and I’m using a minor character from later in the series as my hero. Security manager must work with police officer to catch serial predator who has been drugging and assaulting women at Harbourview casino.

To make it fit into 15k words, I’m reducing what could be a complex story down to some external conflict, but not a lot of angst.

How’s your cookie coming?

[Trisha MessmerParticipant]

Mine is a Regency romance featuring the parents of one of the heroines of my series. It is an arranged marriage trope, but with a bit of a twist. When her father informs her that he’s arranged a marriage to the heir to a baron from Somerset, the heroine runs off in the middle of the night to escape her fate.
The hero receives a letter from his father, who is gravely ill, notifying him he’s arranged a marriage with the daughter of a wealthy barrister in Dorset. Reluctantly, the hero feels he has no choice but to fulfill his dying father’s wish.
The two meet on the road when her horse throws a shoe. She does not give her last name (which is all he knows) and she only knows the baron’s title, not his surname. Being the gentleman he is, he offers to escort her to the nearest posting inn to either secure a new horse or find passage on a carriage to continue her journey. They are waylaid overnight at the inn, and he stays with her to protect her from some nefarious fellows.
When she relays her predicament, he realizes she might possibly be his intended bride.
My novels do have one descriptive love scene, so I’m trying to decide where to work one in the novella. One night stands weren’t common during Regency, especially for a gently-bred lady and gentleman, so I’m struggling with the idea that they would get together at the inn (although I did work it so they only had one room left for them–so forced proximity).
She does return home (after he convinces her it’s best to face her problems rather than running away from them) and of course discovers that he is her intended. So I may write a wedding night love scene instead.
Thoughts?

[Evi AeschlimannParticipant]

I stumbled over this topic just today, oopsie. 😅

My cookie is kind of a mix of prequel and side story to my contemporary romance series set in Inverness, Scotland. The trope is friends to lovers.

The summary:
During a wine degustation, Eleanor meets Darren, her best friend from college whom she was in love with, but never confessed. He asks her to meet and chat. First, she is hesitant because she fears that her feelings might come back. She meets him anyway. As fate would have it, after meeting him several times, she realizes that her feelings for him are still there.

A few days later, he confesses to her that he has evolved romantic feelings for her. As for reasons we don’t know yet, she rejects him and flees home.

The next day she calls in sick at work. A worried Hailey (coworker and female MC in the first book of the series) shows up at her house. Eleanor reveals that she once was married and lost her husband due to a terminal illness. To her, falling in love with another man feels like a betrayal to her deceased husband. Hailey tries to convince her that falling in love with someone new is okay. After all, it doesn’t mean that she won’t love her deceased husband anymore.

After thinking about it, Eleanor realizes that Hailey might be right. She meets Darren and tells him everything he needs to know. They end up dating and getting their happily ever after.

[Cassandra MedcalfParticipant]

Mine is a loss of virginity/Christian recovery/contemp romance. Here’s the blurb:

<b>She’s found her “Happily Ever After” – but will she get a happy ending?</b>

 

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Melanie Cobb has met her Prince Charming. Christopher is everything she’d ever dreamed she’d find in a husband: kind, loyal, devout, and wealthy. I mean, have you SEEN her ring?? </span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”> </span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>But as the wedding night approaches, anxiety builds for Melanie around the wedding night. She knows that Christopher is the love of her life, but they’ve never taken their passion beyond a few chaste kisses. When she asks her bridesmaids for advice, they come up dry: these girls have spent their summers at church camp and youth group, not gossiping over teen magazines and Cosmo quizzes. And when it comes to learning about sex, they’re all looking to Melanie, the first of their BFF trio to get married, to give them the scoop. </span>

 

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>So who else can Melanie turn to but her older brother Shawn to help her navigate the maze of a man’s more worldly persuasions? Will his hesitant advice be enough to help her properly consummate her engagement? Or are she and Christopher doomed to awkward and mediocre sex ’til death do they part? </span>

 

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Little does she know, she isn’t the only one who’s been doing some research… </span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”> </span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>This story is a bonus novella for the Fixer Upper Romance Series, and occurs in the same universe as Betting on the House and Hot Rod Hookups.</span>

 

[Linda CardilloParticipant]

Here’s my final blurb–turned the plot I described above into a novella when it became clear I needed more words.

A young woman promised to the convent.
A young man committed to Irish independence.
A relationship forged in the heat of the emerging uprising.

 Catríona Scannell’s magnificent singing—“the voice of an angel”—is her ticket out of her isolated village on Ireland’s North Atlantic coast and the force that sets her life on an unexpected journey.

Arriving in Dublin in 1904 on a scholarship to a Catholic girls’ school, she turns her awakening to her Irish identity first to composing music and then to supporting Ireland’s struggle for freedom from British rule.

Under the mentorship of a nun deeply involved in the cause of Irish independence, Catríona embarks on a role as a courier in the underground. But her dreams for her life are shattered when her mother makes a dying wish that Catríona profess her vows as a nun.

Taking risks that place her at odds with the established Church and her path to the convent, Catríona forms a bond with Liam Keaney, a young revolutionary whose involvement in a violent action has made him a fugitive.

Can Catríona reconcile her promise to her mother with her fervent belief in Ireland’s freedom and her deepening relationship with Liam? Will she commit herself to God or to Ireland?

Sign up for the My Writing Life newsletter today to receive a free copy of Catríona’s Vow, the prequel to my First Light series. Immerse yourself in the struggle for freedom—for a country and for a woman who wants to define her own life.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by Linda Cardillo.

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