C.L. Wilson on striking a balance between romance and fantasy

Paste BN and New York Times best-selling author C.L. Wilson, whose The Winter King comes out today, shares with HEA readers how she combines fantasy and romance in her books.

C.L.: My two favorite genres to read are romance and fantasy. I'm an unashamed addict for both. Most of all, I love books that give me the best of both worlds, which may explain why those are the types of books I most like to write.

As any cross-genre writer will tell you, writing a story that appeals to disparate audiences can be a bit of a challenge. Romance readers read for emotion, passion, and a happy ending. Fantasy readers read for world-building, magic, dramatic quests, and otherworldly adventures. Writing for both audiences, therefore, comes down to providing the emotional journey romance readers expect, and the magical journey fantasy readers expect.

It's a tall order, and the balance can get pretty tricky (as well as pretty lengthy on the word count), which is why so many authors come down more one side than the other. Either the focus of the book is the fantasy, with a romance subplot, or the book is a totally thrilling, sensual and emotionally satisfying romance with a fantasy subplot.

Two authors who excel, in my opinion, at balancing the interests of both fantasy and romance readers include Thea Harrison (Elder Scrolls series) and Nalini Singh (Psy-Changeling series). They have everything a romance reader could desire, plus truly world-class, in-depth, fantastical world-building and fantasy quests. Note: For the purpose of this discussion, I'm not discriminating between paranormal romance, science-fiction romance and fantasy romance.

For me, striking the balance comes down to creating both a fantasy and a romance plot that cannot be complete without each other. In order for the protagonists to triumph in the fantasy quest, they must complete the romance quest, and vice versa. Once I decide upon those plots — and their interdependencies — the rest of the book unfolds from there.

To create the balance, I try very hard not to skimp on the qualities each distinct readership loves about their favorite genre.

For the fantasy lovers, I try to provide unique and detailed fantasy worlds that will draw them in, spark their imaginations, and make them want to come back for a visit. With the Tairen Soul series, for instance, I employed Tolkien-inspired world-building, complete with creating entire languages, writing poetry, and creating detailed histories of several cultures. In The Winter King, I went to Norse mythology for inspiration in creating my world of warring weathermages, and then let my imagination run amok. I also deliberately set out to make the world of Mystral (setting for The Winter King) very accessible to readers who don't live in the fantasy aisles of their favorite bookstore.

For the romance lovers, I aim for passion, tenderness, devotion, as well as strong, heroic heroes and courageous, determined heroines. And, of course, plenty of smoldering, toe-curling sensuality — and that all-important Happily Ever After. It's very important for me that all my books work as satisfying romance reads, because I am an incurable romance-novel addict myself.

Basically, I guess it comes down to the fact that I create the stories, the worlds, the heroes and heroines that I most enjoy reading about. Because if, when I finish my book, I don't want to re-read it again and again, if I don't dream about the worlds, the characters, the creatures I create, how can I expect anyone else to do so?

And that's the ultimate goal: writing books that lovers of both fantasy and romance will want to put on their keeper shelves and re-read time and again.

Find out more about C.L. and her books at www.clwilson.com.