The HEA is for Happy Ever After

In romance, we don't like it with somebody messes with the HEA.

I debated on the H for a little bit...thought maybe I'd do historical. I even thought about doing hockey.

But then it dawned on me...romance is all about the HEA. In a pin campaign celebrating the romance genre, how can I not include something that talks about the HEA?

Book genres are defined by certain characteristics.

Mysteries will have mystery.

Historicals will be set in the past.

Murder mysteries will involve murder.

And romance will involve a couple (**or throuple/more) falling in love and finding their HEA or HFN (Happy for Now).  Romance lovers want that satisfying conclusion at the end, knowing the people they've come to know will find their person(s) and make it work.  Things don't always work out in life and there aren't always HEAs.

But we can find them in some places - and a romance in one of those.

Every once in a while there's a kerfuffle in the online spaces known as romancelandia where a writer-typically newish to the romance genre-will announce they're putting a 'new' spin on the romance genre.  This 'new spin' is a 'love story' without the HEA.

Romancelandia has spoken out, loudly, against this every time somebody tries to reinvent our quite lovely wheel.

A few years ago, during one of these blow-ups on twitter, one of these writers was insisting nobody could tell her what to write.

That's true. But likewise, she can't insist her 'love story without the HEA' is still a romance and think romance lovers are gonna be cool with it. Which is pretty much what I said. And I added something along the lines of "This is romance. It's HEA or GTFO."

When I was going through my ideas for the various letters, I kept going back to H and realized why.  Because...well, we're talking romance.

It stops with the HEA.

And that's how I wanted to end this first pin campaign...with the HEA.

That being said, I'm going to have all pin designs, A-H, available for backers.  G is mocked up and I'm discussing it with the artist, so you'll see the final in an update before I send out surveys.

The H...or the HEA, is already done.