By Pru Warren
My lovely editor (Matrice Hussey; if you’re an indie author, take note. She is, in the vernacular, the bomb. Or, even more vernacular, she is da bomb.) (Where was I?)
Right.
My lovely editor Matrice said to me “You’ve had a lot of people either be very wealthy or get very wealthy in your books of late. Is that deliberate, Pru Warren author of delightful rom-coms?”
(That’s how she talks. It’s not at all about trying to stuff this with keywords that might attract attention, nope, not at all. Nu-uh.)
Is the presence of money deliberate? Yes, it sure is!
Authors like to pretend we can read the room; anticipate the kinds of books that potential readers will want to fall into. (This is foolishness on our part; no one can predict what a reader will or won’t cotton to. Still resisting their programming, bless their little reader hearts.)
And I was thinking—man, the world is in political and medical upheaval, and there are lots of people who are eyeing their bank balances with concern. These are hardly the “boom days” unless you own a pandemic-friendly service (like all those boxes and trucks with smiles on them in every neighborhood like the grinning overlord before the ax falls). (Too apocalyptic? From the one organization that really does seem to know what readers will want to read next?!)
So what would people like in their escapist fiction? How about the presence or at least the promise of money along with the security and toe-wriggling delight of love? Sure—why did Busby Berkley musicals become such a hit during the Great Depression? Because people long for what they don’t have.
So, yeah. Money. Let’s have normal people find love and financial security! When you slip into that bath at the end of a long day, you don’t want lukewarm water; you want the hot water that will bake into your bones and make you purr. Love and money—what’s not to like?!
So yes, Matrice—it is deliberate! Let’s slip into something tasty!
Pru Warren is the author of the new book Ellyn & the Would-Be Gigolo (The Ampersand Series Book 3) Connect with Pru Warren
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