Sometimes You Just Have to Break the Rules

How I Started a Substack to Promote a New Genre

When you decide you’re going to write a book, one thing you don’t expect is the morass of picking a genre and meeting the “expectations” for that genre. When I began Vindico, the only thing I knew for certain was I wanted to write something similar to The Count of Monte Cristo.

I did not know what that would entail. As I lumbered along, I also realized that Alexandre Dumas doesn’t comfortably fit into any one genre in the modern-day market. He fits into several: thriller, historical, action/adventure, romance, etc. How exactly do you decide on a genre when the books you want to emulate don’t fit into a genre?

My solution was to create my own.

Introducing High Romance

The history and reasoning behind High Romance was simple, but will be fleshed out in greater detail on the Substack. Mostly, it was a way for me to break “the rules” of modern expectations by setting my own becuase none of the genres I explored had what I actually wanted to creaete.

What I really wanted was to recreate the romantic novel of the early to mid-nineteenth century but without the “Byronnic” hero, the verbosity, and the lack of agency for women. I’m all for a little idealization—what woman isn’t—but I wanted my women to have more agency. Instead of languishing and waiting for the knight to return, running from him when things get tough, or just behaving in unrational ways, she rides out with him and woe betide anyone who tries to stab him in the back.

Think Krimhilde from The Nibelungenlied. My women don’t flinch, don’t hesitate, don’t stop, and don’t listen to a bunch of wimps demanding she fall in line when she’s the one wronged.

Unlike the hapless Krimhilde, however, she doesn’t trust anyone except herself with her man’s safety. And she waits for no man to avenge her wrongs. More on that in Tutare, the second book in my High Romance Trilogy.

There’s more that went in to creating High Romance, but hopefully that will give you a small taste of what I mean. This isn’t the prim and proper romantic novel of the eighteenth century where social conventions dictate happiness. Nor is it a novel where victims remain victims despite their best efforts. This isn’t Tolstoy or Flaubert.

Why the Substack?

How do you promote a new genre without detracting from book edits or losing income from my work as a Virtual Assistant?

The answer was to start a Substack. Not only will this (hopefully) generate some extra income (I am a freelancer, after all) but it will help segment my content more effectively. The Eftsoons Writer is more about classic literature after all, and there’s also content for the craft of writing.

The Substack, however, is going to be only for High Romance. I will push some of the newsletters there to the blog here, where I think it will be relevant, but it will still be behind a paywall to help protect not only the ideas, but, again, ensure I have income from my work.

The long, long edit…

Vindico, in its final rough draft, was completed on December 31, 2023. It was a fitting way to close the old year and open the new. Except I became ill on January 2 and was out for a month. Then, I had to catch up on my work as a Virtual Assistant. Which means little to no edits have bene made. At all.

While I finished the rough draft, I had to make the rather painful decision to stop writing blog posts–for my own sanity if nothing else. I was burning the candle from both ends and heading toward burnout. So, I focused on Vindico and getting the job done.

But, things are now looking up.

Thanks to ProWritingAid’s Romance Writer’s Week in February, I have a solid editing plan before me, thanks to Fictionary. This means the second draft is in process, but it’s going to be a fairly long process. I didn’t come to High Romance as an idea until after the rough draft was complete and I’m finding more things I want to change. The basic story is the same, but I’m now cementing the details.

The months ahead….

I’m still up to my eyeballs, it feels like, so posts will still be intermittent. It’s the price of having to spread myself over several projects and clients.

But, art is worth it. Great art specially is worth it.

So, hang in there and please consider subscribing to the Substack, donating to the blog, or shopping at the Eftsoons Writer shop when it re-opens mid-April.

Thanks for reading and see you again soon!