Happily Ever After

A while back, I was chatting with my sister. She is an avid reader and though her tastes tend to run more to sci-fi and fantasy, she does enjoy the occassional romance. So we got to talking about romance novels in general and my writing in particular. The phrase "It ain't Shakespeare" was used at least once. (No one like your big sister to keep your feet solidly on the ground, eh?) Anyway, she made a comment that, at first, seemed pretty ridiculous, but after some discussion I realized was kind of inspired.

Romance novels are like Pixar movies.

(**Note: The discussion of Pixar excludes Wall-e. I am violently opposed to the movie Wall-e. I did not like it and if you ask me to I will explain, in great detail, all of the things that made me Angry about it. First among them the fact that it is blantant propaganda aimed at children.**)

Ahem. Back to the topic at hand. Romance=Pixar. At first it seems a ludicrous assertion. Hello, completely different audiences. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. And the more I realized my new release, The Ghost Exterminator: A Love Story, was the most Pixar-ish of all.

Seemingly different characters are thrown together exposing their unfounded prejudices a la Cars, Toy Story, and Monsters, Inc. My heroine Jo is struggling to be herself in a world intolerant of the different and unique... just like The Incredibles and Ratatouille! And through the course of the book, they learn something and come into their own and then we all live happily ever after.

With lots of sex.

Okay, so the analogy isn't perfect, but there's one phrase that sold me on the similarities. Happily Ever After.

I love those words. I think those words are the reason I read romance novel after romance novel. And the reason I actually enjoyed watching Toy Story 2 every day for a month solid. My nephew went through a phase where that was his absolute favorite movie (no scary parts!) and I was the only family member who would watch it with him every afternoon during "quiet time" while his brother took a nap. (I'm also the auntie, not the mommy, so I feel no guilt about rotting his brain with television.) I now have that movie memorized, but if the kid wanted to watch it tomorrow, I would totally be game. (He's since moved on to Star Wars... which is kinda funny since there is a "Buzz, I am your faaaaather" moment in TS2.) Aaanyway. Pixar. A nice message, some laughs, and a happy ending. What more can you ask for?

And yesterday, my most Pixar-ish book to date found its way onto the virtual shelves. That's happy ending enough for me.

What's your favorite happily ever after? In a movie or otherwise...