By the time this blog entry posts, I’ll be recuperating from sinus surgery (not serious but it is a 6 week recuperation period that takes me away from the computer due to dizziness and headaches and other not-so-fun stuff). I’m writing this blog now, before sugery D-Day, thinking I might be down and out for a little bit. So, when you read this, imagine me knocked out from pain pills. 
The idea of being in the hospital got me thinking about what we authors do to our heroes and heroines. They get bitten (hopefully that’s just in paranormals), stabbed, shot, chased, attacked and are subjected to a whole host of other awful things. Yet in the span of 300 pages, we have them bounce back, fight the bad guys, accomplish their assigned tasks and fall in love. That’s kind of asking a lot, if you think about it. These poor folks never get a day or two of rest. Half the time, they don’t get a morphine drip or even an aspirin.
Of course, I’m not convinced readers want that much reality. After all, how interesting is it to read about a hero sprawled in a hospital bed, mumbling while under the influence of anesthesia? Doesn’t sound all that sexy to me. Kind of tough to track the villian while in a cast, right? And a coma kind of cuts down on the chance of that HEA.
So, bottom line? Maybe too much reality is a bad thing in romance. Do you agree?
Award-winning author HelenKay Dimon spent the last twelve years in the most unromantic career ever – divorce lawyer. After dedicating all that time and effort to helping people terminate relationships, she is thrilled to write romance novels full time. Her debut novella appeared in the April 2006 Brava anthology release, WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD BOYS with Lori Foster and Erin McCarthy. Since then her books have been featured at E! Online and in the Chicago Tribune. Cosmopolitan Magazine picked her first single title, YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY, as a “Red-Hot Read” and excerpted it in the August 2007 issue. Her novella in the KISSING SANTA CLAUS anthology was named a “Red-Hot Read” and excerpted in the December 2009 issue of Cosmopolitan. 
Best wishes to you as you recuperate.
I agree that I don’t want real life to intrude on the romances I read, but on the other hand I don’t want them to be too unbelievable. No morning breath I can overlook, but having a bomb go off next to you and then walking away without getting hurt is too far fetched for me.
Yep, hope you come back to your blog soon!
As for reality in fiction — for the most part, I’ll take fantasy over reality. Sure, the hero/ine waking up in the morning and not working about doing practically anything required in the bathroom, go for it. Or that they go at it multiple times or any of the other things we really wish we could do for real. LOL When it comes to getting shot at or blown up, well, I guess I don’t think about it too much because even not being a huge movie goer, I’m definitely used to plenty of movies with such things that people walk away from. I guess if I was reading a full blown mystery/suspense book, then maybe there I would expect more trips to the hospital. But a book that has the word Romance in its description, I read it firstly for that, so if someone is walking away from something they shouldn’t, I don’t mind much.
Lois
I hope you are feeling better soon.
I agree don’t want to much reality creeping in.
Like on the show 24 does Jack Bauer ever eat, go to the bathroom etc. LOL
Thanks everyone!! I’m feeling much better. I should be up and back to fighting form by the end of this week.