Ideas for Free

I'm better today. I had a nice relaxing weekend, did some reading, wrote some notes, spent quality time with the man, did some in-depth moisturizing of various body parts, and watched Derailed on video (not very good, but worth it for the single glimpse of of Clive Owen's underwear).

The latest issue of Glamor has an article by a woman seven months pregnant who is on the dating scene. She's in her mid-thirties, her biological clock went off, so she got artificial insemination, but she's still looking for Mr. Right, so she's dating. There were various stories about how men react to her pregnant belly.

That's an idea that's just begging for an author to take it and run, don't you think? Harlequin Next would snap that up in a minute. I can't write it myself, because I've never been pregnant, a fact which any woman would figure out by page 2. So I'm offering it here, a free idea.

Also, I think someone should write a contemporary where the people don't have those glamorous magazine or PR jobs, but have the crappy, bottom-of-the-barrel office jobs, in the cubicle farms or the unlit depths of the shipping/receiving department. It could be sort of an Ally McBeal thing, where they fantasize all the time. That would be cool.

If I ran Harlequin, I would create these lines:

1. Gothic. Apparently, there's a Gothic revival or something, but I ain't seeing it. Bring it on.

2. World War. Why the hell is everyone so petrified to publish stories set in the World Wars? It's not like we're gonna write about the Holocaust or the Bataan Death March or anything. War stories have intensity, suspense, danger, drama, and you can have love conquer all in the end. Am I the only one who would eat this up?

3. International. Please, for the love of God. Give me Japan, India, Thailand, 1930s Panama, the Caribbean, anything. You could make a whole line of exotic locations, and the Regency addicts could stay the hell away.

4. Sci Fi. Has anyone ever written a really good sci fi romance? It could be done without the cheeze of, say, Riker and whatsherface. They never quite knew what to do with Picard, and the result was Picard never got laid. That poor guy. Also, think Scully and Mulder of the X-Files. It could be done, you know.

The genre is too limited. I know there are better ideas out there, but no one would publish them. That's too bad. We could be writing some killer books if they'd let us.

Abby