No Babies Please!
Posted in Jodi on August 15th, 2007 11:59 pm by Jodi Lynn Copeland |
I love babies, adore them, write about them—heck, my upcoming Cerridwen book is based around one more or less. So why am I asking for no babies please? Because so many books—particularly category romances (excluding lines such as Blaze)—end with an epilogue that show the happy couple with either a new baby or a baby on the way. This ending has gotten so cliché, that I don’t even bother to read it most of the time.
I do love babies, and I am so glad the couple ends up with one if that’s what they want, but I just don’t think that every epilogue needs to end the same way. This is one of the reasons I love erotic romance. Very, very seldom do you see an epilogue like this. Instead the ending is original and interesting and holds my attention till the very end.
What are your feelings on this? Do you see a rash of babies in epilogues? Do you like to see them? Or does it feel like the epis should be called copies instead?
~ jodi
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August 16th, 2007 at 7:37 am
I agree and I prefer no babies as well. I especially don’t like the mention of children or babies in my erotic romance. Sounds weird I know I have a daughter whom I love more than anything in this world. But I concider erotic and romance stories to be about something completely OTHER than children. I want it to be an adult book about adults. It’s suppose to be a type of fantasy for me. Having a child a family and the responsibilities that go along with that are my reality, not fantasy. Plus I find the situations in these books usually isn’t conductive to children and babies. Once children are brought into the story a new level of responsibility is brought in as well and it’s something that I can’t ignore. If I feel that you introduce a baby or child into a story and then neglect the responsibilities that go along with that situation it ends up ruining the whole book for me.
August 16th, 2007 at 7:42 am
Well said, Jade! My editor at Aphrodisia actually says outright she will not buy a story that has a child in it. Even if the child is a son or daughter who is not in the picture outside of in discussions. The escape is truly what I am after.
August 16th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
I don’t think a couple needs a child to have a happy ending to the story.
August 19th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Shoot. I wrote an erotic romance with a baby in the epilogue. Two babies, actually.
*ducks*
BUT, in my defense the book was about infertility. So it kind of made sense that the HEA would have babies, you know?
What I REALLY hate is when the baby is like a prop throughout a novel–oh, the baby is napping so we can get busy or oh, the baby is with a sitter.
Do these people ever actually see their own children?! Or have any idea how hard it is to get busy with a new guy with a baby around!!? Sheesh.