Paranormal and The Pandemic

 Paranormal and the Pandemic

a guest post by Beth Linton author of The Guardian's Trust series

As I blearily climbed out of bed this morning, pulled on my too large Harry Potter dressing gown and shuffled off in my Uggs to click the heating on, my half-awake brain was met with a strange sense of unreality. At 6.00 am it was dark outside and rain lashed against the double glazing. Autumn has firmly gripped Wales – and so has another lockdown.

The boiler fired and I headed for the kettle, determined to grab what has become my favourite time of the day: an hour of essential coffee drinking with my laptop before I begin another day of the ‘new normal’. That morning my plan was to re-read a scene from book seven of the paranormal romance series I’m writing and escape reality by editing the rather dark discovery the hero makes after infiltrating my villain’s dystopian, misogynistic world.

And the oddness of the fact that I planned to exchange one real-life dystopian world for another gave me pause.

As I grabbed the Nescafe, I wasn’t enacting the tale of a Handmaid, nor was a surveillance camera watching me in 1984. I was in my kitchen, in 2020, during a global pandemic.

So why, given these awful world events, has my habit become to get up early to claim some time with my novel when I could still be snuggled warmly in bed? I’ve always loved to read and write, but my need for these things has increased tenfold since life as we know it came grinding to a halt in March.

Yesterday, I saw a post on Twitter about a t-shirt by Ripped Bodice that reads, ‘stay home, read a romance’. The slogan is accompanied by an embracing mask-wearing couple. I loved it. I tried to order it... and was left devastated because it had sold out. The slogan and image on this t-shirt clearly spoke to millions of readers and, if you think about it, the reason why is obvious: lonely at home, and facing difficult health and fiscal times, people want to escape into a book.

During the summer months of the pandemic, statistics tell us that readers have devoured dystopian and steamy romance novels. Pre-pandemic, romance sales slumped. In January 2020, sales were down 11 percent from the same time the previous year. By May 2020, as the pandemic took hold, this gap had closed.

I enjoy apocalyptic Sci-Fi and I’ve read many an anti-utopian novel, but while a steamy romance certainly offers comfort, I think I need something in between: Romance with a bite.

Within a paranormal romance I have discovered that I can find the escapism my brain seems to crave during this time of uncertainty. The genre’s darker themes offer a sense of catharsis, but the stories lack the depressive tone of paranormal’s dystopian cousin.

Covid-19 has transformed our regular lives into a scene from a dystopian novel, so, while I could download a copy of Camus’ The Plague or Dean Koontz’s The Eyes of Darkness for my morning me time, I think I’ll stick with paranormal romance and the more optimistic future to be found amidst its pages.

To learn more about Beth Linton and The Guardians’ Trust series visit Beth’s website www.bethlinton.co.uk .

You can also follow bethlintonauthor, on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Review - Ana: The Guardian's Trust by Beth Linton

 

Ana: The Guardian's Trust

Some women are born identical as Doubles—one in the human world, one in the jungle of the Other Realm. Their fate is to change places, to embrace their future with the men born for them.

Dr. Ana Jones learns her destiny is to leave the human world and cross into an Amazonian realm, a fate that is akin to stepping back in time. There, she will join the Resistance, those who are fighting for survival. As a Double, she must pass through the gateway and marry a stranger.

He’s a warrior, and leading the Resistance is Brenin’s life, but Ana is his future. Brenin embraces his pending marriage and the shapeshifting gift their mating may bring, but will her love be enough to help both man and panther survive the war?

My Review

Dr. Ana Jones is a vet that dreams of big cats. Her hope is to one day live among the big cats in the wild to observe and study  them. Then one day she is approached by two strange men that claim her destiny is to travel to a distant world and trade places with her double from that world. Can she do it? Can she go where she will be without anyone she knows and promised to marry a man she has never met?

As Ana plunges headfirst into another realm, the reader is plunged headfirst into her adventure. She finds herself in a world that is beautiful and foreign, but not without its appeal. There is no technology and she is able to be at peace with the people and nature surrounding her. As she finds her place in the new world, she meets many new people and is welcomed warmly. Yet despite the peace of the jungle, there is also a war brewing among the ancient families. Her new husband Brenin is the leader of their clan and he and his family have to defend their home. I really enjoyed Ana’s story. She is a courageous character, and she brings her warmth and kindness through to the reader.

I loved this story and am eager to find out what happens in Ana’s story next! 

 4 stars for Ana!

Go read Ana! I hope you like it as much as I did!

2020, not 1820… 21st Century Desires & Paranormal Romance

 

2020, not 1820… 21^st Century Desires & Paranormal Romance

Guest Post By Beth Linton, Author of The Guardians’ Trust Series.

Today we have a post provided by New author Beth Linton. Her take on the 21st century heroine is one that I completely love and agree with. I am reading an enjoying her debut novel Ana. Ana is this strong heroine she craves. Because shouldn't we write the books we want to read? 

I stumbled upon paranormal novels quite by chance. I was twenty-two, new to the city of Chester, UK, after gaining my first job post-university and I was working my way through the new, exciting shelves of the city’s library.

Between Nora Roberts and LaVyrle Spencer, I came across a thin, unassuming book that unexpectedly blew my mind. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the title or the author of this book but what has stuck with me is the unexpected journey the paranormal romance took me on. In the story a woman, brought low by life and circumstance, travelled to a remote English estate to marry a handsome, wealthy recluse – initially, the novel was not so different from a hundred romances I’d read before but then I learnt why the hero had withdrawn from society. I still remember my surprise when I learnt he was both blessed and cursed by his ability to transform into a wolf at each full moon. I was excited by the supernatural elements of the story, intrigued by the hero as he prowled the cliffs around his home and I fell in love with the added heat and passion the genre twist added to what would have otherwise been an enjoyable but normal romance.

I still love Roberts and Spencer but the chance discovery of paranormal books changed my experience of reading… forever.

But, here’s the thing… as a 21^st century woman, how do I balance my love of paranormal romance novels – and yes, sexy alpha romance – with who and what I am? I’m a mother and a wife, but I’m also a woman in my own right: I’m a professional, a published author, I’m educated and (I’d like to think) strong.

I loved that book, but as a reader in 2020 what I want from a romance novel is more than a hot lead character and a night (or ten!) of sizzling passion. Of course, a good story means a villain, a twist and a conflict that keeps me turning the pages, but I want heroines that are bold and strong and take the lead, rather than always being led. I also want heroes who are actually heroes – not men who are called that because they stumbled into the lead role. And, they should value the heroine's strength, not seek to undermine it or feel threatened by it. No passive aggressive macho behaviour please!

The heroines I was fed as a little girl were passive. In fairy tales and (some) romance novels, alike, the heroines waited pliantly and suffered at the hands of the ‘heroes’ before they found happiness. All hoped for a man to ride in on his white horse or motorcycle (depending on the century of the story) and change their lives for them. More alarmingly, the women of these stories were portrayed as seemingly enjoying the abusive behaviour of their would-be-husbands, controlling boyfriends, or kings.

The bad relationship was presented in these stories as… well, ‘good’, because it was a RELATIONSHIP and little girls who are brought up to play weddings with pillowcases on their heads and practise being mummy with their baby doll are also brought up to expect a man to save them, to provide for them.

While I might have been sold this narrative, I didn’t buy into it – and they’re certainly not the kind of characters I want to write.

I may love to read paranormal romance novels but that doesn’t mean I switch off my twenty-first century self and suddenly embrace those concerning tropes I just mentioned.

I don’t want to get home from a chaotic but satisfying day at work to read about a damsel in distress that needs saving, nor do I want to nail that presentation only to pick up a book about another woman made rich by marrying a wealthy man with questionable morals (although, let’s face it, having money in a romantic novel – whether the cash belongs to the male or the female leads – takes out some of the daily grind I read to escape!).

I don’t long for a re-telling of Rumpelstiltskin, or Rapunzel, or Cinderella when I search for a new e-book. I’m with Dr Ana Jones in The Guardians’ Trust: Ana (book one) when she thinks about these fairy tales. No way should a heroine marry a ruthless maniac just because he’s king!

I want to read about strong women. Professional, educated, confident women. Women who have passion for their career, who take care of themselves and then, yes, comfortable in their own skin, standing on their own two feet, they take the passion and love on offer because it suits them – not because they need to.

Every day, I’m surrounded by strong women: doctors who are mothers, business leaders who are compassionate, professionals who are unapologetic in their femininity. These women don’t try and change who they are to fit into another stereotype. They are smart and successful and – yes – feminine.

In my first paranormal romance series I have done my best to create women I’d like to be friends with. They are intelligent, fun and strong: doctor, vet, survivor or soldier (for Greenpeace and the British army!). They all have passion and guts. They are all strong. They are all ‘real’ women.

I care about them all… I hope you will too.

To learn more about The Guardians’ Trust series visit www.bethlinton.co.uk

To follow bethlintonauthor find her on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter.

Beth is also on Goodreads and you can buy her books from Amazon, iBooks, Smashwords, Kobo, Barns & Noble and Evernight Publishing.