Women’s Fiction

I was asked about writing women’s fiction. Here’s my response:

My chosen genre is women’s fiction. But what exactly is it? Some readers turn up their noses at the mention of this genre because they think it is about bland, weak, or overly emotional woman who can’t cope with life and should be censured for their transgressions. Or, alternatively, to be read as a guide to how women should be, however unrealistic and misogynistic.

But I see it as a genre that allows for an expansive exploration of a female protagonist’s life without the restrictions that come with romance or mystery. Those genres offer great reads that I enjoy often, but when writing I prefer to take a close look at real life problems. Our lives are often messy with each of us on an emotional journey knotted with tangled relationships as we struggle to find a path leading forward to our goals. Some of us succeed, some don’t.

I didn’t want to write about a passive woman; I wanted to write about a woman who learns to take her own life in her hands. And I wanted to set it partly in Rome, often described as city of echoes, of illusions, and of yearning, where a naïve young woman could win or lose in the game of life.

My protagonist in The Measure of Life, Nicole, must deal with a mistake – that of marrying too soon. She thought she was escaping her unsatisfying life at home with her parents, but the marriage soon descends into one of frustration for reasons she doesn’t understand. When her husband is offered a job in Rome, Italy she sees it as a chance for a reset. It is a reset indeed, but one where instead of improving her marriage, whirls her into a doomed romance with her Italian tutor, an unplanned baby, and the reality she must make a choice to make the best of her life in Rome or slink back home to Seattle in defeat. She accepts the challenge however daunting it is.

This scenario gave me the opportunity to explore the themes of overcoming disappointment, the reality of expat living with all its pleasures and difficulties, the problems and joys of parenting, and courage to take a chance to reach a goal despite setbacks and unexpected turns of fate. And of course, fill the story with Italian food!