Before I started writing for Harlequin Intrigue, I would be at conferences or sit in workshops and hear people ask about what made an Intrigue an Intrigue.  Usually the question was phrased like this:  “What’s the ratio of romance to suspense in an Intrigue?”  People were trying to figure out the difference between writing for Harlequin Intrigue and the former Silhouette Intimate Moments line now Silhouette Romantic Suspense (and soon to be called Harlequin Romantic Suspense).  Folks would throw out percentages and try to parse it all out.  From reading the lines, and before I started writing for Intrigue, I believed it broke down such that the romance was central to the Silhouette Romantic Suspense and both the romance and the suspense shared equal status in an Intrigue.

I still think that distinction is the right one.  But I learned one other thing while writing for Intrigue.  There’s one thing that sets Intrigue apart from some other lines.  Can you guess what it is?  Yeah, pacing.  Intrigues run like they are on fire…and sometimes things are!  I often describe Intrigues as having something explode in the first scene and in every scene after.  Since the action moves so quickly, the stakes seem so much higher.  This makes the first scene even more crucial.  There’s probably not a lot of time for chit chat or hanging around.  It’s a matter of starting right where everything is blowing up – literally or figuratively.

I’ve started with a chase through an office building followed by the hero being shot (Under the Gun), a building explosion (Night Moves) , a race through the woods that ends with the heroine driving her car through the hero’s front door (Guns and the Girl Next Door, Jan. 2011) and the heroine breaking into the hero’s apartment right before commandos storm the place (Gunning for Trouble, Feb, 2011).  And those are just the first scenes.  The action builds from there.

I’m thinking this is what I love about romantic suspense in general – category or single title – the  adrenaline rush of it.  There’s the promise of romance mixed with the belief the bad guys will get caught, and that’s all delivered at a breathtaking pace.  It’s such a different life from the one I actually live.  As you can imagine, I’m hoping never to be chased by a serial killer.  I also can’t run for 14 feet without passing out, so I depend on the romantic suspense hero and heroines to do all the racing, shooting, jumping, and hiding.

I just get to sit in my house with my laptop and torture them.  It’s a good deal.