D. C. JURIS: The Romance Behind Omarati

Hi everyone! I'm DC Juris, and I'll be your guest blogger for today! For those who know me ::waves:: hi!! For those who don't, I'm an out and proud bisexual transgender man who writes GLBT (mostly m/m or ftm/m) romances. Which is way less exciting than it sounds—except for the writing part!

I wanted to talk today about why I chose to give my characters, Calliph and Mateo, a happily ever after. First, I should say that I'm not your typical writer. I don't get inspiration from people, places, and things. I don't see a tree, or a bird, or hear a song, and think "wow, that would make a great book!" The stories I write come to me directly from my characters. They walk up and introduce themselves in my head, and start talking.

So for me, it's not a choice to give my guys a happily ever after—it's just the way their story turned out. It's what happened to them; their history. I couldn't change it if I wanted to.

On the flip side of that, even if I felt I had any control over the story, I'd still give them a happy ending. Why? Because books, specifically romances, are—at least to me—meant to be escapes. They're meant to draw you into wondrous worlds, where impossibly perfect (or flawed but still pretty awesome) people live impossibly perfect lives, where everything works out in the end. There's enough drama in my real life, I don't want to read it in my books.

Additionally, I tend to attract characters who have gone through some pretty horrific things, and frankly, I think they deserve a happy ending, so I'm always thrilled when they tell me they're going to get one.

:) Like I said, I'm not your typical writer.