Ode To The BIG MISUNDERSTANDING

Oh, I’m aware how some readers HATE the big misunderstanding.(SHRUGGING) I don’t know about you but throughout my life goofy things have happened or I thought one thing was the cause but actually it was another.

Many wrong interpretations of words and actions impact life.

Granted the “too stupid to live ones” annoy EVERYONE. Juliet offing herself before checking to see if the jackass Romeo was really dead. (Come on Billy S. come on enough with the morality tale)

Drastic measures=major overreactions  (My boyfriend didn’t respond to a text therefore I moved across country changing my name and we lost contact for forty years...) Seems intense and maybe something more was at play then the text...

I try to judge romance novel misunderstandings through the eyes of the characters:  Their Age, Their Filters, Their Location Or A Combination of Factors are determine how realistic the BIG misunderstanding troupe is...

Age of the characters: needs to be taken into account. Looking at my own actions/beliefs from when I was younger 18 or 20… I think WOW, no way in FUCK would I have said or done that. How could I have thought that? Why did I see this person’s action as so much stronger than it was? Why did I react that way?

Illusions & Dreams: At 23 my beautiful Boon-nam launches head over heels in love with a bad boy while her bestie Lalana 28 dig in her heels and fights her feelings for Randy because her experience tells her she’ll be hurt by the man she has feelings for... The younger inexperienced 23 year old whose never had her heart crushed is open to love where Lalana’s age and experience gives her more caution.

Filters: Everything we see, hear, and experience is put through our personal filters. Our filters have developed over our life time: childhood, where have you lived, education, acceptance and expression of our sexuality & gender identity, family interactions, jobs, experiences, travel, love/sexual relationships, interactions with others, etc. So many things build our network of how we process information.

>>>This is why it can be difficult to really understand someone else’s actions or words. We don’t have their filters and are forced to process their actions by our own filters.  The actions may or may not make sense with our filters.

Finally Fallen:

Dusty Davis has two younger brothers who he’s had a big part in raising. He was forced to remain calm when crazy happened and he cast used to the role of fixer/caretaker his entire life. So when Justin Cohen’s hot mess of a past comes up… Dusty bounces it and finds workable solutions. When Dusty’s mom goes off on him he remains calm. He rolls with whatever life throws at him because his filters developed into less reacting and more finding a solution where Justin’s original filters told him to head for the hills and avoid problems instead of finding a solution.

Location: Where the characters are from shapes their choices and as well as options available. 

Club Zombie: Zombies Ahead 

German ex-pat Kai doesn’t have at the option of exploring his sexuality. If he wants to live with his homophobic uncle (& protect his cousin) he doesn’t analyze his feelings that closely because he doesn’t feel there’s any options open to him. When he moves to Club Zombie he’s able to take a look at himself and figure out who he is in relation to other people and the open world around him. It still takes him a little time to figure things out.

Combination of Factors: Sometimes there’s so many things happening at once and processing what they mean to our world freezes us and puts us into denial.

With Wings:

Darius Stone never thought of himself as anything but straight so being raised by a homophobic father the result of being bi-sexual have far reaching consequences… one’s that he’d rather avoid. When he finally does accept that fact he’s insecure. (Mind you being in love with the rock god Angel Luv doesn’t make it easier on him.) Dare and Angel are the only couples I’ve published that have a happy for now ending… don’t worry you know they will have their happily ever after. They showed me how it finally works out… but because their big misunderstanding(s) happened through so many layers and was so BIG… they need more time to work things out between them.

I think BIG misunderstandings happen in real life. I know they’ve happened to me… so yes they will from time to time find their way into one of my plot lines… not because it’s “easy” but because it happens.


Hugs, Z.