What the Heck is SFF Romance?!

Ahead of the international day of commercial lurve, we asked our resident mistress of paranormal romance, Helen Rose Thwaite, to tell us more about the not-Romantasy side of speculative fiction featuring love (and sex).

Hi! I’m Helen, writer of SFF Romance—and as it’s nearly Valentine’s Day, I’ve been asked to come and tell you all about it.

“So what the heck is “SFF Romance”?” I hear you ask.

Well, for starters, it isn’t just SFF with romance tacked on or vice versa. It’s an equal blend of the two elements, where the action feeds the romance and the romance feeds the action.

Let me explain. Us authors already know that when we put characters in a jam, we see how good or bad they are. What they reveal about themselves. SFF Romance ups the ante by endangering the one that another is in luuurve with. They spill all kinds of secrets then, including long-held torches. Others just don’t blow a turbolift…

Those secrets, or choosing saving the girl over saving the world, impact the plot. It’s the same decision-making that goes into any story, just with different motivation. Not just love, but all the emotions that lead up to being in that state, especially when you start with two (or more!) very different characters.

It’s friendship. Trust. Belief that, when a character says “turn left”, that’s the right way to go. And ohh conflict if that belief isn’t there. Or if the information is incorrect. Or if we throw a different spanner into the works and even the correct move leads to – dun dun dun – certain doom.

Intriguing, tell me more

Literary fiction has an awful habit of looking down on romance. Probably because most of it is written by women, for women. It’s described as fluff, as “chick-lit”, and at least once a month, someone gets on social media and asks if a happy ending is really necessary.

Yes, Felicia, it is.

“Serious” writers of SFF (and H) are likely to hold a similar position. Even YOU might. However, I want to stress that SFF Romance – heck, ‘normal’ romance – isn’t the light, fluffy, brainless thing media would have you believe.

For example, I’ve just finished a book where the heroine contracts AIDS. I’ve read others dealing with mental health issues, with abuse, and with loss. Hardly fluffy, right? 

SFF Romances are the same. They can deal with big issues, have rollicking plots, and make barbed points about governments and/or people in power (Beth Revis’s “Chaotic Orbits” trilogy, for example). Most have incredible world-building because fans of the genre want to escape into a fully realised world as much as the romance. 

(Photo by Vitaliy Shevchenko on Unsplash)

Of course, some are light-hearted and fun, but sometimes we need that. The world can be a cold, hard place. There’s a huge variety of styles, almost like it isn’t a cut-and-paste genre written to a formula. Shocking!

[Caveat: there is a Romance rule that writers have to stick to, and that is there has to be a Happily Ever After (or a Happy For Now). Anything else is SFF with a love story, which isn’t a bad thing, but do not market your love sub-plots as Romance. It doesn’t end well.]

So, Why write SFF romance?

Well, Romance is the world’s biggest selling genre…

Seriously, I write it because I grew up reading my sister’s Mills & Boon books and then watching Doctor Who and Star Trek. I wanted to be Ace with the Nitro-9, or Trillion, whisked to the far side of the galaxy by Zephod “I can fix him” Beeblebrox. (I’ve always been a soft touch for a bad guy.)

Anyway, for me, stories have always been about the characters. I want to know why they do what they do, what causes that particular decision. When I first started writing, it was fan fiction. I chose the bad guy of a sci-fi show and countered his grumpiness with a woman of pure sunshine. Lit the blue torch paper and then stood well back for the fireworks.

It’s a scenario I’ve written over and over. I find throwing two people that wouldn’t normally get on—never mind fall in love—to be the most fun thing about writing. Doing it in space or in a fantasy world? Well, that’s just the icing on the cake. Love is great and everything, but what if it happens at the end of the world or when things might literally go boom?

(Photo by Vitaliy Shevchenko on Unsplash)

Are there bad SFF romances? Define “bad”. What’s good for the goose isn’t always great for the gander. There are certainly tropes I avoid. Not bad per se, just not my cup of Klingon tea.

Quick note: I’ve noticed that romance-in-horror—dubbed horroromance—is gaining traction very quickly, no doubt in response to the state of the world. So if you want to write a couple getting it on while zombies are knocking on the door, now’s your time.

Interested? Have some recs!

Gini Koch’s Alien series was my introduction to SFF Romance. There are 17 books in this series, full of sexy, sci-fi fun. She also has Alexander Outland: Space Pirate written under the pen name GJ Koch (she collects pseudonyms like they’re Pokemon).

Jessie Mihilak is the QUEEN of sci-fi romance. I want to be like her when I grow up. While all her series are great, her Starlight’s Shadow trilogy is absolutely sublime, and manages the adventure/romance blend I’ve been talking about. The science is light but the world-building is stellar (see what I did there?), and it includes plenty of strong heroines finding lovers who are just as determined.

If you love Loki, then you’ll love Liana Brooks’ Heroes and Villains series, as the main character is a supervillain. She also has her Fleet of Malik series, which is more SFR, and just as brilliant.

Then there’s Ilona Andrews, Zoe Archer, Linnea Sinclair, Nalini Singh, Wendy Sparrow, Aurora Springer, and the list goes on.

On the fantasy side of things there’s Rebecca Yarros, Travis Baldree, Rebecca Thorne, and Sarah Beth Durst amongst many others.

Is it gauche to rec my own? A little? Ah, well, doing it anyway. Tin Cat is an Earth-based, contemporary sci-fi with an ordinary heroine meeting an extraordinary hero, by way of a cybernetic cat. It is easily the nerdiest book I’ve written and I had tremendous fun doing so.

I’m also currently working on a sci-fi romance that I’ve described as Casablana meets Ashes to Ashes (the TV show, not the song). It’s about what happens when an all-powerful government shunts a failed colony to one side, and also about two lonely people finding each other in the middle of that mess.

Don’t worry about what people think. Get into it—and happy Valentine’s Day!