A Bit After Valentine’s Day

Sunday morning Chez Diana, and I’m hanging out in sweats on the couch while Rio plays outside with the neighbor’s dog. We don’t really “do” Valentine’s Day around here, and since we’ve been together for the better part of a decade, I am unused to the V-day extravqaganza that seems to have gripped the city. Florists on every corner hawking little bundles of roses. Restaurants offering incentives to come on Sunday night instead of Saturday. Sailor Boy looked at me as we drove down a street festooned with giant, heart-shaped balloons and was like, “Is it Valentine’s Day?”

We watched the new Joss Whedon show, Dollhouse (Guys, was that Helo?), then made pasta allla vodka and sat down with a bottle of chianti and A Letter to Three Wives. I love that movie. It’s very romantic and feminist and cool.

Speaking of V-Day, the story’s still not done. Sorry, guys. Monday, I promise!

However, my lack of holiday spirit aside, I was pleased as punch to see that Poe an Amy made a couple of “best couple” lists on the blog rounds this week. YA writer Amanda Brice opines:

In the first two “Secret Society Girl” books, Amy Haskell’s nemesis in Rose & Grave was a senior (and later, recent graduate) codenamed Poe. He was sullen, moody, and incredibly disagreeable. Not even worth Amy’s acknowledgement, particularly when there are so many other hot guys around, like the delectable George. But author Diana Peterfreund was a literature major at Yale, and an avowed Jane Austen fan, so “the sudden, startling transformation of a mysterious Rose & Grave patriarch from sheerly evil to utterly…appealing” is not exactly terribly shocking. But it’s still really fun to read!

Funny story: Poe and Amy were never intended to get together. He was not a major character in the first book. I didn’t even know his real name. But I had a blast writing him, and what’s more, I had a blast writing him and Amy. He seemed to click with her even better, storytellingly-speaking, than either party in the love triangle I’d cooked up: George and Brandon. And since I’m a firm believer that plot is the confluence of character and situation… I was happy to see how many people got behind their pairing, which took a book and a half to, IMO, adequately lay the groundwork for. Amanda’s Rice, the transformation’s not a shock, to anyone, perhaps, but Amy. I never claimed my heroine was the most self-aware girl on the planet. And the aftermath comes… well, in T&G. Because of course, he’s still sullen, moody, and disagreeable.

Lell also celebrates this couple in her holiday round-up:

Okay, these two aren’t necessarily in love, per se, but they fit in with my favorite couples.

I’ve talked a time or two about how much I adore Diana Peterfreund’s Secret Society Girl series, so I probably don’t need to go on ad nauseum now. Can I just say that I love the progression of this couple? They started out loathing each other—Amy thought Poe was a misanthrope with a stick up his ass and Poe thought Amy was clearly inferior and infuriating besides. Things definitely changed. Loathing grew to respect, respect grew to…making out on spring break. And along the way there are all these great little clues. Like some guy spits at Amy and Poe clocks him. And Ms. Peterfreund doesn’t fall on the old standards of “one guy hits another and it’s all macho and sexy” (though it was). She had Poe freak out right afterwards because a) he had hit somebody, and b) that kind of hurts. Such a great scene. And since I shipped these two from pretty much the beginning (I’m a big sucker for love/hate), I loved the clues. I was really happy when they got together because Poe’s awesome.

That’s actually one of my favorite scenes, so it makes me really happy to find a reader who enjoyed it. It’s funny, when I first wrote it, I sent it to a critique partner to read and she railed against Poe’s post-clocking freak-out. She thought it was awesome that he punched the guy, then appalling that he proceeded to react in that way. She thought I’d ruined it and turned him into a wimp.

This may be why I never succeeded in writing romance novels. In romance-novel land, the guy usually punches out the villain, then saunters off into the sunset like John Wayne.

Anyway, I disagreed with that particular note, and chose to ignore it.

Poe is not a man who speaks with his fists. His weapon of choice is always his tongue, which is pretty damn lethal all on its own. (And actually, the punch in question is of the sucker variety. Poe makes sure that the guy’s hands are full before he lays into him.) But it was a really primal move that surprised everyone involved, especially Poe, and I think what comes after is the first real glimpse we get of Poe’s personality beyond the cold, calculating asshole Amy had seen thus far. I also like that he’s a bit confused about his own motivations behind the punch, and chooses to rationalize it as Digger loyalty.

Maybe I’m easily amused.

Right, back to writing this story…