Why Romance

I love to read and I’m not picky about what I read. Other than L’Amour-esque westerns (snore) and non-fiction (kill me now!), I’ll read just about everything. I’ve got some good old fashioned bodice rippers on the same shelf with John Grisham, Stephen King, Agatha Christie, Shakespeare, John Steinbeck, Nora Roberts, Douglas Adams, Mary Higgins Clark, Frances Hodgson Burnett, David Gemmell and Margaret Mitchell. My collection and my tastes are eclectic. But when I write, I prefer to write romance.

I love ‘em. And one of the things I love best about them is you can take every single genre of fiction imaginable and merge them with romance. Political thriller and romance? That works. And so does everything else: suspense, western, sci-fi, horror, paranormal, historical, you name it.

Then there are the characters. You have to have at least three: a heroine, a hero and a villain. For the record, I’ve never been a fan of damsels that can’t help themselves (even as a small child I never understood why seemingly capable and allegedly intelligent women just stood there waiting for someone to save them. Our entire race is hard-wired for fight or flight except when a damsel is in distress? That particular breed is genetically predisposed to just wring their hands woefully? And that’s a rant for another blog. My apologies), I prefer a heroine that is strong, inside and out. And I love myself some knights in shining armor, cowboys with dusty boots, bad boys with broken hearts and leather jackets, bounty hunters, demon slayers, honestly I’m not picky about my heroes just like I’m not picky about my sub-genres. Finally, I like my villains to be BAD.  

Finally, no matter all the rest you get a happily ever after.  Happily ever after in a world where there are so rarely any.

Yeah, you can’t go wrong with that.