Why romance?

"Oh, you're a writer?"
"Yes," I say, smiling.

Here's where the conversation goes in one of several directions. Either they as if I'm published and, when I say yes, they can't believe it (what, exactly do they think a published author looks like?) OR they as what I write.

"I write romance."

Obviously this takes us to another fork in the road. Romance readers will give themselves away (God bless them) by asking what kind of romance. At this point, I answer "military romance at the moment." Other's will look at me as if I've just told them that I eat bugs and as WHY?

Why do I write romance? The obvious answer is that it's my favorite genre to read. Though, in the last few years, I've found that I like other things as well.

I guess I just like the promise of a happy ending.

One of the gals in my dance troupe recently bought A Soft Place to Fall. She came to in to class one day and started grilling me. She was about two-thirds of the way through it.

"Will Nic and Julie end up together?"
"What about Cruz?
"And the Sheriff, what about him?"

She was off to the races. I told her to just hang in there. I promised her that she'd be satisfied in the end.

It's the promise of the genre. It's what irritates me when someone confuses Nicholas Sparks as a romance writer. No disrespect to the man and my disclaimer is that I haven't read anything since Message in a Bottle. But those of us who read romance know that MiaB is not a romance novel. The promise is broken.

So sue me. I love happy endings. I want Rhett and Scarlett to end up together. Heck, I'm still holding out for Luke and Laura.

Enough of my rambling on, though. The best explanation I ever read belongs to Diana Duncan. It can be found here:


Link


Happy Hump Day.

jax