Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Love and Romance??

'Tis the season for love and romance.

Sadly, it's something I'm not very good at as a writer.  Countless times I've been told I should write romance, that romance is where the real income is, that romance is the easiest genre to write.

I've never been very good at taking the easy way.

But I love what I write.  It's what I read!  A good mystery will keep me up reading for hours, figuring out who did it and why.  A thriller full of explosions and the clock winding down to Armageddon gets my heart pumping the way a sex scene just can't (I know, I know - TMI).

Still, from time-to-time I do think about the possibilities of adding yet another genre to my repertoire.  Yet I just can't seem to wrap my brain around what kind of characters or plot a romance would take - at least one coming from my mind.  Every time I start putting together the possibilities of who, what, where, when, and why, I get stuck on the how.  I'll come up with a couple of characters and a basic idea, and then it inevitably turns into a mystery that must be solved, with the accompanying murder, mayhem, and all-around madness I tend to put my characters through in my stories.

I give up.

As an author, you constantly hear the phrase write what you know.  I guess romance isn't something I know much about.  After spending my younger years raising my son, working more than full-time, and then starting on a new career path at middle-age, dating and romance rarely entered my field of vision.  Now?

Fugettaboutit!

These days it's all about family and friends - and readers like you, of course.  Love comes in many forms, even when there is no romance involved.  Love isn't flowers you may get once a year.  It isn't about a fancy dinner at a ridiculously expensive restaurant.  Chocolate?

Okay, that's a different story.

But love is grasping that tiny hand to keep a child safe.  It's a shoulder available for a good cry whenever needed.  A phone call in the middle of the night that sends you rushing out the door in spite of the circumstances.  Trying to sleep in a chair beside a hospital bed - and failing.  A home-cooked meal to say I've been thinking of you.  A difficult, but necessary, conversation.  Holding a withered hand as a soul is escorted from this life.

And doing your darnedest to write what your readers love.

So on this Valentine's Day, I may not have a romance novel to share with you, but that doesn't stop me from sharing my heart with each book I write.  Thanks so much for reading.

Kisses!!!