BLOGWORDS – Monday 3 June 2019 – NEW WEEK NEW FACE – GUEST POST – DANA PRATOLA

BLOGWORDS – Monday 3 June 2019 – NEW WEEK NEW FACE – GUEST POST – DANA PRATOLA
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NEW WEEK NEW FACE – GUEST POST – DANA PRATOLA
 

Why I Write What I Write

 

My first experience with the world of Romance novels came in the 1970’s, via word-of-mouth promo of a new book. I was in seventh or eighth grade (Catholic school) and all the girls were hyping this book as “must read,” “you won’t believe it,” “I hope my mother doesn’t find it in my room.” So, of course I had to check it out. I’d heard it was racy, and there was no way I was going to walk into a book store and buy it myself, so I waited patiently to borrow it from a friend. The book was Forever by Judy Blume, and it explored the first love of a high school senior girl. It was the first “romance” I ever read, and I was hooked from that day on. (*Let me say here that you don’t have to go buy the book, lol. I’m not endorsing it. In fact, I can’t even remember if it was a “good” book, only the impressions it left with me. *)

 

I suppose it was fortunate that my initiation into the world of romance was a book about a teenage couple’s initiation into the world of love (including sex). I mean, we were Catholic school girls and we had questions, but for me, even the enticement of reading something we perceived as scandalous, wasn’t the real draw. It wasn’t about the sex, for me, but the emotions. The fact that they were kids, but experiencing “grown-up” love. Finding that there could be joy, yes, but also heartbreak that didn’t have to be anyone’s fault. Just what was. Real life as told by fictional characters. Wow!

 

For a girl who grew up reading fairy tales, and the classic dichotomy of Good vs. Evil, that was amazing to me. In children’s books there was a hero and a villain. The villain did villainous things, and the hero, heroic things. Sometimes the villain wasn’t even a person, but a situation—a company about to shut down and put hundreds out of work, or a volcano threatening to erupt. But the main thrust of the story came down to choices people made, and the consequences of those choices.

 

In children’s books, the characters act according to their roles. Good kid always acts good. Bad kid always acts bad. And if a good kid does act badly, there is enough guilt to soon have him apologizing and falling back in line with some great lesson learned. Adult fiction isn’t like that. Adults have the capacity to make the same mistakes over and over and never learn from them!

 

Also, quite often, there is no clear Good or Evil. Most people can have elements of both, and that seems to me to present itself in romantic fiction more than any other genre, where the whole point of the story is uncovering the complexities of human behavior. Once hooked on romance, there was nothing else for me to do but put my own imaginings on paper, populating my stories with real people making choices. Sometimes right choices. Sometimes bad, destructive ones, and not always being held accountable or learning anything. Sometimes an ass is just an ass and there’s nothing you can do about it.

 

But I guess what appeals to me most is Hope. Though my male lead characters tend to be the quintessential Romance Heroes as far as looks, I try to illuminate the qualities every woman wants to find in the real-life male: someone who understands us. Really gets us. Fights for us. Is willing to die for us, but above all, live for us. What is the point of a romance novel if not to perpetuate that Hope?

 

To me, a romance novel is a tactile Hope that we can hold up and shake in the face of a topsy-turvy world and say, “Yes, people can suck. They can be cruel and selfish, but that’s not all there is. They can be caring and selfless, too. Even in the real-world love can still thrive, and I can prove it. Just turn the page.”