Why Do I Write Romance Books?
Books are amazingly secure. If the villain, or bully or psychopath, or hardship gets to be too much, you simply close the book and walk away.
Life is not that simple. It’s terrifying, its full of difficulties, intolerance, grief, hate, rigidity, torment, drudgery, cruelty, hostility, insanity, and we each of us have our own personal demons to battle. But there are also fragments of beauty, brilliance, generosity, heroism, humor, wit, love, freedom, and instances that are so profoundly moving, adorable and affectionate they steal our breath away. I choose to focus on the latter. Why? There is enough of the former around us, every day.
Why romance? People are crazy for love. I am no different. Just walk into a chocolatier’s store or a florist’s shop, on Valentine’s Day, if you have any doubt.
A good romance has personal struggles, drudgery, cruelty, etc.. But it’s also a story about overcoming difficulties. It’s a character’s personal search for definition of themselves, for truths, for substance, for justice, for humanity in themselves and in the world, and it’s a search for love. A good romance novel is where love triumphs. In the real world it doesn’t always. And that’s the very point I am trying to get at here. Books are a safe place to escape to for a few minutes during the day.
I consider it an extraordinary privilege to get to write about what I love. Love. And yes, we can get into a deep discussion about the various types of love, love for a parent or grandparent, a spouse, a child, a pet, a friend, a job. I have reverence and respect for all types of love.
Yet I choose romantic love between two people. Why? Because of all the types of love, that one fascinates me the most. It’s idiosyncratic and prodigious. It’s playful, it can bring out the best in you, the worst in you, it can give you butterflies, the hives, it can make you speak too much or too fast, it can steal your words, it can blind you, it can make you shiver, or heat you up like a furnace, it can freeze you in your tracks, or make you go everywhere all at once, it can make you fly or it can take you down to the lowest depths of hell. Like I said, fascinating!
Life is not that simple. It’s terrifying, its full of difficulties, intolerance, grief, hate, rigidity, torment, drudgery, cruelty, hostility, insanity, and we each of us have our own personal demons to battle. But there are also fragments of beauty, brilliance, generosity, heroism, humor, wit, love, freedom, and instances that are so profoundly moving, adorable and affectionate they steal our breath away. I choose to focus on the latter. Why? There is enough of the former around us, every day.
Why romance? People are crazy for love. I am no different. Just walk into a chocolatier’s store or a florist’s shop, on Valentine’s Day, if you have any doubt.
A good romance has personal struggles, drudgery, cruelty, etc.. But it’s also a story about overcoming difficulties. It’s a character’s personal search for definition of themselves, for truths, for substance, for justice, for humanity in themselves and in the world, and it’s a search for love. A good romance novel is where love triumphs. In the real world it doesn’t always. And that’s the very point I am trying to get at here. Books are a safe place to escape to for a few minutes during the day.
I consider it an extraordinary privilege to get to write about what I love. Love. And yes, we can get into a deep discussion about the various types of love, love for a parent or grandparent, a spouse, a child, a pet, a friend, a job. I have reverence and respect for all types of love.
Yet I choose romantic love between two people. Why? Because of all the types of love, that one fascinates me the most. It’s idiosyncratic and prodigious. It’s playful, it can bring out the best in you, the worst in you, it can give you butterflies, the hives, it can make you speak too much or too fast, it can steal your words, it can blind you, it can make you shiver, or heat you up like a furnace, it can freeze you in your tracks, or make you go everywhere all at once, it can make you fly or it can take you down to the lowest depths of hell. Like I said, fascinating!
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