Real men don’t write fashion columns

My mouth sometimes gets me into trouble. I was working at the local newspaper as a stringer. The editor, a real man’s man, decided it would be funny to ask me to write the fashion column. I think he expected I'd refuse. I didn't and wrote what I thought was a pretty darned good fashion column. It must have been okay because it got published. The editor thought that was even funnier, and told me, “Real men don’t write fashion columns.”

That night, I regaled my wife with the story. She listened patiently while I went on about how ‘writers, regardless of being men or women, should be able to write about anything, if they set their mind to the topic’. Rant done, I thought the subject was closed.

“Okay,” she said, “if what you say is true, then write a romance.”

My mouth unloaded a witty, intelligent comeback. “A what?”

“You heard me. Romance. No laser guns, giant spiders or explosions.”

“It’ll be short then,” I said, and went to the kitchen to see if there was something boiling over on the stove.

“With a female protagonist too,” she called out.

“Was that the phone ringing?” I called back.

She laughed quietly and shook her head.

Romance? That's a scary prospect for an action adventure writer... but no action adventure character ever backs down from a challenge. Me and my big mouth!

Here's what happened... Romance in Four Seasons