I recently got into a discussion with someone about writing. This is not unusual as I am a writer and a lot of my friends and acquaintances are writers. We all have our own processes, hang ups, thoughts, feelings, and genres. This was not a person I know well and they’ve always had a tendancy to look down their particular nose at romance. The fact that I’ve written over 50 books and just 9 of them have sold over 477K copies (I discovered this the last time I checked out my stuff at Harlequin and includes lots of countries, reprint, duologies, special collections, etc.) took this person by surprise. Yes, that’s a lot of books, but that’s over a decade of publishing. But I digress. In the course of our conversation, I pointed out that romance tends to crop up everywhere. Writing westerns? There’s a woman in there somewhere who has a relationship with the cowboy/rancher/gunslinger/lawman. Writing historical fiction? Henry the 8th had how many wives? Just sayin’. Hard-boiled detective? You can bet there’s a dame in there somewhere. Military? SciFi? Fantasy? Yup, yup, and you betcha!

About now, you’re probably asking yourselves, “What the heck is she going on about?” Here’s the deal. Romance is a big part of life. I don’t care who you are or what flavor is your catnip, every last one of us want to find “my person.” Your “person” is someone who totally gets you, good and bad, and understands. Your “person” supports you unconditionally. How much more romantic can you get than that? Which leads me back to the Universe’s message for today.

Silver, I know what it’s like. I’ve seen it played out a zillion times:

You’re waiting for that magical day when someone makes the connection and recognizes who you really are.

Maybe they’ll first notice that look in your eyes.

Or perhaps they’ll marvel at your insights and the depth of your spirit.

Someone who will help you connect the dots so that you can believe in yourself and make sense of it all. Someone who will understand you, approve of you, and unhesitatingly give you a leg up so that life can pluck your ready, ripened self from the branch of magnificence.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh…

Well, Silver, your wait is over.

That someone is you.

Behold God,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

P.S. Just proving that age-old adage, Silver, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

Just to prove my point, THIS *points up* is a perfect blueprint for writing a romance. Except for that part about you being your person. I mean, yeah. That’s important. We need to be comfortable in our skins and understand what goes on in our heads–as confusing a place as that is sometimes. But this is the day I try to talk about writing–and writing romance, specifically. Because I get it. And I’m not embarrassed. FYI, the next person who suggests I’m not a real writer is likely to get a punch in the nose. I’m proud to write what I write. I’m proud that my genre produces more publishing revenue than any other genre. The last time I saw numbers, romance produced 1.44 BILLION dollars in revenue, compared to the next most popular genre, crime/thrillers which made 728.2 million.

So anyway. Writing romance. And finding your person. At the heart of a fomance novel is the need of two people to find their person. The fun part comes in the meeting, the eyes, the connections, and then connecting the dots that get them from that meet cute (or scary depending on your romantic subgenre) to the fun and foibles of making the connection, and the author connecting all the dots to get them from first sight to HEA. See? Easy peasy. Pardon me while I laugh. If writing was easy, everyone would be an author. Am I right?