This past week has been an enlightening one, and sometimes an amusing one, too. So much to do, so much to learn. And on more than one occasion during the week, I found myself interacting with some of my favorite book bloggers. Up until now, I’ve communicated with them as a follower and avid reader. But what was amusing was that after all of this daily bantering back and forth, many of them weren’t aware that I was writing my own book. THE MUSE UNLOCKED is slated for a summer 2013 release.
So it dawned on me.
How can we really get to know the people on the other side of the screen if we don’t truly know anything about them…outside of the person they choose to be in the social media landscape?
On Twitter, for instance, people know me as the punny goofball slinging zingers and one-liners, dropping plops of commentary here and there, inventing vocabulary words and quoting favorite films and Seinfeld episodes. But I’d bet most don’t actually know why I’d be writing a book, let alone a contemporary romance.
Hmm.
Maybe…I should…tell them.
Now, there’s a concept.
So, here you go. A little explanation goes a long way. This goes especially to those of you I’ve gotten to know through the lovely worlds of Twitter and Facebook.
I’m not some reader who simply woke up one morning and decided to write a book. You may or may not know that my day job involves flinging words around, too. I write articles for a living for local magazines and occasionally, for special sections inside one of my hometown’s metropolitan newspapers. I write professional bios for people and help businesses tell their stories through their websites, blogs and marketing materials. And sometimes, I even help people tell their own stories as a — shhhh! Don’t tell! — ghostwriter! When I’m not writing words for other people, I work on my book and in those fleeting free moments when I’m not reading gobs of books, I do what other writers probably do. I write poems. I write essays. I write song lyrics. I blog. (Duh.)
I write. I write. I write. It’s all that I know how to do.
Damn. I’m starting to depress myself.
And what did I do before that? I worked in other fields with disguised avenues for writing. They call them…marketing, advertising, promotion, communications, financial aid (okay, yeah, that last one doesn’t make sense to me either and neither did the job, but it paid the bills for a bit). Wherever I was, I found a way to do what I love to do best… throw words at the wall and see which ones stick.
Growing up, I was the kid who wrote the paper the teacher hung up on the class door, who won first place in the local student essay contest (or maybe it was 2nd), nabbed the city-wide poetry contest title, served as editor of her school newspaper and actually enjoyed writing compositions and research papers.
Yeah. I was that kid.
I was also the one who was secretly writing satirical advertisement copy, skits with no home to showcase, screenplays in secret and song parodies for no real reason other than…just because.
And now, I’m trying to write a book. Holy hell.
Sometimes, I feel like I’ve been in training for this for…about 42 years. Almost 43. (Ack. It hurts my head to think it…)
But that still doesn’t answer the question of the day…
WHY THE HELL AM I WRITING A CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE?
Three big reasons really, aside from the fact that I enjoy reading them myself and that they’ve inspired me to write creatively again.
REASON 1.
Women readers of contemporary romance are often older than 24, so why shouldn’t the lead characters reflect that part of the audience? We want to see characters like us experience romance, too — and not like the boring, ho-hum romance novels of yesteryear when Dynasty hair and big shoulder pads were all the rage. I was determined to revolve a book around a leading woman who wasn’t a virgin fresh out of college. My lead character is 38, not 24. She still has her blushing moments, because blushing has no age limit if you’re having an insecure moment and as we all know, those never go away. Not really. Not for anyone. I wanted to show a fully matured woman in control of herself, her career, her life, and allow the reader to watch her delight again in the whimsy, unpredictability and passion of new love. And she doesn’t have to be a Freshman college student to experience that.
REASON 2.
Love and sex are funny sometimes, and humor is a part of life. Some novelists know how to use humor really well and integrate it into their dialogue like J.A. Redmerski and Colleen Hoover, but unfortunately, I find these authors to be few. I am swooning plenty but chuckling so rarely when I read contemporary romance. I want to experience the full range of emotions when I read – laugh and swoon and cry, maybe all at the same time in some instances. I don’t think I’m alone. And let me tell you: some of the most fun can be had with a little bit of sexy banter between two people who clearly want to jump all over each other. I’d love nothing more than to let the reader listen in, and laugh and swoon along with them.
and finally…
REASON 3.
Older women and younger men can make quite an intriguing and sexy pair. So I wanted to show it. I’ve read dozens and dozens of contemporary romance and erotica titles over the past year and I can only think of two off-hand (one Olivia Cunning title and another, a Tiffany Reisz) that even attempted to show what sexy fun this combination can be. In my book, a 38-year-old woman and 28-year-old man find mutual attraction can exist between two people from different age brackets. I say, it’s about time that it’s not the 32-year-old man sweeping away the virginal 22-year-old woman. Nope, stiletto’s on the other foot in my book, and I really hope my readers will enjoy this different take on romance.
There you go. Something more about the Twitter or Facebook friend you follow but perhaps don’t actually know, and my three big reasons why I am writing this book, this genre and from this particular approach. I can’t wait to share more about the book in the weeks to come leading up to its release.
I’ll have another snippet from THE MUSE UNLOCKED coming your way very soon. Stay tuned! And if you have any thoughts to share about contemporary romance novels today or about my reasons shared, I would love to hear from you. Bloggers, fellow authors and fans — you are absolutely welcome to chime in with your own feelings on the subject.
Happy reading!
ck
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