As I write this I know that Kelly Kirch is due to download the next installment of our serial blog about Emmeline, the twin, the chocolate bar and the peeler. What you ask? Chocolate? Peeler? Is Amarinda drunk? No, no alcohol in the house at the moment bar the bottle of chocolate liqueur someone gave me several Christmases ago and for some reason I just have never gotten around to drinking it. I love chocolate and I have been known to drink like a fish but I don’t know whether it’s the corny picture on the label or what but I just can’t seem to crack it open. I keep it as emergency alcohol, to be opened if all else fails. Anyway, I digress once again, but do flick over to http://www.kkirch.blogspot.com./ and see what Kelly has written. I have a vague idea what it is. Like the supposed good girls we are we like to warn the person who is next to write about Emmeline and her adventures. Grasshopper informed me this morning that she may change hers ‘a bit' from what she originally sent me. Hmm…I don’t like the sound of that. Toy with me will you? I think not. I am up for any challenge. Bring it on. Mind you when you read Anny Cook on http://www.annycook.blogspot.com/ you will see that Anny started this madness with her crazy imagination. Check out her books and you'll see what I mean. I am just a sweet and innocent bystander in all this…that’s my story and I am sticking to it.
Today someone told me I should write ‘real’ books. Apparently writing romance or romantica is not real. Well of course it’s not real. Wake up and smell the coffee. We all know that. Romance books are an escape and that’s why people read them – why I read them. We all deal with real life stuff every day and sometimes it’s a bloody grind and just for an hour or so you want to read something that takes your mind off the crap you are dealing with. What’s wrong with that? That’s why people watch their favourite television shows – it’s an escape – we all have opinions about why the crew are stuck on the island in Lost but that does not mean we believe they are really there (though getting stuck on an island with Saywer would not be too hard to bear.) Romance books are like that – fantasy, romance and a dream. It’s the fact that you can zone out and not think anything but getting caught up in the romance or the passion of the moment. Of course the hero is not going to walk out of the book and sweep you off your feet - but you may already have your own real life hero/heroine and you may be living the romance or maybe he/she is just around the corner waiting for you to pass by. I reckon there is someone for everyone – the elusive one. So why not read about someone else finding 'the one' while you wait for yours to get home or waltz into your life? How does it do any harm?
And no, romance novels are not going to save the world but for one moment they may just give you a breather. There are no great answers in them. My characters are flawed and real and they don’t know what they are doing half the time themselves. In Because I Can the hero and heroine have wild sex in a lift. Okay, that may not happen all the time but what if it did? How would you react if a man was so wildly attracted to you that he had to have you then and there? What would you do if you felt the same wild attraction? Would you run into the night with a bad boy thief like Stella did in Thief of Mine just because for one wild moment you wanted to be with this man so badly that you do not care how crazy it is. That’s what romance novels are– they are ‘what if’ and ‘why not?’ Why do we have to analyze why people read certain types of books? As long as they are reading something isn’t that the most important thing? So yes, damn it, I write romance or romantica – and I make no apologies about it. Sure there is a great novel within me somewhere – it’s in everyone. But I’m not going to write it to justify myself. If I started justifying myself for that then I would have to do it for other things and that I will never do as I do not feel the need to slot into a stereotypical box of who or what I should be - bugger that for a joke.
FYI - the result of the "I really hate..." poll was decaf with traffic a close second. Caffeine rules.
http://www.blogger.com/www.freewebs.com/janetdavies
Go ahead: Live with abandon. Be outrageous at any age. What are you saving your best self for?
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3 comments:
What?! (wide-eyed) What do you mean he's not going to walk out of the pages of my book to sweep me off my feet? Sniff.
Well, duh, world-at-large, it's entertainment. Considering romance held over 50% of book purchases last year, I'd venture to say there are closet romantics out there. They are acting snide because they are repressed or afraid their sexy secret will get out.
Write on, Queen AJ.
Nah, it's GUYS who are reading them to find out what we want...
Interesting thought Anny...and as always I will do whatever I want to regardless what anyone says...stuff 'em I say
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