Tag Archives: romance novels

She Said WHAT?!?!

On a recent road trip, my Mom and I were having a typical chat about the romance novels we were reading when our conversation took a bit of a turn. Suddenly, we went from lamenting the conflict keeping the beloved characters apart to a whole bunch of sexy/smutty/slutty/inappropriate words and phrases commonly found in romance novels. Here’s the conversation.  The Diva Kerr-ina

Kerri: I’ll tell you what word I hate more than any other word in the world. Actually, I can’t even say it out loud, but it rhymes with bitties.

Kerri’s Mom: Oh yeah? Well, I don’t like the C word – you know, like a rooster. And I don’t like rod and W.P. either. Continue reading

You Write What?!?!?!

You know the drill. You’re having a nice conversation over dinner and your companion seems really interested that you’re a writer. He/she is even more impressed that you have finished a novel and are actively trying to publish. And then comes “the” question:

What do you write?

Romance.

The most recent time I told someone this, he literally laughed in my face. Seriously, sound came out of his mouth as he mocked me.

“Romance? Pssst.” (More laughing)

It was as if I said I take a razor blade to newborn puppies. Even though I’m really proud of what I write, I felt so embarrassed. Let’s face it, having someone laugh in your face is never a feel-good kind of moment, no matter how many glasses of wine you’ve consumed.

Leading up to this joyous encounter I had been doing pretty well with the haters. I’ve joined writing groups lately, which seems to have made a big difference in both my writing and my writing life. But my writing group wasn’t sitting at that table with me while someone laughed at my biggest dream.

And I know all the stats. I know how much money the romance industry generates each year. I know that there couldn’t seriously be anything wrong with a genre of fiction that promotes a happy ending. And I definitely know that this laughing person was a total d-bag.

Still, it hurt.

I remembered all the hours I’ve poured into sitting diligently at my computer. All the rejections letters I’ve received. All of the almost-published stories. The time, the energy, the emotions. And here is someone completely discounting all of it because they are, in essence, ignorant.

But, like so many things in life, I knew what to do. I had some more wine, brushed it off and wrote a blog post about it. 😉 Because seriously, you might want to think before you laugh at someone with the power to write.

So, I ask you fellow romance writers: How do you handle the romance haters of the world?