That’s an important question to me, a romance author. I’m going to share my ideas and I hope you’ll share yours and tell me if I’m nuts or right! :-)
Over a decade ago I received a letter from a man in Australia. He’d just read his first Love Inspired Romance. It was Hope’s Garden my third, (2000). He said that he’d recently buried his wife of 66 years (That’s SIXTY-SIX YEARS) and that he began to read romance to remember her.
WOW. That letter was an eye-opener.
Authors know readers read fiction for emotion.
Romance readers read for a special, a specific emotion--romance.
Why?
Why do we like to read about romance?
Tell me what it is that draws you back to romance?
The Happily Ever After?
The intense conflict between hero and hero?
Experiencing the physical attraction between hero and heroine vicariously?
What? Tell me. Authors want to know what you read romance to find!
If you haven’t run into me before, I’m an inspirational author who will have written and published 40 books (both historical and contemporary romances) by the end of this year. I live in the northwoods of Wisconsin by a lake in a cottage with my real life hero and four cats. I have my own blog which features Strong Women and Brave Stories on my website.
Lyn Cote's latest eBook release Two Seasons of Romance contains four short, sweet, light romances set in two seasons—summer and winter. The four romances are about the power of love to transform lives with hope.
The digital book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.
I love how romance authors always take me from these-people-will-NEVER-get together to happily-ever-after. Makes me smile.
ReplyDeleteI agree! I always choose a hero and heroine who would be THE LAST ONE they'd want. Haha!
DeleteI fell in love with romance novels when I had four small children at home -- including a baby who was, and still is, the most intense person I've ever met. The books were fun, emotional, quick to read, and always gave me the feeling that things were going to turn out alright.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes the take me away feeling!
DeleteI love escaping into a different world and falling in love along with the characters and having my heart sigh when I read "The End."
ReplyDeleteI think that's one of the BIGGEST draws to romance. We love the feeling of falling in love again.
DeleteI love romance because I believe in the greatest romance of all---that of God reaching out in love to take us as His own. I also believe in happy endings for the same reason. God is the creator of romance---I see Him in a beautiful, clean, sweet romance.
DeleteHi Lyn,
ReplyDeleteI fell in love with Harlequin novels when I was a young teen.....13 maybe. Prior to that I'd developed a love for Phyllis Whitney and Victoria Holt. I think as a teen I enjoyed the idea of finding a love that would last a lifetime. And of course, romance novels take us out of our everyday lives. The idea that two people can overcome obstacles to find love is very appealing to me. When you read a romance novel you just know that the couple will overcome all adversity and have their happily ever after. I get so discouraged when I hear about couples divorcing after two years or four years. I think sometimes love is tough work, but it's worth fighting for. Romance novels allows me to believe in happily ever afters.
Yes, we write stories where the hero and heroine are prepared by trial to work at the HEA!
DeleteLovely post, Lyn! With all the difficult challenges and hard answers we have to face in this world, romance is like a sweet gift. Reading romance lets me relive that wonderful felling over and over.
ReplyDeleteI've read romance for ages. I can't remember when I didn't. I think what I get out of the stories has changed over the years, as my taste in romance has changed. There was a time when I loved paranormal and sci fi romance above all else, but now I like the gentler sweet contemporaries about family values with children and pets included. Now I'm looking for the warm fuzzy feeling not angsty stories.
ReplyDeleteI hear you!
DeleteActually, when I read romance, I prefer that it have more than just the story of boy meets girl. I like a bit of suspense. I think that draws the couple even closer. And I appreciate a clean story. That is why I enjoy this group of writers.
ReplyDeleteThere is a wonderful feeling when reading a beautiful romance--turning the pages so quickly, yet not wanting the story to end. Lovely blog.
ReplyDeleteI love reading romance because you know you're going to get a happy ending, and those don't always happen in life. It's an escape, but it also can make you think and dream and hope.
ReplyDeleteOne big draw of romance for me: knowing things will work out in the end ... it's a guaranteed happy ending of the kind we can't often rely on in real life. A second: the warm, fuzzy feeling I take away when I close the book and can carry back into my real life, as a reminder to make that, too, warmer and fuzzier whenever I can.
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed reading everyone's responses. So many good points!
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