Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Awe and friendships... by Roxanne Rustand

Since all of us here enjoy reading sweet romance fiction, I'd love to ask:  When did you first start reading romance?

I remember picking up a random romance novel when I was in college, not caring for that particular book, and setting the whole genre aside for years. Foolish me!  Though a decade later, after a friend
handed me one of Judith McNaught's early titles and dared me to put it down after Chapter 1,  I learned the error of my ways and became truly entranced with the captivating, emotion-filled novels that I'd been missing out on for so long. Ahhh, romance!

After that, I read them voraciously...and eventually started dabbling with some writing myself, just for fun.  Certainly not because I had a glimmer of hope that I would ever finish writing a whole book--much less be published.  This was prior to the explosion of the Internet, and published authors seemed as ethereal and distant as the stars.  Surely their kind of success was unattainable by mere work and determination! I remember attending a booksigning for the first time and feeling such awe at meeting a Real Author in person.

Well, time marched on...I did become published, and while attending writers' conferences I got to know some of the authors I'd read early on.  What a joy it has been to form friendships with people who understand the joys and challenges of this business! A couple of weeks ago, many of us were at RWA (the Romance Writers of America) conference in New York, where workshops and casual networking abound.  The photo is of my daughter Emily at the conference, were she had her first editor and agent appointments.  An exciting time for her!

But it no longer takes traveling to distance conferences for making contacts. The world has evolved, and the Internet has become  a wonderful place to socialize with authors, readers and friends around the world. What an
opportunity for us to all get to know to each other better!  That's what I love about the opportunity for interaction between authors and readers  on the Sweet Romance Reads blog and Facebook page.

And it's not only for the interaction, but this site is also a wonderful place to find new-to-us authors of sweet romance to read, through book release announcements, special events and publishing projects.  A group of us is now working on a second Christmas anthology to be released this fall, and I can't wait to read all of those stories!

PS:  I looked on various photo stock websites for a romantic photo to use, but couldn't find just the one, so I used one of my parents after their wedding  in 1944.  My mom wrote on the back "We are happy!" and that's how I feel when I read to the end of a good novel.  How about you?

All the best to you,
Roxanne Rustand

www.facebook.com/roxanner.rustand
author of over 35 traditionally published sweet romance and inspirational romance novels and four indie novels






7 comments:

  1. I love that picture, Roxanne. It's so sweet and timeless. I started reading romance when I had four small children, including a newborn. A neighbor of mine read them, loaned me some, and got me hooked. A happy addiction!

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    1. Thank you, Patricia! And yes--a happy addiction, indeed! :)

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  2. I hope Emily had a good time. Thanks for stopping by to meet me at the signing! I started with Barbara Cartland and regency romance. :)

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    1. It was so nice to see you at the booksigning! I enjoyed it this year more than most, as I had no current books to sign and got to go visiting instead. :)

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  3. I read my first romance when I was in high school. I loved Mary Stewart. When I was in college I read very little for pleasure, and while I was teaching elementary school, I read a lot of kid lit. When my kids were in school, I discovered romances and more romances at the library. I was hooked and read sometimes one a day until I started writing my own. Now I miss all that reading time.

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    1. I love Mary Stewart and other gothic writers in high school also! Loved Nine Coaches Waiting.

      You are right though, writing takes up that reading time!

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  4. I guess I read what would now be classified as YA romance when I was in school, but I started reading romance after reading an Amanda Quick novel following a time when I read a lot of Indian women authors. All of the later were pretty depressing, so I was happy to find something with a guaranteed happy ending.

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