You Read Romance???

Although romance novels make up a large part of the books sold each year, it is still, and most likely always will be, looked down on. I personally know a lot of people who won't read a paperback copy of a romance novel in public. They also don't admit to reading the genre to people outside their circle of friends and family and sometimes not even to them.

I write romance and one of my sisters always rolls her eyes and makes derogatory remarks about romance novels when they are brought up in conversation. It used to bother me, but no longer does. Reading is subjective. What one person likes, another may not and that's really all it boils down to in her case.

So if anyone makes a comment about your preference for romance novels, direct them to this article - Why You Should Be Reading Romance Novels  It just might change their minds about the genre and maybe, just maybe, get them to try reading one themselves.

You Write What?

I recently ran into a old friend I hadn't seen in a few years at a local festival. She was with two other women I didn't know. When she introduced me, she included the fact that I'm a writer. One of the women asked what I wrote. Not giving it a second thought, I said I'd had 2 historical romance novels published but was currently working on a contemporary romance series. The two women looked at each other and laughed. One said, "oh those smutty 50 Shades of Gray type books." The other said, "I guess it is hard to get a real book published so romance novels are a good fall back plan."

I smiled and said nothing. I should have said this:

•  Romance novels are the most economically successful book type in the fiction genre.
• They outsell mystery, science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels every year.
• Per the Romance Writers of America, the romance genre and its sub-genres have over 30 million dedicated readers.
• Romance novels regularly appear on the bestseller lists.
• In 2013 (the latest year statistics are available) romance novels had an estimated total sales of $1.08 billion. (Source: BookStats).  Yes, that is billion.

I guess being brought up with the rule to always be polite does have its drawbacks.  My mom also always says, "you can't fight ignorance. It's a losing battle."

Romance Novels and Me

Looking back on my childhood, I remember the stacks of Agatha Christie novels on our bookshelves, the Ellery Queen Magazines in a neat pile on one of the end tables and the latest Mary Higgins Clark novel always on my mother's bedside table. Needless to say, my mom was a dedicated mystery reader. She also bought me the entire Nancy Drew collection which I still have.

I stumbled across the very first romance novel I read quite by accident. I was in the library and had decided I'd read all the young adult novels the library owned that interested me so I was on the hunt for something else. Something new. Something different, maybe even a bit more grown up. Deciding to try reading one of those mystery books, I headed for the mystery section.

Along the way I had to pass a circular rack of books with white covers with oval centers picturing men and women in various poses. I'd stumbled upon Harlequin Presents. With titles like Bond of Hatred, A Woman Accused, and Hostage of the Hawk I thought these were mystery novels. With my mother hurrying my siblings and I toward the circulation desk, I picked up A Woman Accused by Sandra Marton and stuffed it between a few Babysitter's Club books a friend suggested I try.

I tried to reading one of the Babysitter's Club books and decided it wasn't for me. I then picked up the Harlequin book and was hooked. Every week when we'd go to the library, I'd pick up one or two more of those Harlequin Presents novels. Soon I was moving on to historical romance with their tales of dashing pirates and reformed rogues. From there, I moved on to romantic suspense, contemporary romance, and paranormal romance.

While I dealt with a lot of teasing from my siblings for reading romance, I stood fast and kept reading them and still do. I am  proud to say one of my older sisters now reads romance. And my mom has been reading romantic suspense novels the last few years. So now we trade books - I give her the romantic suspense novels I've read and she gives me the mysteries she's read.

Now if I could convince my two other sisters to give romance novels a try...

Please Welcome My Guest...

Please welcome my guest, Paula Martin.  

Paula had some early publishing success in her twenties with short stories and four contemporary romance novels, but then had a break from writing while she brought up a young family and also pursued her career as a history teacher for twenty-five years. She has recently returned to writing fiction, after retiring from teaching. and has had three romance novels published, ‘His Leading Lady’ in June 2011, ‘Fragrance of Violets in February 2012’ and ‘Changing the Future’ in May 2012. Another novel will be published in November 2012 and she is currently working on two more romances.  She lives near Manchester in North-West England, and has two daughters and two grandsons. Apart from writing, she enjoys visiting new places and has travelled extensively in Britain, mainland Europe, the Middle East, America and Canada. Her favourite places are the English Lake District and Ireland. She’s also interested in musical theatre and tracing her family history.  

Where do you get your ideas?

This is a question I’m often asked, and I invariably have to say, “I’m not sure.” For most of my novels, I start with a vague idea about one character, or sometimes two people, and my mind asks ‘What if …?’ The story then develops from there.

I can’t usually pinpoint the moment when a seed plants itself in my mind, but in the case of my November release, ‘Her Only Option’ I can tell you exactly when it was conceived.

On the afternoon of Thursday 7th October 2010, I was on the sundeck of a Nile cruise ship. It was moored at Aswan, after sailing upstream from Luxor, where we’d visited the Valley of the Kings. There are so many cruise ships that they have to be moored four abreast and, as they’re built to roughly the same design, their sundecks are level.

So I’m lying on my sunbed and I start to wonder if it would be possible to vault over the rails and the 3 or 4 foot gap from one cruise ship to another. Not that I’d any intention of trying it, of course. My days of vaulting anywhere are well and truly over! That evening, when we were on the sundeck again, after a visit to the bazaar in Aswan, I asked one of the friends we’d made on the cruise. He wandered across to the rail, studied the distance for a moment, and said, “Well, I wouldn’t try it now, but I could have done it easily when I was in my twenties or thirties.”

So it was possible! Until that afternoon, I’d hadn’t even thought about writing a novel set in Egypt but now my mind started working overtime. Within a short time, I’d dismissed the idea of my hero and heroine being on separate cruises because when the cruise ended, they’d have to go back home, and now I knew I wanted to keep them in Egypt. It didn’t take me long to decide that my heroine could be a cruise ship tour guide.

And what about the hero? I’d loved our visit to the Valley of the Kings earlier that week. It was the culmination of a long-held dream and more than exceeded my expectations, especially when we actually stood in Tutankhamen’s tomb. It was fairly easy, therefore, to decide that my hero could be an archaeologist, working in one of the tombs in the valley.

Of course, that was only the beginning, and I still had a long way to go before the novel finally came together. It went off in a different direction than I’d originally imagined and, in fact, the hero never did that leap over the rails. He did, however, first see the heroine lying on the sunbed of the neighbouring cruise ship.

Blurb:   Neve Dalton loves her job as a tour guide on a River Nile cruise ship as much as she values her independence. She isn’t ready to settle down with her Egyptian boyfriend, despite his repeated proposals and his father’s desire to see him married.

Nor is she ready to meet Ross McAllister, a compelling and fascinating archaeologist. She struggles against her growing attraction to him until she can no longer ignore what her heart is telling her. This is the man who sets her soul on fire.

 

When she starts receiving cryptic messages, and Ross’s work in the famous Valley of the Kings is threatened, Neve has to make a heart-breaking and life-changing decision which she feels is her only option. 

Can they discover whose enmity is forcing them apart before it’s too late?

Excerpt:  (from the scene where they meet at a party and he tells her about the first time he saw her.)

“Want some kofta?” He ladled the spicy lamb onto both their plates before moving on to the stainless steel chafer containing rice. “You and Joanne exchange ships next week; she’s on the Nadia and you’re on the Amirah. It’s a good thing I found out, otherwise I’d have had to practise vaulting over the rails between the sundecks.”

“Easier to go down to the lobby where they have the gangplanks between the ships.”

“Yeah, but not half as much fun. I even considered doing it last week when I first met you.”

He spooned rice on to her plate until she put out her hand to stop him. A vision of him vaulting the four-foot gap between the rails of the sundecks came into her mind and she gave a quick chuckle. “Last Monday I’d probably have been willing you to drop down into the gap.”

“Ouch! That bad, was it?”

She smirked. “The first impression was not good, no.”

Even as she said it, she thought of the impact his masculine body had on her when he’d stood at the rails of the Amirah. Yes, she’d been attracted, but had dismissed him as a cruise ship Casanova. Since then, what had happened? It wasn’t simply because he was the renowned archaeologist that her opinion had changed.

It was because she’d enjoyed their conversation about Ancient Egypt when they were in Senhotep’s tomb. She’d felt safe with him even when the lights failed. She’d melted at his kiss. Yes, admit it, Neve, you did. She’d been unable to stop thinking about him during the sail up to Aswan, and was thrilled when he appeared at Abu Simbel. Their felucca sail had been a natural culmination to what had been happening to her all week.

She’d started to fall in love with him. 

You can find all of Paula's books on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/Paula-Martin/e/B005BRF9AI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1   

She loves to hear from readers and can be contacted through her website or blogs.  

Website: http://paulamartinromances@webs.com

Blog: http://paulamartinpotpourri.blogspot.com

Group Blog (with 3 other writers): http://heroineswithhearts.blogspot.com