Friday, April 4, 2014

Anything Goes

I write romance.

There, I said it.

There are a lot of people who look down on romance – and on the people who read it and the people who write it – because there’s this weird idea still hanging on that not only is romance “genre fiction”, it’s somehow the lowest kind of genre fiction.

It’s kind of like those people who say sarcasm is the lowest form of humour. Not if you’re doing it right.

The fact that some people look down on romance doesn’t really bother me. Mostly I’m amused, because I think these people imagine that romance is still this:



Look out, Nurse Saxon! That amnesiac patient (I'm guessing) is actually a millionaire rake (I'm also guessing).

The above cover is a very outdated and narrow view of the genre. Because it can actually be this:



Or this: 


Or this: 

Or this: 



Anything goes! 

And that’s the most fun thing about this genre. I can write a spy story, or a funny story, or a horror story, or any story that I want, and as long as it’s still about people making a connection it still counts. You won’t find that kind of latitude in other genres. 


And that’s why I love it. I love reading it, and I love writing it, and screw what anyone else thinks. We’re having fun over here.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Totally agree, some of the best and most memorable books have been romance, a well written book is a well written book ..

Anyta Sunday said...

*Snort!* Love the post. So true.
Thanks for writing such great stories.

Lisa said...

Thanks so much for commenting, Karen and Anyta.

I think the most interesting stories we can tell are where people make connections. I think people are fascinating, and ho we relate to one another is so much fun to explore.