Within the next month, a certain Abby Wheeler will be putting out her first romance novel for public consumption. Before that happens, I just wanted to put myself (or my romance novelist self) out there.
I've read romance for years. I've often hid the awful "clinch covered" books behind Stephen King, Jane Austen,and Mary Higgins Clark. Was it great literature? Not always. You come across a few favorites here and there, the ones you can reread and have a good laugh or cry to, the ones with clever characters or turns of phrase, the ones you take the trouble to recommend to people and pretend it doesn't matter if they like them. But mostly, it's candy. Fluffy, sugary candy for the brain and, boy, can it be tasty!
I've entertained the idea of trying to write professionally for years. But I always thought I'd want to write something more universal than the romance novel. Something great! Something people wouldn't hide behind Jane Austen! I'm not being modest when I say I don't have that in me. I don't believe I can write a great horror, thriller, mystery, fantasy or anything that will someday be studied as actual literature.
I like silly romances. I like well-worn cliches and tropes (well, most of them). I like arranged marriages turned to love and survival turned to romance and ugly ducklings turned to swans and friendships turned to relationships. It's not that I don't also like the more high brow works above. It's not even that I won't someday try to write the greatest horror, fantasy, or mystery. Romance just happens to be what I feel moved to write now.
It wasn't until about seven years ago when I put down a romance novel with mild disappointment and thought "If I'd written it, I'd have done THIS." Then I thought... Well, why not do it?
So I did. So why is it only now, in 2012, when anything is happening? Well, that's a story for another post. I'll tell you all about it later.
For now... Hi. I'm Abby Wheeler. I hope you like my silly, smutty books!
