Romancing the Blog | Romance Authors and Readers Who Blog

For many of us today, it’s Christmas Eve. For others, this is the season for a multitude of other holidays, including Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Regardless of which one, if any, we observe, they all share a common bond: They are all celebrations of life, love, hope, and faith.

As a child, I was exposed to a number of different religions, my mother being of the firm opinion that religion is a personal matter about which everyone should make his/her own decisions. So, in this regard, I had an extremely eclectic upbringing, and perhaps that’s one of the reasons why I became such an equally eclectic reader, as well.

Still, over the years, I did find myself drawn to certain beliefs and certain books. Looking back today and analyzing all this for this post, I realized that the main reason romance became my favorite genre both to read and to write in is because, just like all the various holidays we
celebrate at this time of year, romance novels consistently send positive messages.

Like most eclectic readers, I have a good grasp of literary fiction and all the other genres, too. So I know that whenever I choose something that falls into one of those sections of bookshelves everywhere, I may be letting myself in, for example, for main characters I can understand, but can’t sympathize with or relate to, motives and themes, etc., that I find depressing or despicable, and, last but not least, reads that are, ultimately, for whatever reasons, real downers. And that’s okay, because I wouldn’t have wanted to miss books like William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice and Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun.

They’re brilliant and tragic. I admire and appreciate them for what they are and the profound insights they offer. But the truth is that, even so, I really don’t want to read them again. Once was enough.

On the other hand, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve reread Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind. There are countless others, but I mention these two romances especially, simply because they don’t have the traditional happy endings we’ve come to expect from romance novels. But because their endings are ambiguous at best, we, their readers, are free to imagine whatever we wish. We can envision the spirits of Cathy and Heathcliff reunited on some wild, windswept moor on some plane of existence far beyond our ken or Scarlett winning Rhett back, after all.

Would it happen in real life? I don’t know. But in romance novels, whether contemporaries or historicals, inspirationals or paranormals, suspenses or time-travels, love always triumphs in the end, or, at the very least, there is the hope that it will. If there is one secret to the tremendous success of the romance genre worldwide, I think that’s it.

Yes, there are those who criticize the romance genre for its perennially positive messages and idealistic happy endings. I can only wonder why any in the romance genre pay any attention to these Grinches and Scrooges. If these critics don’t want to read about love conquering all and happily-ever-afters, there is plenty of doom and gloom for them to choose from. But as a romance writer myself, I’m glad it’s rarely to be found in the romance genre.

As all the holidays at this time of year remind us, we are at our best when we celebrate those ideals that have the power to change us and our world for the better.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and Happy Reading!

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