So I am taking an upper division English class this semester in preparation for graduating and it is “The Art of The Short Story”. I think they should rename it “Authors Who Were Whacked and Needed Psychotherapy” since we “get to” read Poe and Hawthorne and other torturous, chauvinistic “masterpieces” (their pieces all right! Pieces of…) Can you tell I’m not an English major?

Anywho, last night, we finally actually had (what I thought) to be a good read: The Storm by Kate Chopin. It was written in late 1800’s and was VERY dicey for its time. The author was seriously scorned for its vulgarity (kind of funny that someone wouldn’t bat an eyelash at it if it were in Cosmo this day and age….but that’s a different story)

Ding-bat me decides to speak up in a room of 45+ English Majors how much I enjoyed the storyline and found it to read very much like a “Romance Novel”.

{{GASPS!!!}} {{Giggles}} {{Then cricket chirping silence}}

(Oh no she di’-n’t!)

… As the professor looks me dead in the face and ROLLED….yes ROLLED her eyes at me!

Someone from the back of the room says sarcastically, “Ya, maybe thats where Danielle Steel gets her stuff. Ha!”

I (reflecting on this prior post) sit up a little straighter in my chair, feeling a bit proud not to have a dead psychotic persons novel stuck up my…uh….ego….and respond , “Guess I’m just a simple kinda gal.”

Thanks for giving me the guts!!!

I love the education comebacks and the healthy relationships with interesting characters and good sex comment. Sigh…so true.

I read romance novels because sometimes I want a book to be an escape to a romantic and spicy world with a happy ending. God, I just finished Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and had to chase it with a reread of Bridget Jones just to feel human again! It’s like with movies…I don’t always want to be preached to or come away wringing my hands at the state of mankind/the planet/world health. Sometimes I really want to be entertained, and I think that’s totally valid AND valuable.

Yeah, really. I hate those romance novels. Silly little books with interesting plots, strong characterization, emotion and plenty of twists and turns. Oh and those happy endings that restore my faith in humanity? Those suck.

Argh. I had someone at work actually say to me when they heard I wrote romance say, “Oh, I heard that for Harlequin you just got a template and filled in the blanks.” Right. Anyone know where I could find that template? It would cut down on my writing time considerably.

When people tell me more about why they are anti-romance books, it’s either based on myths about the genre (as in, they have never read a romance but hear these things about them) or because they have read books that aren’t really romance. And I’ll give them this, there are poorly written romances out there. Jill does not write any of those! LOL

When someone bashes a genre due to misconceptions or elitism, I call them on it. I state facts, I issue challenges and I call a spade a spade. I try to do it nicely, but I do it. And then I learn to let it go. Still learning that one, but my peace is more in tact than it used to be.

The proof of your success and the popularity of the romance genre proves her WRONG!

In todays dangerous world there’s nothing simple about enjoying and obtaining “a happy ever after ending”.

Writing is hard work. Take pride in your accomplishments and let the simpleminded person’s comment GO!

And then, just to amuse myself, I would try to include the words “hey, I learned that from a romance novel” into every conversation for the entire day. Heh.

“Well, I’m sorry to hear you think Shakespeare, Chaucer, Austen and the Bronte sisters as simple. Oh, you don’t read them? Well, never mind.”

Words slice deeper than the blade of a dagger.

Grrh. People are stupid. Ignore them.

If it is someone I know, I’ll give them a reading challenge. I’ll pick out a romance book based on the reading tendencies they have. I’ve gotten my mom to read one, my sister. This is big. My mom only reads non-fiction or historicals and my sister doesn’t read anything but Harry Potter (and, let’s put it this way… she finished Harry Potter last freakin’ week!).