“
Dismissing fantasy writing because some of it is bad is exactly like saying I'm not reading Jane Eyre because it is a romance and I know romance is crap.
”
”
China Miéville
“
Dear Mia,
What can I say? I don't know all that much about romance novels, but I think you must be the Stephen King of the genre. Your book is hot. Thanks for letting me read it. Anyone who doesn't want to publish it is a fool.
Anyway, since I know it's your birthday, and I also know you never remember to back anything up, here's a little something I made for you. It would be a shame if Ransom My Heart got lost before it ever saw the light of day because your hard drive crashed. See you tonight.
Love,
Michael
”
”
Meg Cabot
“
When a woman reads a romance novel, she is putting her own pleasure first. That small act of rebellion is perceived as a threat to the status quo. It’s also why this eternally popular and profitable genre has been scorned, ridiculed and dismissed.
”
”
Maya Rodale
“
The romance genre is the only genre where readers are guaranteed novels that place the heroine at the heart of the story. These are books that celebrate women's heroic virtues and values: courage, honor, determination and a belief in the healing power of love.
”
”
Jayne Ann Krentz
“
The big trinity of publishing: mystery, thrillers and romance. If you can combine all three, then it’s a winner’s trifecta and you’ll be rich beyond your dreams.
”
”
Dermot Davis (Brain: The Man Who Wrote the Book That Changed the World)
“
I know people hate the romance genre in general, for its predictability, but that's precisely why I love it. Isn't there enough uncertainty in life to seek it in cinema too? For me, there's something magical about that sequence, the promise of a happily ever after, that will never not soothe the deepest of my wounds.
”
”
Nona Uppal (Fool Me Twice)
“
I have seen authors saying their agents have told them to change their genre to another. For instances, YA genre is re-classified as historical romance or Contemporary Romance is now Women's Fiction to fit market trends. It's important for authors to be flexible, but they should keep writing what they love to write. Writing is a profession, I understand, but it is also an art. Be true to it.
”
”
Kailin Gow
“
Romance novels are tales of brave women taming dangerous men. They are stories that capture the excitement of that most mysterious of relationships, the one between a woman and a man. They are legends told to women by other women, and they are as powerful and as endlessly fascinating to women as the legends that lie at the heart of all the other genres.
”
”
Jayne Ann Krentz
“
Quick note here: if this crush-slash-swooning stuff is hard for you to stomach; if you’ve never had a similar experience, then you should come to grips with the fact that you’ve got a TV dinner for a heart and might want to consider climbing inside a microwave and turning it on high for at least an hour, which if you do consider only goes to show what kind of idiot you truly are because microwaves are way too small for anyone, let alone you, to climb into.
”
”
Mark Z. Danielewski (House of Leaves)
“
That's really the point of romance as a genre, women asking for what they want, without apology.
”
”
Elise Bryant (Happily Ever Afters (Happily Ever Afters, #1))
“
Tolkien and Lewis were attracted to the genres of myth and romance not because they sought to escape the world, but because for them the real world had a mythic and heroic quality.
”
”
Joseph Loconte (A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18)
“
People who make snide comments to authors like "anyone can write a book" or "well, you did it, so obviously I can/it can't be that hard" or poke at a book because it's "romance" or "genre fiction" and act like that somehow makes it substandard because they don't read it... well, ok, go ahead. Write a bestseller. Don't forget to go through the correct edit process. We'll wait.
”
”
Michelle M. Pillow
“
It was Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the television series, 1997-2003, not the lackluster movie that preceded it) that blazed the trail for Twilight and the slew of other paranormal romance novels that followed, while also shaping the broader urban fantasy field from the late 1990s onward.
Many of you reading this book will be too young to remember when Buffy debuted, so you'll have to trust us when we say that nothing quite like it had existed before. It was thrillingly new to see a young, gutsy, kick-ass female hero, for starters, and one who was no Amazonian Wonder Woman but recognizably ordinary, fussing about her nails, her shoes, and whether she'd make it to her high school prom. Buffy's story contained a heady mix of many genres (fantasy, horror, science-fiction, romance, detective fiction, high school drama), all of it leavened with tongue-in-cheek humor yet underpinned by the serious care with which the Buffy universe had been crafted. Back then, Whedon's dizzying genre hopping was a radical departure from the norm-whereas today, post-Buffy, no one blinks an eye as writers of urban fantasy leap across genre boundaries with abandon, penning tender romances featuring werewolves and demons, hard-boiled detective novels with fairies, and vampires-in-modern-life sagas that can crop up darn near anywhere: on the horror shelves, the SF shelves, the mystery shelves, the romance shelves.
”
”
Ellen Datlow (Teeth: Vampire Tales)
“
The one young officer swung his horse around, came
back, and leaned over into Penthe's face.
She did not look at him.
"Are you free, Miss?"
"I am free. Free from everyone, but my lover. He has
stolen my heart and soul forever.
”
”
Mark Morneweg (Penthe & Alphonse)
“
For me the genre of romance is about the characters. It’s about following a journey between two people and watching them grow and develop and have their lives change for the better because of their presence in each other’s world.
”
”
Samantha Young
“
Snow White purses her lips and presses them to the glass before taking a quick taste, just enough to wet her tongue.
”
”
Shari J. Ryan (Fall to Pieces)
“
I have noticed a curious bifurcation in outcome in the way romances are written by women et written by men - Love Story, The Bridges of Madison County, every James Bond tale ever penned, even the film named above - end with the woman either lost or dead. And the man free to love, or at least to have sex, again. Romances (in the modern genre sense) written by women end with the couple alive, together, and in a committed and at least potentially fertile relationship, ready to turn to the work of their world. In other words, men's romances are about love and death; women's romances are about love and life.
”
”
Lois McMaster Bujold
“
William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623 two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world. Source: Wikipedia
”
”
William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
“
Romance is about the centrality of loving relationships, and it reminds us that human connection is vital to existence, rather than glorifying egoism or violence or greed. So excuse my genre for not being perfect, but let’s back the fuck up from hypocritically critiquing books that have done a lot more for humanity than slashers and circle-jerk, five-hundred-page, nihilistic tomes.
”
”
Chloe Liese (Ever After Always (Bergman Brothers, #3))
“
Some stories consumed you, they made time stop, your worries float into the ether, and when it came to my reading habits I chose romance over any other genre. The appeal of the happy ever after, the winsome heroine being adored for who she was, and the devastatingly handsome hero with more to him than met the eye tugged at my heart.
”
”
Rebecca Raisin (The Bookshop on the Corner (The Bookshop, #1; The Gingerbread Cafe, #2.5))
“
The rest of 2012's big winners are romances, all but one (The Lucky One, by Nicholas Sparks) of the sexed-up genre now known as "mommy-porn.
”
”
Stephen King (Guns)
“
Compared to the rest of us here, she appears a little too polished with her business-casual attire to walk into this rundown, hole-in-the-wall bar, especially alone at night.
”
”
Shari J. Ryan (Fall to Pieces)
“
I’m sure she must have a boyfriend hiding in the shadows just waiting for someone to say hi to her.
”
”
Shari J. Ryan (Fall to Pieces)
“
She’s drumming her pink-tinted fingernails against the bar-top and her knee is bouncing a mile a minute
”
”
Shari J. Ryan (Fall to Pieces)
“
Most people know what they want and how they want it when they order here.
”
”
Shari J. Ryan (Fall to Pieces)
“
Todos tenemos derecho a vivir una gran historia de amor.
”
”
Sandra Becerril (Valle de fuego)
“
It doesn’t matter the genre, what matters is the escape. The appreciation for getting lost in words.
”
”
Meghan Quinn (See Me After Class (Steamy Teacher Romances, #1))
“
...after knowing the man as long as I have, I’m presuming he wants to know why this girl is sitting here, drinking whiskey like it’s a glass of water she just found in the middle of a desert.
”
”
Shari J. Ryan (Fall to Pieces)
“
This girl has a mysterious look in her eyes, and her rigid stature highlights a sense of confidence. She didn’t accidentally stumble upon this bar. There is an obvious purpose as she falls heavily down onto a bar stool.
”
”
Shari J. Ryan (Fall to Pieces)
“
Angela Carter...refused to join in rejecting or denouncing fairy tales, but instead embraced the whole stigmatized genre, its stock characters and well-known plots, and with wonderful verve and invention, perverse grace and wicked fun, soaked them in a new fiery liquor that brought them leaping back to life. From her childhood, through her English degree at the University of Bristol where she specialised in Medieval Literature, and her experiences as a young woman on the folk-music circuit in the West Country, Angela Carter was steeped in English and Celtic faerie, in romances of chivalry and the grail, Chaucerian storytelling and Spenserian allegory, and she was to become fairy tale’s rescuer, the form’s own knight errant, who seized hold of it in its moribund state and plunged it into the fontaine de jouvence itself.
(from "Chamber of Secrets: The Sorcery of Angela Carter")
”
”
Marina Warner
“
Love hurts.
Think back over romance novels you’ve loved or the genre-defining books that drive our industry. The most unforgettable stories and characters spring from crushing opposition. What we remember about romance novels is the darkness that drives them. Three hundred pages of folks being happy together makes for a hefty sleeping pill, but three hundred pages of a couple finding a way to be happy in the face of impossible odds makes our hearts soar. In darkness, we are all alone.
So don’t just make love, make anguish for your characters. As you structure a story, don’t satisfy your hero’s desires, thwart them. Make sure your solutions create new problems. Nurture your characters doubts and despair. Make them earn the happy ending they want, even better…make them deserve it. Delay and disappointment charge situations and validate character growth. Misery accompanies love. It’s no accident that many of the stories we think of as timeless romances in Western Literature are fiercely tragic: Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Cupid and Psyche… the pain in them drags us back again and again, hoping that this time we’ll find a way out of the dark.
Only if you let your characters get lost will we get lost in them. And that, more than anything else, is what romance can and should do for its protagonists and its readers: lead us through the labyrinth, skirt the monstrous despair roaming its halls, and find our way into daylight.
”
”
Damon Suede
“
As an author, you notice it. It’s always overlooked for literary fiction, whatever that means. People always thumb their nose at the genre, even though romance finds its way into every good story, every good movie or TV show.
”
”
Karina Halle (One Hot Italian Summer)
“
Singling out “women’s fiction” for genre derision never fails to piss me off. Somehow worse when women do it. Case in pt: Editor says crowd-sourcing editorial for romance & erotica not bad idea b/c “no great artistry at stake” Yes, genre fiction not high art. But it’s a craft we take seriously, writing for love of storytelling, not writing whatever sells.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong
“
For some reason, when people meet me and find out I'm a writer they always ask if I write children's books. Um... please don't let your kids read my books. Well, unless your kids are in their 30s or something...then yeah, they're old enough. LOL
”
”
Michelle M. Pillow
“
I’ve always loved the hopeful nature of the romance genre. We can go to terrible places, dark places with our hero and heroine, explore wounds painful and old, because we know that there is hope even in the darkness.
(Interview with Read-A-Romance Month, 2013)
”
”
Nalini Singh
“
I made a decision long ago not to make any apologies. Romance rocks, and even though my books don't actually fall into the romance genre, I tout them as very much being about the romance. It's fun. We're all obsessed with it. And it's human nature. Remember, NO APOLOGIES! Write what 's in your heart!
”
”
Darynda Jones
“
Then you have this other phenomena of the paranormal romance. It's all the benefits of being a vampire without the sacrifices. By the gods, Meyer's vampires walk around sparkling in the daylight and some are vegetarians. But this phenomenon is also tied to a lot of our communal fears. Fear of aging. Fear of fading youth. Fear of loneliness. But whereas the classic motifs are more concerned with confronting and overcoming our fears, the fears of the paranormal romance genre become twisted fantasies of denial. The idea of staying young, attractive and powerful for eternity feeds into the modern self-absorbed ethos.
”
”
Julie Ann Dawson
“
Humor, drama, romance, whatever genre of entertainment you create or consume is only effective if it is challenging to your sensibilities. When the sexuality of seeing a woman’s ankles became trumped by her calf, society changed. When the calf was later trumped by a woman offering shots of alcohol from her vagina on Rock of Love, society changed again. My hope for this world is that we can soon run out of shocking body parts and can finally see the humor in our ætheric bodies.
”
”
Christy Leigh Stewart
“
Pretty doll," rasped the dark haired vampire as he went about behind her, and she could feel his ravenous hunger practically radiating off him.
”
”
J.E. Keep (Theodora's Descent)
“
Whatever genre you deem suitable for your taste – romance, comedy, action, mystery, sci-fi or anything else, make sure it has the plain everyday human kindness.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (The Film Testament)
“
Jones explains there’s an entire romance book genre based on hockey players.
”
”
Sloane St. James (Strong and Wild (Lakes Hockey, #2))
“
When I was a kid, I just read and read. We were lucky enough to have gone to England and had a whole bunch of Penguin Puffins books, like The Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley, which is hilarious. I would love to be able to write a book like that, but I don't know that I have a humorous bone in my body when it comes to writing. Once on a Time by A.A. Milne. I read a lot of old, old fantasy stuff. The Carbonelbooks by Barbara Sleigh. Then when I got a little older I loved Zilpha Keatley Snyder. I was a big fan of romance and when I got a little bit older I would read a Harlequin romance or a Georgette Heyer novel and then David Copperfield, and then another genre book and then Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy. I was that kind of reader. One book that I loved was I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. I loved voice and that book had it in spades. And then of course I grew into loving Jane Eyre.
”
”
Franny Billingsley
“
It’s not often that you see this level of complexity in the erotic romance genre. This felt more on par with something written by leading authors in the mainstream suspense genre. There is intrigue, magic, drama…and that’s just the first chapter! Once I started reading, I couldn’t put the book down.
From Just Erotic Romance Review Publications, on Soulmate's Touch
”
”
Emma Paul
“
Oh, dear God. Do none of you know what romance is? We must have a plan. Some grand gesture to let him know that you still love him as much as he loves you.” “I don’t have a plan.” I groaned. “I know.” Staci bounced on the bed. “You can get your vagina pierced.” “What kind of romance are you reading?” I balked. “True. Wrong genre.” She jumped off the bed and pulled me with her into her bedroom.
”
”
Holly Renee (Where Good Girls Go To Die (Good Girls, #1))
“
Romance is fiction.” He punctuated this statement by taking a bite of steak, and then chewing. “But it’s—it’s—” Interesting? Well researched? Engaging? Well written? All of the above. “Not what you expected?” he supplied, smirking around his bite. “What did you expect?” Shrugging, I lifted a small rectangle of lasagna on my fork and blew at the steam. “I guess something brainless.” I didn’t add that I followed The New York Times Book Review and they’d had more than their fair share of articles calling the romance genre “fluffy.” If you couldn’t trust The New York Times Book Review, who could you trust? “Why? Because it’s about love and has a happy ending? And only stories of unhappiness with tragic endings are important? Because a struggle that leads to something good isn’t worthwhile?
”
”
Penny Reid (Motion (Laws of Physics, #1; Hypothesis, #2.1))
“
There is no other way to say it—reading and writing romance is considered a taboo by a lot of people. They do not want to be associated with the genre even if that is what they enjoy reading. As a romance writer, I have accepted that fact. I’ve had people ask me why I chose to write romance and not another genre. The answer is simple—I write what I like to read, and that should not change for anyone.
”
”
P.G. Van (How to Write Romance with Confidence)
“
Romance is that genre so many people read but most deny reading. It’s the taboo one that’s labeled as smut or mindless reading and often looked down upon by people in publishing as well as readers in general,
”
”
K. Bromberg (The Detour)
“
"Epic drama, with a lot of love that withstands it all." She leaned in closer and whispered, "And great steamy scenes, if that's your thing."
Jack laughed. Now he knew he'd be reading it. Who didn't love a little steam?
”
”
Amy E. Reichert (Once Upon a December)
“
Romance is feminist. The reply was on the tip of my tongue. Romance is one of the few genres that explicitly puts a woman’s dreams and desires, sexual and otherwise, front and center. It’s one of the many reasons I love reading it.
”
”
Jessica Peterson (Southern Charmer (Charleston Heat, #1))
“
YA stories feature a young adult protagonist or protagonists and usually focus on that character’s journey toward maturity (the tradition of the Bildungsroman.). Learning about love / relationships is an important part of that stage in our lives, so it’s not surprising so many writers are building strong romantic elements into their YA stories. I don’t remember quite such an emphasis on romance in the books my children read as young adults, so I do think the approach has changed. Within my genre of fantasy, there’s been an upsurge of paranormal romance, partly generated by the Twilight books, but also reflecting the popularity of this sub-genre with adult readers. There are far more female fantasy writers (and female fantasy readers) than there were, say, twenty years ago, and perhaps female writers are more confident about including a good love story in a fantasy novel.
(2012 Interview by Helen Lowe: The Supernatural Underground: An Interview with Juliet Marillier Discussing "Shadowfell".)
”
”
Juliet Marillier
“
American literature has, since the time of the Puritans, featured the jeremiad as a prolonged complaint, a prophet's indictment of his society characteristic of work such as the muckrakers' novels or Allan Ginsberg's “Howl.” Doctorow struggles to accommodate this form to his artistry (as successful practitioners of the work have always done). To this end, he has repeatedly adapted genres such as the Western, the romance, and the detective novel, often playing with accepted conventions, and thus avoiding didacticism.
”
”
Michelle M. Tokarczyk (E. L. Doctorow’s Skeptical Commitment (Twentieth-Century American Jewish Writers))
“
Am I Dead?"
Had she fallen to her doom and this was all an elaborate fantasy? Was this the place between life and death? Her eyes welled up with tears and she ran towards the man that wasn't there, wanting to cling to him, to find something to save her from this torture.
”
”
M. Keep (Theodora's Descent)
“
That does sound pretty nice.” I manage a half-assed, heartbroken grin. “What genre do you like?” He winks at me. “Dark romance where the heroine gets fucked by the psychopaths.” I burst out laughing and he cracks a wide smile too. “Me too. I’ll give you recs if you give me yours.” “Deal.
”
”
K.M. Moronova (The Fabric of Our Souls)
“
We have so politicized literature today, pigeonholing people into gay male fiction, lesbian fiction, transgender fiction and then other sub-genres within those. There seems to be a feeling like authors should stay in their own box and not write about anybody else, but the thing is, as a writer, you're constantly writing about things that you yourself haven't personally experienced. We should all be free to write about each other as human beings. Some gay men love reading lesbian novels, some straight women love gay male romance, and that richness of reaching across the boundaries helps us further our understanding of each other.
”
”
Patricia Nell Warren
“
It is difficult to grasp the appeal of watching humans that don’t exist struggle with problems that aren’t real.” He watched the on-screen couple regard each other warily from across a crowded room. “I have observed many real humans with real problems. I don’t see the need to invent new ones for entertainment.”
“Maybe it’s so we can dissociate from our own for a while.” Eva grabbed a handful of popcorn and consumed it with relish.
“Their issues could be solved in one conversation. Why are they incapable of basic communication?”
She laughed, though it ended with another wince. “You just summarized half the romance genre in two sentences. Though to be fair, this movie is especially bad.
”
”
Aurora Ascher (My Demon Hunter (Hell Bent, #2))
“
I think romance is maligned in large part because at first glance, love seems so pedestrian. It’s all around us. It’s in books and songs and movies and on billboards, so how could it really hold literary value? But what people tend to forget is that the search for love—for the simple idea that there is someone out there who will see us for who we are and accept us isn’t trite. It’s a huge part of our lives. And it’s an enormous part of our dreams.
There are so many fabulous romances out there—there’s something for everyone. I really believe that. And I believe that most of the people who look down their noses at the genre haven’t ever read a romance novel. I think that if they did, they’d be really surprised by how good great romance can be.
”
”
Sarah MacLean
“
Mulut manusia itu persis seperti genre novel, ada fiksi, biografi (pencitraan), terkadang horor, drama (terlalu dilebih-lebihkan), kerjaannya ngerayu sok romance, kayak fabel yang tiap ngumpul ngomongin burung melulu, gak pernah serius kayak comedy atau gak nyambung seabstrak fiction sci-fi, ada magic yang ngomongnya diada-adain padahal enggak ada, tapi juga ada yang true story.
”
”
nom de plume
“
Literature is the extant body of written art. All novels belong to it.
The value judgement concealed in distinguishing one novel as literature and another as genre vanishes with the distinction.
Every readable novel can give true pleasure. Every novel read by choice is read because it gives true pleasure.
Literature consists of many genres, including mystery, science fiction, fantasy, naturalism, realism, magical realism, graphic, erotic, experimental, psychological, social, political, historical, bildungsroman, romance, western, army life, young adult, thriller, etc., etc…. and the proliferating cross-species and subgenres such as erotic Regency, noir police procedural, or historical thriller with zombies.
Some of these categories are descriptive, some are maintained largely as marketing devices. Some are old, some new, some ephemeral.
Genres exist, forms and types and kinds of fiction exist and need to be understood: but no genre is inherently, categorically superior or inferior.
(Hypothesis on Literature vs. Genre)
”
”
Ursula K. Le Guin
“
Thanks to Casey Ashcraft Honebrink! The book includes my winning "IN HIDING" as a short story along with 23 other winning entries from talented members of WRITERS ASSEMBLED. The anthology, THE BEST OF WRITERS ASSEMBLED 2017: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS is a mixed-genre collection. It really has a little something for everyone : action, suspense, humor, romance, fantasy, supernatural, science fiction, drama, poetry, and personal stories.
You can find it on Amazon, get your copy today! Thanks for recognizing and supporting our group!
”
”
Caroline Walken
“
The people who ship writing/difficulty and writing/revolution don’t talk to the people who ship writing/entertainment or writing/romance. The writing/money shippers have an uneasy détente with the writing/literature folks in the prose fandom, but almost none of them talk to the poetry people because how could you even? The writing/YA folks have a strong community or are cliquish, depending on who you ask, and everyone knows not to invite the writing/genre people to the same party as writing/literary folks because it just ends up in a shouting match.
”
”
Anne Jamison (Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World)
“
In the past few years, more and more passionate debates about the nature of SFF and YA have bubbled to the surface. Conversations about race, imperialism, gender, sexuality, romance, bias, originality, feminism and cultural appropriation are getting louder and louder and, consequently, harder to ignore. Similarly, this current tension about negative reviews is just another fissure in the same bedrock: the consequence of built-up pressure beneath. Literary authors feud with each other, and famously; yet genre authors do not, because we fear being cast as turncoats. For decades, literary writers have also worked publicly as literary reviewers; yet SFF and YA authors fear to do the same, lest it be seen as backstabbing when they dislike a book. (Small wonder, then, that so few SFF and YA titles are reviewed by mainstream journals.) Just as a culture of sexual repression leads to feelings of guilt and outbursts of sexual moralising by those most afflicted, so have we, by denying and decrying all criticism that doesn’t suit our purposes, turned those selfsame critical impulses towards censorship.
Blog post: Criticism in SFF and YA
”
”
Foz Meadows
“
However politically desirable a republic might be, it remains unable to compete imaginatively with monarchy because monarchy in principle more completely mirrors the nature of divine authority. One of the great imaginative advantages of the genre of fairy-tale or romance is to allow for the presentation of such a principle. In fairy-tale the author can leave behind the shallows of the ‘realistic’ novel, and is free to show the reader something better than mundane norms. What might it be like if human kings really did exhibit perfect kingship? The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe attempts an answer.
”
”
Michael Ward (Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis)
“
was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623 two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world. Source: Wikipedia
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William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
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Science fiction, as a genre is fundamentally about ideas. It's about asking an impossible question, "What if...?" and building a story out of the answer.
Romance on the other hand, is fundamentally about relationships. The hypothetical romance transposed to the past could be rewritten without the futuristic elements and still work as a story, which is something that can't happen with SF. It works in romance, because the story is the relationship and that depends on character, not setting.
Lots of books take elements from multiple genres, and there are elements that put them into one genre or another, but setting isn't a key determinant.
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Dave Robinson
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conventions hosted by the Miami Morrison. The question was, what convention was Laker Girl attending? Walt had arrived at the hotel earlier in the day to find massive banners and the entire second floor of the conference hall filling up with pictures of half-naked men and women embracing. At first, he thought the competing conference had something to do with adult film. When he asked, he was told a writers convention was dominating the hotel for the weekend. By comparison, the number of people at the conference he was attending was a drop of water in the ocean. Soon the hotel would be filled with writers, readers, publishers, and agents. The genre of choice . . . romance. Books written with nothing but happily-ever-after in mind.
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Catherine Bybee (Not Quite Forever (Not Quite, #4))
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We need so desperately to believe in a forever love--so much so that there’s an entire genre of entertainment dedicated to young lovers who persist against all odds, medical or fantastical or otherwise--that when it doesn’t happen, we fall a little bit to pieces. The spell is broken. Evil wins. Because that’s a true representation of reality, that loss of hope, that perversion of purity. That’s what we’re all living with anyway and seeing it represented in our entertainment reinforces what we already know to be true: there is no perfect love or life or quest or character. We’re all just fumbling along, trying to make the best of whatever it is we can find, whatever small comforts we can take, whatever compromise seems the least devastating.
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Eda J. Vor (Fully Functioning: a postpartum descent into obsessive fangirling)
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Il avait pris le temps de l’analyser sous tous les angles et il aurait pu la reconnaître parmi des milliers de personnes. Il ne pouvait pas nier qu’il la trouvait intrigante… Et il n’était pas du genre à refouler ses fantasmes. Il savait que Lee le détestait, mais lui, il ne l’avait pas oubliée. Comment pourrait-il l’oublier ? Depuis le tournoi, il n’avait jamais oublié la flamme qu’il avait vue dans ses yeux au moment de sa défaite. Il l’avait écrasée et il n’éprouvait pas une once de culpabilité… Elle le méritait, ce n’était qu’une petite vantarde. Ce désir qu’il éprouvait pour elle aurait dû se dissiper depuis autant d’années, et pourtant, il brûlait toujours en lui. Il était même devenu plus intense, plus fou. Il se réjouissait de pouvoir la traquer, il adorait jouer.
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Myosotis (Vices et Maléfices (Sexe, Secrets & Sortilèges #1))
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The dominant literary mode of the twentieth century has been the fantastic. This may appear a surprising claim, which would not have seemed even remotely
conceivable at the start of the century and which is bound to encounter fierce resistance even now. However, when the time comes to look back at the century, it seems very likely that future literary historians, detached from the squabbles of our present, will see as its most representative and distinctive works books like J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and also George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and The Inheritors, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat’s Cradle, Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot-49 and Gravity’s Rainbow. The list could readily be extended, back to the late nineteenth century with H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr Moreau and The War of the Worlds, and up to writers currently active like Stephen R. Donaldson and George R.R. Martin. It could take in authors as different, not to say opposed, as Kingsley and Martin Amis, Anthony Burgess, Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, Don DeLillo, and Julian Barnes. By the end of the century, even authors deeply committed to the realist novel have often found themselves unable to resist the gravitational pull of the fantastic as a literary mode.
This is not the same, one should note, as fantasy as a literary genre – of the authors listed above, only four besides Tolkien would find their works regularly placed on the ‘fantasy’ shelves of bookshops, and ‘the fantastic’ includes many genres besides fantasy: allegory and parable, fairy-tale, horror and science fiction, modern ghost-story and medieval romance. Nevertheless, the point remains.
Those authors of the twentieth century who have spoken most powerfully to and for their contemporaries have for some reason found it necessary to use the metaphoric mode of fantasy, to write about worlds and creatures which we know do not exist, whether Tolkien’s ‘Middle-earth’, Orwell’s ‘Ingsoc’, the remote islands of Golding and Wells, or the Martians and Tralfa-madorians who burst into peaceful English or American suburbia in Wells and Vonnegut. A ready explanation for this phenomenon is of course that it represents a kind of literary disease, whose sufferers – the millions of readers of fantasy – should be scorned, pitied, or rehabilitated back to correct and proper taste. Commonly the disease is said to be ‘escapism’: readers and writers of fantasy are fleeing from reality. The problem with this is that so many of the originators of the later twentieth-century fantastic mode, including all four of those first mentioned above (Tolkien, Orwell, Golding, Vonnegut) are combat veterans, present at or at least deeply involved in the most traumatically significant events of the century, such as the Battle of the Somme (Tolkien), the bombing of Dresden (Vonnegut), the rise and early victory of fascism (Orwell). Nor can anyone say that they turned their backs on these events. Rather, they had to find some way of communicating and commenting on them. It is strange that this had, for some reason, in so many cases to involve fantasy as well as realism, but that is what has happened.
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Tom Shippey (J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century)
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The techno-political thriller and the romance novel serve as antidotes to the imagination rather than stimulants to it. For this reason they make for ideal reading in airports and airplanes. They effectively shut down the imagination by doing all its work for it. They leave the spirit or the soul—and ambiguity, for that matter—out of the equation. By shutting down the imagination, genre novels perform a useful service to the anxious air traveler by reducing his or her ability to speculate. For the most part, people on airplanes, and here I include myself, would rather not use their speculative imaginations at all; one consequence of this situation is that great poetry is virtually unreadable during turbulence, when the snack cart has been put away and the seat belts fastened. Enough anxiety is associated with air travel without Rainer Maria Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus making it worse.
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Charles Baxter (The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot)
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Romance novels, rom-coms, non-tragic love stories—they all run on a blissful sense that we’re moving toward something better. Percentage-wise, the majority of clues writers drop in romance novels don’t give you things to dread. They give you things to look forward to.
This, right here—more than anything else—is why people love them. The banter, the kissing, the tropes, even the spice … that’s all just extra.
It’s the structure—that “predictable” structure—that does it. Anticipating that you’re heading toward a happy ending lets you relax and look forward to better things ahead. And there’s a name for what you’re feeling when you do that.
Hope.
Sometimes I see people grasping for a better word than predictable to describe a romance. They’ll say, ‘It was predictable—but in a good way.’
I see what they’re going for. But I’m not sure it needs pointing out that over the course of a love story … people fell in love. I mean: Of course they did! I don’t think it’s possible to write a love story where the leads getting together at the end is a surprise. And even if it were, why would you want to? The anticipation—the blissful, delicious, oxytocin-laden, yearning-infused, building sense of anticipation—is the point. It’s the cocktail of emotions we all came there to feel.
I propose we stop using the hopelessly negative word predictable to talk about love stories and start using anticipation. As in: 'This love story really created a fantastic feeling of anticipation.'
Structurally, thematically, psychologically—love stories create hope and then use it as fuel. Two people meet—and then, over the course of three hundred pages, they move from alone to together. From closed to open. From judgy to understanding. From cruel to compassionate. From needy to fulfilled. From ignored to seen. From misunderstood to appreciated. From lost to found. Predictably.
That’s not a mistake. That’s a guarantee of the genre: Things will get better. And you, the reader, get to be there for it.
It’s a gift the love story gives you.
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Katherine Center (Hello Stranger)
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Even though Sam wasn't a romance author, he knew all the big ones, the heavy hitters and those that had crossed genres. He was greeted by most of the authors, some he knew and others who wanted to meet the famous author. Needless to say the romance genre remained comprised mostly by women authors. Sam stuck out like a rooster in a hen house. A tall, handsome, cool rooster in black jeans, his sunglasses hooked off the pocket of his pale blue oxford shirt. A rooster with a flock of hens following his every move.
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Carolyn Gibbs (Murder in Paradise)
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you’re a novel reader, you know that there is typically a general fiction section that houses classic and contemporary authors alphabetically, and then the genre writers have their own shelves under headings like Romance and Science
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Jodie Archer (The Bestseller Code: Anatomy of the Blockbuster Novel)
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If you’re a novel reader, you know that there is typically a general fiction section that houses classic and contemporary authors alphabetically, and then the genre writers have their own shelves under headings like Romance and Science
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Jodie Archer (The Bestseller Code: Anatomy of the Blockbuster Novel)
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If any city was a study in noir et blanc—be it black-and-white photography, film, or literature—Paris was it. The French versions of all three techniques were born during the Age of Romanticism. So was the concept of the daredevil avenger-antihero of the noir crime novel genre, the so-called polar, a Parisian specialty I learned to love.
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David Downie (A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light)
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He thought of Penthe.
He sensed a flutter, her smile, a look, just her
hair, wild, passing by.
He watched the fire, in the fog, for some time. It was the
entrance to Hades, where Odysseus visited Achilles...
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Mark Morneweg (Penthe & Alphonse)
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Write the most commercial story of your heart.
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Zoe York (Romance Your Brand: Building a Marketable Genre Fiction Series)
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Why can’t the romance genre be more like what Jane Austen writes? Jane Austen actually wrote relevant commentary about social class, wealth, and marriage, while this modernalike society’s romance is about people, both men and women , falling in love at first sight (because of physical appearance, in other words), and sometimes for money. There are also many stereotypes and cliches that do not show how real-life society functions. If Jane Austen were alive, she would hate what romance has become.
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Lucy Carter (The Reformation)
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Oh, it’s a whole genre. I’m pretty sure if half the dark romance readers were ever abducted, they’d cry if the police showed up and ruined their broody, twisty romance with their Mafia capo.
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Emily Childs (The Curveball (The Vegas Kings, #2))
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What are you reading?” “A, um, historical romance series. I’m on book two.” “Is um-historical a new genre?” I joke. She looks from me to the book and seems nervous. Then she blushes. “Kendall Ross, what on earth are you—” She covers my mouth with her hand. “I found the first book at Aunt Josie’s.” I push her hand away. “So, it’s smut.
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M.J. Fields (Sad Love: Blue Valley High — The College Years (The Blue Valley #3))
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The genres were Romance in Michelet, Comedy in Ranke, Tragedy in Tocqueville, and Satire in Burckhardt.
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Hayden White (Metahistory)
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The language can feel hard, and the structure of the stories is very different from what you see in the modern novel, but once you adjust to these elements you'll discover that medieval literature and other older works are weird and fun and explore a lot of the same questions we are still asking today. Plus, without Beowulf, Chaucer and Sir Thomas Mallory we wouldn't have The Lord of the Rings, or Game of Thrones. Old English epics and medieval romance set the ground work for the whole fantasy genre.
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Jenny L. Howe (The Make-Up Test)
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What’s your favorite genre and book?” “Hmm.” Her short finger went to her chin as she thought about my question. “I would have to say romance is my favorite genre just because I’m a sap for love, but I do read any and everything. My second favorite would probably be mystery then paranormal and historic romance.
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B. Love (Mister Librarian (The Mister Series Book 1))
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207, 2nd Floor, 3rd Main Rd,
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Kannada Books Purchase
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The Importance of Books in Our Lives
Books have always been an integral part of human civilization, shaping societies, preserving knowledge, and fostering personal growth. From ancient manuscripts to modern digital eBooks, they provide a gateway to learning, imagination, and personal development. Books serve as a bridge to the past, allowing readers to explore the thoughts, ideas, and cultures of previous generations. They also encourage critical thinking by offering multiple perspectives on topics ranging from philosophy and science to art and fiction.
One of the greatest values of books lies in their ability to educate. Whether it's academic textbooks, biographies, or self-help guides, books impart knowledge that helps individuals excel in personal and professional spheres. Students, for example, rely heavily on textbooks to prepare for exams, while professionals may turn to industry-specific literature to stay updated with new trends and technologies. Beyond formal education, reading fosters self-improvement by exposing individuals to new ideas, challenges, and perspectives that expand their thinking and worldview.
Books also serve as an escape from reality, providing readers with an opportunity to dive into new worlds and experience life from different perspectives. Fictional genres, such as fantasy, mystery, and romance, offer entertainment while simultaneously inspiring empathy and creativity. A reader can embark on an adventure through the pages of a novel or experience a new culture through travel literature. In this sense, books become companions that help readers unwind, dream, and explore the unknown, even from the comfort of their homes.
In addition to their educational and recreational benefits, books play a critical role in personal development. Self-help books guide readers through personal challenges by offering advice on mental health, relationships, or financial management. Biographies of influential personalities inspire readers to overcome obstacles and achieve success. Books also promote empathy by helping readers understand emotions and experiences different from their own. When individuals read about the struggles, triumphs, and perspectives of others, they become more compassionate and socially aware.
Furthermore, books foster a lifelong habit of learning and personal reflection. They help develop concentration and focus, as reading requires sustained attention. This is particularly important in the digital age, where people are often distracted by social media and short-form content. Regular reading improves vocabulary, communication skills, and analytical thinking, all of which contribute to personal and professional growth. Additionally, books promote mental well-being, offering a sense of comfort and relaxation to readers. Many people find solace in reading, especially during challenging times, as books can provide both emotional support and practical solutions.
Even in a world dominated by technology, the relevance of books remains undiminished. While the formats may change—moving from physical books to audiobooks and eBooks—their essence and purpose remain
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Sufi
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I’m like most women. I want a steamy romance novel, or something sweet and tender.” “I knew the romance genre was big, especially with women, but I never really understood why.” “Seriously? Let’s just say that the next best thing to having sex, is reading about people having sex. If you’re not able to snag any for yourself, you damn sure want to be reading about two people who have guaranteed odds at doing the deed.
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Lustful Desires Bundle (FILLING HER UP -- Love Taboo Tales? Older Men, Younger Women - 8 Lewd Short Stories of Naughty First Times)
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Review of my book Hope's Motel by Jacob Airey of LonestarInspirations. Men are enjoying it as much as women!
"Hope’s Motel by Danyele Read is a Christian contemporary romance fiction first person narration. You can find it on Amazon.
Hope Cassel is a Christian, single mother who inherits a motel from her uncle and aunt. After she renovates it and opens it, she encounters a series of characters that sometimes challenge her faith and other times, strengthens it. Within trials, tribulations, and victories, she finds courage, inspiration, and even romance.
Hope’s Motel is not a genre I typically read and this goes to the “don’t judge a book by its cover” proverb. I found the story and narration very entertaining and inspiring. While the book is episodic in nature, dealing with issues like PTSD and drug addiction, it has an overarching storyline that keeps the book cohesive. I also enjoyed reading the perception of the main character: Hope. She was a very likable person who was easy to relate to. Bottom line, it is a perfect book to read while you’re sitting by the fire and sipping your warm tea.
This review is based on a free copy from the author. All my views and opinions are my own.
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Jacob Airey
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Times goes by your choice, if you make your days wonderful the days will go fast... and interesting and memorable.... If you do it in boring way they will go like watching a film which doesn't have something to make you get interested without games, crimes, horror, thriller, romance and every single other genre which you think without it the film is awful... but not only genre, but genres!
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Deyth Banger
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As a woman writing SF, I felt I had to think and write like a man in order to be taken seriously.
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Heidi Ruby Miller (Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction)
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Aaron always maintained that genre writers were formulaic, predictable and had no respect for Craft. And romance was the least appealing of all the genres. Why bother reading a book when you knew what the outcome would be?
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Karin Gillespie (Love Literary Style)
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The bar was busy for a Wednesday due to the conventions hosted by the Miami Morrison. The question was, what convention was Laker Girl attending? Walt had arrived at the hotel earlier in the day to find massive banners and the entire second floor of the conference hall filling up with pictures of half-naked men and women embracing. At first, he thought the competing conference had something to do with adult film. When he asked, he was told a writers convention was dominating the hotel for the weekend. By comparison, the number of people at the conference he was attending was a drop of water in the ocean. Soon the hotel would be filled with writers, readers, publishers, and agents. The genre of choice . . . romance. Books written with nothing but happily-ever-after in mind.
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Catherine Bybee (Not Quite Forever (Not Quite, #4))
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I get most of my inspiration from two places: my own life, and reading. I read widely—in my genre (romance), and in all sorts of different genres, from urban fantasy to literature. Then there’s your own life. Romance is a fantasy genre, but if the rock core of your characters doesn’t come from your own life, from emotions you know intimately, the book won’t fly. I don’t mean you have to be married to Casanova—I mean that a heroine will feel genuine to readers if she shares some of your fears or triumphs. Craft the emotional part of the plot from truths you learned from your own life, from watching your friends’ lives, or from reading books.
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Eloisa James
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My name is David, but most peole call me Popcorn. I write breathtaking adventures. I write the way most people think. I challengen myself to alter women emotion and guys intensely whenever they read what I write. I am forever involved in darker side of my writing. I often get jealous of the remarkablel women and the dangerious men I write about. My techique isunorthodox and my writing style is various.I can spin a fairytale from every genre, from murder mystery to urban fantasy to exotic romance. I I have been writing passionate since, I was 8. I am going to be a popular writer one day because I am capable of writing with such passion, intensity and sensitivity,
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Popcorn Diablo
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I slip another piece into place, bridging a large elephant ear to its head. “C’mon, Nat, you’ve got to admit romance novels are a touch predictable.”
“Why? Because the couple ends up together?”
“Exactly.”
“That’s a rule of the genre, Connor,” she says. “Which you would know if you’d bothered to even google it.”
I wave her on, hearing the way she’s frothing up over this. “Go on. Get it all out.”
“You describe them as my ‘guilty pleasure.’ Do you have any idea how condescending that is?”
“Well, don’t they bring you pleasure?” I ask, confused. “How is that condescending?”
“Yes, but why should I feel guilty for reading something that makes me happy?”
I open my mouth to respond, and she pins me with a look so clear in its meaning it might as well be a warning shot fired overhead.
“You treat the things I love as if they’re silly or something to be indulged,” she says. “My point, Conn, is this: You asked me if it was weird that she’s questioning your attitude. But if I see your condescension—and I’m someone who knows what a good man you are in a million other ways—what do you think she saw, when she doesn’t know you at all and her entire career is centered around something you believe is beneath you?”
I close my eyes as this one settles in. I worked on a project once where an expert said intolerance is a failure of curiosity, and it’s always stuck with me. Am I being quick to judge things I know next to nothing about? “Okay. Yeah.”
“Read one of her books.” Nat picks up her spoon again. “Keep an open mind and you might even like it.
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Christina Lauren (The True Love Experiment)
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The man was handsome, and he taught English in the same department as me--- and the second he showed up at my apartment and saw my bookshelf, he laughed.
"You turn them around when guests come over, right?" he asked, motioning to the sanguine embraces and lusty women across the covers. He plucked one off the shelf--- a vintage-looking bodice ripper with Jason Baca on the cover, inches away from dragging his tongue across the woman's neck. "This Fabio's not exactly a Chuck Palahniuk."
"That's not Fabio."
"My mistake, they all look the same."
I sighed. "Well, that's a pity."
"Why?"
"Because you have to leave. The door's there, if you've forgotten."
He chuckled nervously. "I didn't... You're kidding."
"No. I didn't judge you when you said you collected swords. You don't put them away when company comes over, do you? Besides, romance outsells every other genre--- by a lot, and it's still growing even when sales in every other genre are declining. In the US alone, romance sells about nineteen billion units a year." I plucked the paperback from his hand. "You can take that to your next fight club. Now there's the door.
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Ashley Poston (A Novel Love Story)
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You’re allowed to read whatever brings you joy, whatever gets you reading. Romance is an exquisitely smart genre. Why, you can explore new worlds, unpack your trauma, fall in love with boys and girls with wings, or ride the streets of motorcycle gangs, get rescued by the villain, and have the best orgasms of your life.
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Kat Blackthorne (Selah Gothic)
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I paused at the top of the spiral staircase, and soaked in the view.
In the daylight, the bookstore took on a new life.
Motes of dust danced in the sunlight that streamed through the windows. It looked a lot cozier, as the colored glass window ornaments threw rainbows across the bookshelves and pirouetted across the hardwood floors like flecks of dappled sunlight on sand.
Bookcases, filled to the brim, reached up to the ceiling, cluttered with so many colors and kinds of books, short and fat, long and wide, that it almost felt like an assault on the senses. The center of the bookstore was open to the second floor, where tall bookshelves towered so high you had to reach them with ladders. Heavy oak beams supported the roof. Planetariums and glass chimes and other ornaments hung from the rafters, catching the morning's golden light and throwing it across the store. The shelves were made from the same deep oak as the ceiling beams and the banisters on the second floor, signs hanging from the eye-level shelves detailing the different sections of the store: MEMOIR, FANTASY, SCI-FI, ROMANCE, SELF-HELP, NATURE, HOW-TO...
This place was beautiful.
I wondered, briefly, what it would be like to own a place like this. It was magical. A shop that sold the impossible inked onto soft white paper.
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Ashley Poston (A Novel Love Story)
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I was almost packed, and I’d put in a couple of romances and a mystery in case I got a little time to read. I am self-educated from genre books.
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Charlaine Harris (Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, #3))
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Yeah. We’re just a typical romance,” she deadpans, but her lips lift in a small smile. “Horror romance. That’s a genre, right?” I ask, smiling when she laughs.
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S.T. Abby (Paint It All Red (Mindf*ck, #5))
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One of the things that people who don’t read in the genre miss out on is that, at its best, romance is about all of the relationships—family, found family, friends, coworkers—it’s not exclusively about the main couple. Or sometimes more than a couple.
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Adele Buck (Fake Flame (First Responders, #1))
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The Importance of Books in Our Lives
Books have always been an integral part of human civilization, shaping societies,
preserving knowledge, and fostering personal growth. From ancient manuscripts to modern digital eBooks, they provide a gateway to learning, imagination, and personal development. Books serve as a bridge to the past, allowing readers to explore the thoughts, ideas, and cultures of previous generations. They also encourage critical thinking by offering multiple perspectives on topics ranging from philosophy and science to art and fiction.
One of the greatest values of books lies in their ability to educate. Whether it's academic textbooks, biographies, or self-help guides, books impart knowledge that helps individuals excel in personal and professional spheres. Students, for example, rely heavily on textbooks to prepare for exams, while professionals may turn to industry-specific literature to stay updated with new trends and technologies. Beyond formal education, reading fosters self-improvement by exposing individuals to new ideas, challenges, and perspectives that expand their thinking and worldview.
Books also serve as an escape from reality, providing readers with an opportunity to dive into new worlds and experience life from different perspectives. Fictional genres, such as fantasy, mystery, and romance, offer entertainment while simultaneously inspiring empathy and creativity. A reader can embark on an adventure through the pages of a novel or experience a new culture through travel literature. In this sense, books become companions that help readers unwind, dream, and explore the unknown, even from the comfort of their homes.
In addition to their educational and recreational benefits, books play a critical role in personal development. Self-help books guide readers through personal challenges by offering advice on mental health, relationships, or financial management. Biographies of influential personalities inspire readers to overcome obstacles and achieve success. Books also promote empathy by helping readers understand emotions and experiences different from their own. When individuals read about the struggles, triumphs, and perspectives of others, they become more compassionate and socially aware.
Furthermore, books foster a lifelong habit of learning and personal reflection. They help develop concentration and focus, as reading requires sustained attention. This is particularly important in the digital age, where people are often distracted by social media and short-form content. Regular reading improves vocabulary, communication skills, and analytical thinking, all of which contribute to personal and professional growth. Additionally, books promote mental well-being, offering a sense of comfort and relaxation to readers. Many people find solace in reading, especially during challenging times, as books can provide both emotional support and practical solutions.
Even in a world dominated by technology, the relevance of books remains undiminished. While the formats may change—moving from physical books to audiobooks and eBooks—their essence and purpose remain
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Alex