Originality by Design: #romancewriter

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Chocolate...Just a Little Bit of Magic ~ by Josie Riviera

As an author, I like to think readers enjoy my books. I hope that it

gives them a form of escape, even if just for a little while. I have visions of them sitting in a comfy chair, blanket draped over them, with a warm drink and…chocolate!

Why chocolate? Well, it’s a lovely visual of a way to spend an afternoon without the calories. Hah! A real joy and a bit of self-care we all deserve during these challenging times.

Truthfully, I may be a little obsessed with chocolate and all of the

ways it can be enjoyed.

Surprisingly, chocolate in its earliest form goes back to 450 BC in Southern Mexico when the Aztecs discovered cacao beans. They believed the beans were a gift from the god of wisdom, Quetzacoatl. As a drink, it was used as a puree along with corn and spices. Though bitter, it may have been the first chocolate drink.

In 1502, Christopher Columbus delivered the beans to Spain, and thus, Europe, believing them to be good for trading. Plantations were started, and the laborious work of cultivating and growing the crops was left to low paid workers and slave labor. Now, approximately two-thirds of all cocoa production takes place in West African nations.

Along came the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th and early

20th century. The chocolatiers we all are familiar with and who continue to be powerhouses in the industry – Henri Nestle, Randolphe Lindt, Milton Hershey and Cadbury – began perfecting the processing and recipes that we all enjoy today.

There are so many wonderful ways to enjoy chocolate! Here are a few:

• I recently tried a Tuxedo Cake. It’s made up of multiple layers of chocolate with a white chocolate cream filling. You can find a recipe HERE

• Hot Chocolate: Enjoy it as simple as when we were children--adding marshmallows, whipped cream, and crushed peppermint sticks.

• Or something more adult?

• Here is a list of 30 different varieties from Country Living Magazine. LIST
Surely one will tempt your taste buds.

Have you ever tried something you were afraid to try because it mattered so much to you? I did, when I started writing. Take the chance, everyone, and just do something you love. Cozy up with your favorite (chocolate) beverage, and lose yourself in the joyful seasons of love. I love chocolate so much that I even wrote about it!

A Chocolate-Box Christmas

Love is sweeter with a touch of mischief.

A Chocolate-Box New Years

Some recipes don’t turn out quite as you predicted…

A Chocolate-Box Valentine

It’s your last love who truly matters.

Josie Riviera is a USA TODAY bestselling author of contemporary,

inspirational, and historical sweet romances that read like Hallmark movies. She lives in the Charlotte, NC, area with her wonderfully supportive husband. They share their home with an adorable shih tzu, who constantly needs grooming, and live in an old house forever needing renovations. You can connect with Josie through the following links:

WEBSITE (Sign up for her newsletter and receive a free ebook)

Meet our Members ~ Lexa Fisher

Lexa Fisher
Romance Writer and Greeting Card Creator

Lexa is from the Seattle area and when she isn't writing romance, she is creating beautiful greeting cards. To find out more about Lexa and read her prior blog posts, please click on the link below.

LEXA'S MEMBER PAGE

All About Angelique ~ by Angelique Migliore

Greetings, Dearest Readers!

Thanks to Originality by Design for the invitation to chat with you today. Chat to you maybe? At any rate, I was asked how I decided to be a writer, but I have a better story for you: How I decided I am a Romance writer.

As Fate would have it—and Fate is a tricky lady, is she not?—my

mother and my nana love(d) Romances. While pregnant with me, my mother read out loud to me the epic Historical Romance series about “Angelique” by SergeAnne Golon (a husband and wife team, Serge and Anne). They wrote fourteen books about Angelique with the fifteenth book unfinished when Anne died. Serge preceded her in death. Yes, this is from whom I was named, but I’ll come back to this.

Romance novels were readily available for me to pull off the shelf (without proper permission), and my mother read the epic, great ones: “Dr. Zhivago,” “Gone with the Wind,” “The Thorn Birds,” just to name a few. I’m pretty sure I sneaked “Interview with The Vampire” into my room when I was about eight years old, and I was hooked on reading!

While in my third year of French at high school, I was forced to journal every day. Never the lover of my own personal diaries, I instead rewrote Romeo and Juliet, en Français. Except that Romeo was a duck-billed platypus, and Juliet was a strawberry. It was a doomed, albeit deliciously sweet, relationship from the start. Although I wrote long before that, thus began my passionate affair with writing Love Stories. To this day, Shakespeare remains one of my true loves.

I also write some poetry. I post a daily poem on Twitter, usually in either haiku or tank form. My poetry tends to have Romance, Cosmic, or some affirming theme to them. Once upon a time, when I lived in South Korea, I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. I quickly scribbled down a three haiku stanza poem about having a broken heart, and promptly fell back to sleep forgetting all about it. It wasn’t until after I had risen and showered that I remembered it. Even then, I thought I was recalling a part of a dream, but there it was, on my nightstand. I even counted out the syllables and was shocked to have them perfectly in order.

In addition to poetry, matters of the heart have always obsessed me. Funny enough though, it took complaining to my critique partner about the characters in my first Mythological Fantasy trilogy (unpublished) for me to understand how very entwined with the Romance genre I was. The conversation went something like this:

Angelique threw up her hands in frustration. “What is wrong with my characters? All they want to do is kiss and ogle each other!”

“You mean like in a Romance novel?” Christy asked.

Angelique nodded her head vigorously. “Yes! Exactly like that!”

Christy stopped typing on her own manuscript. She cautiously reached for her chai, never breaking eye contact with Angelique. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe you’re a Romance writer?”

Angelique glared at her friend and critique partner. “Well, of course not. I’m writing a Fantasy.” Her eyes then searched the ceiling for invisible answers. “Where they just happen to fall in love and try not to kiss—Oh. My. Stars. I’m a Romance writer!”

Christy rolled her eyes. “I’ve been trying to tell you for ages. Maybe if you listened to me once in a while…”

I stopped my work on the Mythological Fantasy trilogy (which I will be going back to very soon to revamp them into Romances) and pursued the Contemporary Romance genre in full force.

“One Night in Portland,” my first Romance novella, published in

August of 2019 by Tirgearr publishing as part of their City Nights Series. “One Night in Tampa” is currently in the editing stages and should publish around January or February 2020. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m currently writing “One Night in Seoul,” and although it’s not under contract yet, I’m hopeful.

In addition to Romance novellas, I have also written two Op-eds for Frolic.media on Date Nights and Board Games. The first article was about the game “Parks,” and the second article was about the game “Fog of Love.” Stay tuned for more articles.

I believe I have found my place in the world as a Romance author. I have more Romances planned in Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Contemporary (in various heat levels), and I truly can’t imagine doing anything else. Writing witty, charming, and resilient characters who find love in all the wrong places fulfills me more than anything else could.

And my ultimate dream in this landscape of love? I want to finish the fifteenth “Angelique” novel and bring closure to that series. Yes, it’s a pipe dream, but we all need something to strive for. You should be feeling very special right now, because I’ve never shared that pipe dream with anyone else. In the meantime, I will continue with my lovely characters.

Angelique Migliore

A bit more about me (also known as a bio): I’m ever the optimist. I

believe the best is yet to come, sharing a meal is the quickest route to peace, and love conquers all. Although I was born and raised in the paradise that is the Emerald Coast of the Florida Panhandle, not traveling has never been an option for me. I have lived in all of the cities for which I’ve written a “One Night” story.

I received my Bachelor’s degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management from the Conard N. Hilton College at the University of Houston, and my Master’s degree in Religious Studies from the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Thank you for reading and spending a few of your precious moments with me. Cheers!

Lastly, I love hearing from my readers; it brings me great joy! You can reach me by clicking on the links below.

AUTHORS RISE TO UNIQUE CHALLENGE! by Kim Hornsby

If I asked you to write a story that has a Christmas Romance and includes a fictitious Mistletoe Lodge anywhere in the world, what would you imagine your story to be?

There are millions of possibilities!

I asked a bunch of author friends to join me on this never-done-before journey to write a new book for a Christmas Box set and nine of them said “YES!” We decided sometime in August to all write in a Mistletoe Lodge to our book, each one unique and special in it’s magic of the holiday season. Originally, we thought about each story having the same Lodge in the same location but that just seemed impossible to pull off in two months so decided instead to all use the idea of a Lodge at Christmas time with a wonderful Romance story. The challenge to write a book in two months began.

With ten stories of love under the mistletoe, kisses by the Christmas tree, cookie baking and walks in new fallen snow, the book set is sure to warm your hearts. (Unless Ba Humbug is how you view Christmas.)

I love Christmas and it’s a good thing because I write Christmas Romances year-round. One of my Christmas books/screenplay is going to Hallmark this week to be approved as a movie for next year! I can’t announce much yet but it’s looking very good for Christmas in Crystal Creek.

For additional information about Christmas at Mistletoe Lodge visit Kim's Page.

Passport in My Pocket ~ by Author Elle Rush

After two years of saving and planning, we’ve bought plane tickets for a trip I’ve wanted to take for thirty years. This fall – finally – I will be heading to the lands of Avalon and Hogwarts. United Kingdom, here I come!

I’ve been fortunate enough to travel, but never to Europe. Now we

have two weeks to experience a thousand years of history. We will be touring Edinburgh Castle, checking out Hadrian’s Wall, visiting Bath for all things Jane Austen, and running around London until our shoes wear out, including a rest stop at a West End Theatre performance. We don’t know if we’ll ever return, so we are doing as much as we can in the limited time we have.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my hometown of Winnipeg. Last summer we did a stay-cation and hit a bunch of tourist spots that locals generally don’t bother with. But spending our vacation days at home was a choice we made in order to save for this trip of a lifetime.

While I grew up with Canada’s “Anne of Green Gables” and America’s “Little House on the Prairie”, I also read my fair share of classics set in England. Sherlock Holmes and I dashed off on many adventures from his flat on Baker Street, Jane Austen took me on many a stroll through Hyde Park, and Agatha Christie probably set at least one murder in one of the small country villages where our train will stop. Soon I’ll be able to see them for real. My imagination has already visited a thousand times and I fully believe it will live up to the expectations.

Since I’m a writer, I hope to come back with a dozen story ideas and a hundred places to set them. It would be so cool to be able to set scenes in a London pub and be able to make it authentic. Or to describe the noise and confusion of Piccadilly Circus. Who knows, maybe my readers will end up with a Scottish hero, accent and all!

I’ve set books in other locations that I’ve visited. The couples in

my Resort Romance books have visited Cuba, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. If I learned to snorkel or wandered through a Mayan city, my readers can, too. Writing those books was almost as good as having another holiday. (Almost but not quite. Even a book can’t overcome a blizzard outside your window in January, no matter how good your imagination.) I hope to do the same with my UK adventures soon.

I don’t think anyone resents travelling for fun, but it isn’t possible for everybody. If you can’t do it for real, I hope you can do the armchair version. Whether it’s non-fiction tour guides, history books, or novels, you can get away any time you like. Reading is almost as good as the real thing. Plus, inevitably you get much better pictures in a book. You won’t have random photos of your shoes appearing in your camera roll, and nobody’s heads will be cut off. Bon voyage to you and your future adventures!

Elle Rush is a contemporary romance author from Winnipeg,Manitoba, Canada. When she’s not travelling, she’s hard at work writing books that are set all over the world. From Hollywood to the house next door, her heroes will make you sigh and her heroines will make you laugh out loud.
She has degrees in Spanish and French, barely passed German, and has flunked poetry in every language she ever studied, including English. She also has mild addictions to tea, her garden, bad sci-fi movies, and HGTV.

Photos supplied by Elle Rush

Baggage ~ by Lexa Fisher

Photo by Caroline Selfors on Unsplash

How often do you think about the emotional or mental baggage you carry? It may be the slow burn of a grudge you’ve held for years, the barbed sting of insults you’ve felt, or the grating result of bad service. Maybe it’s a friend or grumpy co-worker who comes to you with a complaint, or just feeling that life isn’t fair. You try to help by listening, nodding, and offering suggestions, but a solution doesn’t seem to be what they’re after. No, it’s someone to share in their suffering, someone to carry their problems for them. On top of your own.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

An article in NBC news goes into detail on the effects of this mental load on our health and how heavy it really feels, like straps digging into our shoulders. We may also be just as guilty of unloading our own problems from time to time. My first recognition of this situation happened when I read Catullus’ Carmina 22 in Latin class: To each one of us one’s own mistakes have been assigned; Sed non videmus, manticae quod in tergost --but we do not see the knapsack that is on our own back.

“Holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die” is a saying I’ve seen in various forms. If something isn’t making your life better by giving you happiness, comfort, fond memories, why hold on to it? Have you ever taken a vacation for which you packed way more than you needed? Emotional baggage is just like that. Lighten your load by mentally opening your carpet bag and as you pull out each item, ask yourself how it serves you. Do you really need one more negative thought? Say goodbye to that burden.

Photo by Максим Степаненко on Unsplash

Talking through our problems with friends can be cathartic. Having to put into words, spoken or written, how we feel often identifies the real problem as well as the feelings we harbor. But let others carry their own bags, just as you carry your personal baggage. You don’t have to be callous or uncaring, and it’s better for the unloader if you help them recognize problems as their own. It’s far better for someone to resolve issues in a way that matters to them, in a way that they can manage, and at the time they are able. So lighten your own load, and don’t take others’ burdens home.

Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash

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Resources: https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/your-emotional-baggage-holding-you-back-ncna877596

Holding a grudge is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die. https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyanderson/2015/04/07/resentment-is-like-taking-poison-and-waiting-for-the-other-per son-to-die/#12155c71446c

https://fakebuddhaquotes.com/holding-onto-anger-is-like-drinking-poison/

Not a Guilty Pleasure ~ by R.L. Merrill

Greetings and thank you to Grace Augustine for inviting me to the Originality By Design blog!
I want to start by sharing part of an email I received today:
“I'm a graduate student...and we're working on a podcast episode with the general theme of Guilty Pleasures. We came across your group (San Francisco Area Chapter of Romance Writers of America), and we'd love to speak with you.”
At first I was flattered and excited...and then I paused at the theme.
Guilty Pleasures.
This was my answer to the person:
Thank you for reaching out. I would be happy to talk about the romance industry on your podcast. Before we go any further, I’d love to share my thoughts on the subject of guilty pleasures and we can go from there.

I will say that it is the belief of many of us that reading romance novels is actually not a guilty pleasure. We’ve been taught that romance novels are something that we should feel guilty about when actually reading of any kind is an important way to fulfill oneself, especially for women who work hard and rarely have time to themselves. Romance brings hope to those who read it.
I recently was reminded of this when I sent out interview questions to other authors I was featuring on my blog. I asked what their reading guilty pleasure was and several said “None. I never feel guilty for reading what I want to read, for doing something that makes me happy.” We beat up on ourselves enough as it is!
After we had a phone conversation, they asked me to be on their podcast and were very interested in this perspective. I am proud to be representing Romance Writers of America as VP of Communications for the San Francisco Area Chapter and I’m very excited to take up the sword against the notion that genre fiction—specifically romance—is trash, smut, or a guilty pleasure.
I have met some of the most brilliant people during my five years as a member of RWA as well as in the romance community at large. I’ve attended conventions and workshops as well as countless events on Facebook where I’ve met incredibly talented people. We have doctors, lawyers, even politicians in our midst. We have stay-at-home mothers, authors working two or more jobs, and parents of special-needs children all writing stories of love, hope, strength, endurance, and resilience.
The majority of the time, our community lifts each other up and cheers each other on. I’ve made great friends and received support from some of the most talented and brilliant authors writing today. Writing romance has fulfilled me in ways that my 25-year career as an educator doesn’t always. So why should I look at the stories I write and read as a guilty pleasure?
I’ve been asking authors for their reading guilty pleasures for

my Friendy Friday blog posts for a while now and recently three best-selling authors Kimberly Kincaid, Avery Flynn, and Sarah Hegger all said, “None. I don’t feel guilty about doing something that makes me happy.” Their answers inspired me today as I spoke to the podcaster on the phone and encouraged me to write this blog post.
There is nothing to feel guilty about when you experience art. Whether it be live music, a painting in a famous museum, or reading a story about a pirate conquering the seas and stealing the heart of a fair maiden in the process, you’re taken on a journey and given the opportunity to step outside yourself for a little while. Did it make you happy? Is it hurting anyone? No? Then why the guilt?
As a mom of two busy teens and various pets who teaches 70% of the time and writes romance novels whenever I can, I have enough guilt. I feel guilty I don’t have enough Algebra skills to help my son with his homework, or that I really don’t want to see the latest emote on Fortnite. Or I feel guilty that I can’t go to my daughter’s track meet because my son has a standing appointment at the same time. Or I feel guilty that I don’t get to see my mother more than once a week sometimes, or that I don’t have time to take on a board position for the kids’ swim team. I feel guilty every day for my messy house or that I still haven’t called a contractor out to fix that door. I feel so much guilt.

But I also recognize that part of taking care of my family is taking care of me, and I do that by writing. It helps me work out things that are bothering me, it makes me happy, and it’s a way to connect with people who share my passion for hopeful love stories. And guess what? My family supports me, and I know that by chasing my dreams I’m setting a good example for my kids. I have zero guilt about that.
I’m excited about this upcoming interview, which I will share on my social media and in my newsletter just as soon as I have links. I’m excited to share this important perspective and my hope is that somewhere a person who is reading the latest contemporary, paranormal, LGBTQ or science fiction romance will hear it and not feel like they have to hide their book cover while riding on the train to and from work, or keep their preferred reading habits quiet around co-workers who only value “literary fiction.” We have got to stop tearing each other down. Reading is good for the soul. Period. It improves vocabulary, it enlightens the reader to the plight of others who are perhaps different from them, and it takes the reader away for fifteen minutes or three hours in a day when life is pummeling them from every direction. These are all good for you. Reading—no matter what the subject—is not a guilty pleasure and we should stop calling it so.
Now go grab the book on top of your TBR pile and feel zero guilt about it.

Thanks for reading today. If you would like to learn more about my books and the world of Rock ‘n’ Romance, please sign up for my newsletter-y thingie at www.rlmerrillauthor.com. You can also follow me at www.facebook.com/rlmerrillauthor
or www.twitter.com/rlmerrillauthor or www.instagram.com/rlmerrillauthor.
I love chatting with readers and other authors and I love sharing my favorite music. I have playlists for all of my books on Spotify and my reader group shares their favorite tunes on Music Mondays. Stay Tuned for more Rock ‘n’ Romance…

Finding Connections ~ by Lexa Fisher, Romance Writer and Today's Guest

Connections are apparent to me where others usually fail to see any association. For instance, how could IT project management and romance writing be related?

Computers do a lot for us, but they can also be a source of frustration and feelings of inadequacy. Loss of control is especially threatening when new systems or processes mean change.

Romance writers are versed in emotions and understanding the driving forces behind them. We study how emotions are manifest in actions and words. Paying attention in meetings to reactions in body language, tone, and language can help facilitate conversations, de-escalate intense feelings, and arrive at solutions sooner. Noticing the little things like who needs a nudge to contribute in a meeting, or who could really use a small thanks takes no effort but offers big rewards.

Connections with others also provide unexpected opportunities such as being invited to a writers’ retreat or being able to share card designs with a respected artist. My favorite craft of making cards provides me with opportunities not only to connect with other crafters, but also to give a card-giver a way of connecting with someone else in a heartfelt way with a handmade item.

Characters in my seasoned romances—stories featuring characters over forty years old—focus on relationships that are built on trust and integrity. At this stage in their lives my heroines connect with reliable, honest men who aren’t intimidated by intelligent and competent women. Both want to connect at a soulful level. How a person treats others and how they speak of someone shows their true nature, in stories and in real life, details that establish fictional characters from the inside out.

Enhancing my professional life with my personal passion for writing allows me to get so much more out of each. My technical documentation is stronger because of the romance writing classes I continually take, and by observing reactions in meetings I can better match body language with my characters’ dialogue and behaviors. Craft and life are connected.

Lexa lives with her husband and spoiled little rescue cat in Seattle. Transplanted from Michigan decades ago she earned her BA at the University of Washington where she now works as an IT construction project manager. After a nightly workout, she pursues romance writing and crafting greeting cards.

Lexa writes seasoned romance—romance between characters who are over forty. Her characters value integrity in a partner and a relationship founded on trust. Gratitude and thanks are predominant themes in her cards, and sparkle is always an element in her designs.

If she had to depend on her green thumb she wouldn’t survive a year, but for some inexplicable reason year after year she tries to grow edible plants.

You can find Lexa here:
Email
Twitter
Flickr

On a Personal Note ~ by Lexa Fisher, Romance Writer and Today's Guest

I love to make greeting cards. I have no skill for drawing or painting, but I find color so beautiful. Cards give me the chance to create scenes, add sparkle, and convey messages with nothing more than paper, scissors, and ink.

I first tried making cards ten years ago and had no success. Then a few years ago I saw cards a fellow writer was giving away and gave it another try. The first card class I took was making 20 unique Christmas cards in two and a half hours. Yes, this was my introduction to the craft!

Intense? Confusing? Steep learning curve? Beautiful results? Yes, yes, yes. I loved it.

Over the past few years I’ve taken many more classes and made good friends of the staff members at my local paper crafting store. I send cards to friends and family, tried an Etsy store for a while, and most recently donated cards for a charity fundraiser. I share my artwork with co-workers on easels my husband makes on his 3D printer.

Last year I made Christmas thank you cards using the paper that gifts were wrapped in. Each giver’s card was created from scraps of wrapping paper from the gift they had given me.

Far fewer people send cards any longer and it’s sad. We’re missing the experiences of opening the mailbox to find a handwritten note someone has selected just for us. Think about the time they’ve taken and the effort they went to, thinking about us the whole while. It’s a connection.

I’m not here to sell my cards; I’m not even going to mention my brand. What I want to do is remind us all to realize what joy we’re giving when we send our thoughts in a tangible form across the miles.

Lexa writes seasoned romance—romance between characters who are over forty. Her characters value integrity in a partner and a relationship founded on trust. Gratitude and thanks are predominant themes in her cards, and sparkle is always an element in her designs.

If she had to depend on her green thumb she wouldn’t survive a year, but for some inexplicable reason year after year she tries to grow edible plants.

You can find Lexa here:

Twitter
Email

Flickr

How Did a Horror Loving Girl Grow Up to be a Romance Writer? ~by Darlene Kuncytes

In my very first blog post, I decided that I wanted to discuss this topic a little bit, because I have people ask me ALL the time who some of my favorite authors are, and when I tell them--King, Koontz, Saul--they usually just look at me with a blank stare for a moment before saying…"but, don’t you write romance?"

So just how does someone go from being a full-out horror loving enthusiast to an author who writes hard-core romance?

I swear I grew up with a book in my hand. I devoured every scary book I could find, and I revered those horror authors I thought to be the true masters. Not to mention, that I really wanted to be the next Stephen King.

I’m not ashamed to admit, that I even gave my sixth-grade teacher a bit of a shock when I proudly handed in a book report on “Suffer the Children” by John Saul. She learned fairly quickly not to let me pick my own books after that! And, I’m actually pretty surprised she didn’t tell my mother to have me tested!

It’s funny that I would finally achieve my life-long dream of becoming an author. Just not as the next master of the macabre.

Instead, I became a romance author.

Who would have thought? Certainly not my family. They always knew that I would write, but they figured it would be something along the lines of my favorites and I’d be killing off people left and right. How wrong they were!

I started writing my first romance novel not long after I read The Gamble by LaVryle Spencer. We had gone to my Aunt's house for a visit and there it was, just sitting there on her coffee table, and me, being without a book, decided to start reading it with the full intention of just passing some time. I figured I’d hate it, but at least it was something to do besides listening to the adults talk.

Needless to say, I was wrong.

I could not put that blasted book down. It had me on the edge of my seat, and my heart in my throat, just as The Shining had done to me not so many weeks before.

Again, in a slightly different way, but I remember thinking, Wow! Romance is crazy!

I think in order to write romance, you need to be able to get your readers to experience that exhilarating rush of adrenaline that can be scary as hell to the characters experiencing it. Whether they are trying to escape from an evil descending upon them, or they are experiencing that first intense explosion of passion between them when they finally come together.

Either way, it’s a rush that needs to be felt straight in the gut of the reader.

In both horror and romance, someone is usually being pursued by someone or something! The end result is just a little different. One can lose their head…the other their heart. Both genres take the reader on a wild ride of emotions that will make the heart pound and the pulse race, albeit in somewhat different ways.

If you really think about it, horror has ribbons of romance slithering through it at times. Take Dracula, for instance. He left the safety and solitude of his castle to go after the love of his life–Mina.

Nothing could separate them.

Eternal love.

Is there anything better?

Okay, so he may have caused a bit of trouble here and there along the way, but what’s love without a little heartache?

courtesy of tuposter.com

Then, of course, there’s Anne Rice. Her Vampire Chronicles are pure poetry, horror, and sexiness all wrapped into one. But, would you consider them romance? Or horror, with a romantic feel?

The answers are boundless.

After I finished The Gamble, my mind just went a bit romancey – if you will.

I found myself writing down bits of stories here and there, never quite finishing one before another popped into my head, and they were ALL romances! I still loved reading horror, but writing was a completely different story for me now.

I like being able to have the big bad villain threatening the demise of our star-crossed lovers. And, with also writing paranormal romance, I get to weave tales with versions of the monsters and things that go bump in the night that I love - yet having that happily ever after, if I so chose.

I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for those.

And, that is where horror and romance differ most of the time. It’s hard to have a true, all around HEA (Happily Ever After) ending in a horror novel, what with so much death, dismemberment, and terror. Although, I will say, Dean Koontz is an absolute master at writing horror with a strong thread of love and happy endings. I never really gave it much thought as I devoured his books until I began writing romance myself.

In closing, I guess my point is, never pigeon-hole yourself into strictly one genre. Expand and give yourself the opportunity to explore different worlds, because in the end, they aren’t that different, really. And, who knows, I may just decide one day to dabble in a pure horror story. So, make sure you don’t tick me off, or you may just show up in it!! LOL

Thanks for taking the time to know a bit of what makes me tick!

Keep reading!

Darlene