Hey everyone! Well, after four days in the cyber wilderness due to a hard drive crash (no, not me, FRED – the laptop, though it’s almost the same thing…) I’m back and raring to go. My thanks to Jaimi who responded to my Bloghogger Challenge, and posted the first topic…

“It’s apparent the romance genre isn’t going anywhere (take a look at the market). So why doesn’t the entire industry (writers, publishers, etc) get the respect and recognition they deserve as a whole? We all know of at least one friend that will scarf down some romance like the last supper, but will stuff the books into hidden hampers or drawers when company drops by…”

Interestingly enough, it was something that I found going round in my own head while I amused myself during the enforced downtime (you have to do something fun while cleaning out the garage!), so I was intrigued to find it waiting for me. I’m not going to re-invent the wheel by hauling out statistics, but the latest trend is that romance is alive and well and demand is way “up there”, even with the downturn in the economy.

Okay, so assuming that (based on sales figures) the statistics “don’t lie”, there’s an awful lot of people out there who read romance, but how many actually admit to doing so? Even on the loops, readers prefer to “lurk” in the background, and e-books have rapidly gained in popularity (perhaps because they can be purchases anonymously?)

Just to set the parameters here – this is not part of the debate between traditional (sweet or similar) or erotic romance. This is a deeper look into the reasons why romance as a genre seems to be relegated to some dark and shadowy corner and never confessed to in public. I can’t comment on what happens elsewhere, but here in South Africa there seems to be a feeling that romance contradicts the modern, liberated woman, that it is simply an escapist thing for women who are “unenlightened” and that it in some way denigrates today’s woman.

That’s a generalization, sure, but it’s still very real. Mention that you write / read romance and the initial reaction is something along the lines of “that’s all you can manage”, which somehow implies a lack of intelligence, or worse…

Actually, if it wasn’t quite so insulting it would be laughable. I read romance because I enjoy it. I write romance because I enjoy it. And I think that my books are as good (and sometimes better) than some of the other “stuff” out there being peddled as “good reads”. I don’t see why I should have to defend my preference or my intelligence based on that particular choice. I’m an English major student, cut my teeth on the classics, and still have the great poets and authors on my keepers’ shelf. Better than that, I did my degree part time, and cracked distinctions… the defense rests!

So what am I? A frustrated, cheerless, oppressed woman – oh, and let’s not forget mindless, lol – who needs to “lose” herself in the pages of a bodice-ripper because life has no other “jollies” to offer, and ends up worse off because said penny-horrible only reinforces her inferior status because we all know they’re demeaning to woman….
Oy vey! I feel a soapbox moment coming on… Seriously though, maybe it’s time for all of us incurable romantics to climb out of the hamper and make ourselves heard. Fact is, we’re in good company (it’s a recorded, measurable truth that the romance publishing industry is one of the strongest out there) and that’s no small achievement. I for one think we ought to enjoy it.

Oddly enough, no-one seems to have any problem with candlelit dinners and shared bubble baths, or with celebrating engagements, weddings, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day… and believe me, I’ve seen any number of versions of South African dyed-in-the-wool beefcake and brawn not bat an eyelid at wandering through a shopping mall clutching that bunch of roses, or balloons, or the teddy-bear with the slushy neck-tag. Go figure.

As my last post said, part of the Bloghogger Challenge is to pass the topic on to someone else, so I’m now challenging all of you – readers and authors alike. Let the Romance Readers of the World unite! Or something like that, anyway! If you have a blog, pick up the topic and blog on it, add your voice. If you don’t, add links on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Whatever… Send it on to your friends and family… Tell us why you read romance, and what you enjoy about it. Add your comments wherever you can. Share the posts with everyone you know. Then add your name to the “I Read Romance” page here and share that with everyone you know. Let’s see how many names we can collect…

Most of all, let’s have ourselves some fun here!

See you on the Web,
Jude