Guest Post from Author Regina Kyle
First off, thanks so much for having me on your blog! It’s my first book, my first blog tour, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be here.
When friends and family find out you’ve sold your romance novel, you get a lot of questions. Are you quitting your day job? (No, I’m not Nora Roberts – yet LOL.) Is your book like Fifty Shades of Gray? (I’m not touching that one.) Does your husband help with your research? (That’s for me to know and you not to find out.)
But the easiest question for me to answer is: Why romance? Because I’m an assistant state’s attorney by day, people expect me to write mysteries, or maybe true crime, or at least romantic suspense. And sure, I could probably have chosen any one of those genres when I decided, thanks to my mid-life crisis, to try my hand at writing a book. But I deal with hardship and heartbreak every day in my job, and when I come home at night to write, I want just one thing – happily ever after. And I think that’s what romance readers want, too. And what’s wrong with that? Don’t we all need a little more HEA?
Romance publishing is a billion-dollar-a-year industry. Yet our genre gets dissed left and right. Like Rodney Dangerfield, we get no respect, either as readers or as writers. The most recent example is William Giraldi’s article in The New Republic. He called romance “uniformly awful and awfully uniform.” Really? Uniformly? I wonder how many romance novels he actually read in order to make that sweeping assessment.
The one positive is that his article prompted a flurry of responses defending the genre. Eloisa James is a Fordham English professor and Shakespeare scholar who has degrees from Harvard, Oxford, and Yale. She’s also one of the most successful authors of historical romance. She called Giraldi a misogynist and equated the escapism of romance for women readers with Game of Thrones for men.
The Washington Post’s Alyssa Rosenberg noted that romance offers “a respite from the significant hostility that a lot of literature shows women.” And she’s right. The bodice-ripper stereotype is long gone. Today’s romance heroines are smart, savvy and in charge of their own destiny. No more simpering Cinderellas, waiting to be rescued from their hum-drum lives by Prince Charming. These ladies are funny. They’re self-aware. They’re not wandering through life searching for Mr. Right, they’re living their lives with open minds and open hearts in case they happen to stumble across him. It’s feminism at its best. No wonder we’re drawn to them. We identify with them, want to be them.
Not every film has to be Schindler’s List, and not every book War and Peace. There’s a place for everything on the shelf from thought provoking non-fiction to frothy mind taffy. I read romance to disappear into another world, one where I know no matter how many trials and tribulations the hero and heroine go through, they’re going to wind up together in the end. I read it because it’s empowering, with kick-ass women who know what they want and aren’t afraid to reach for it. And that’s why I write it, too.
So when people ask me, “Why romance?” I tell them. Proudly. Because I’m an intelligent, independent, kick-ass woman – who’s a sucker for a happy ending.
And like I said earlier, what’s wrong with that?
Triple Threat by Regina Kyle
The Theater of Temptation presents Sabotage…and Seduction!
The Playwright: It’s emerging playwright Holly Nelson’s big break. Broadway. Having survived her traumatic marriage and divorce, Holly is now aiming for success, not love. And any naughty dreams about Nick Damone—the gorgeously dishy star who was her crush back in high school—must remain a fantasy.
The Star: For Nick, Broadway is a chance to go from big-screen-eye-candy to serious actor, and to explore the lust blazing between him and Holly. But life-threatening accidents will force a chain of events that could bring down the curtain on the whole production…or give Nick and Holly a chance to finish the sexy something that started fifteen years ago!
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About the Author
Regina Kyle knew she was destined to be an author when she won a writing contest at age ten with a touching tale about a squirrel and a nut pie. By day, she writes dry legal briefs, representing the state in criminal appeals. At night, she writes steamy romance with heart and humor.
A lover of all things theatrical, Regina lives on the Connecticut coast with her husband, teenaged daughter and two melodramatic cats. When she’s not writing, she’s most likely singing, reading, cooking or watching bad reality television. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and treasurer of her local RWA chapter. Her debut novel, Triple Threat, will be released by Harlequin Blaze in print on September 16, 2014, and in e-book on October 1, 2014.
