The Spirit of Romance

This is the same blog that I posted on the Desire Authors Website today, sorry for the repeat, but I love this sentiment.


Are we all just romantics at heart? Is that why we write and read romance? This is one genre where you can't fool anybody. The stories that come through aren't manufactured by any such formula or direction. These are stories of the heart. I've gotten to know many of my fellow romance writers over the years, and all of us seem to have one important thing in common, we are sentimental creatures who believe in the all-consuming power of love. Love heals. Love conquers. Love demands. I once heard an actor comment that the relationships between a man and woman are the strongest ones on the planet.

I happen to agree. When you think about it, most movies, plays and especially songs, exhibit the power, the pain and the passion of love.

I was reminded of this last night when my husband Don was helping me clean out our daughter's old room, now converted into our exercise/cat room! I was happily engaging in conversation on the Writerspace Desire chat online, taking a break from the cleaning, when I heard music being played in the background. I recognized the song. My husband had found a carton of old videos, and as soon as I heard the tune, I remembered. "Keep that one out, honey. I want to see it again." And so, after my chat was over, he inserted the video into our last remaining and soon-to-be discared video recorder and played the tape.

Tears welled up in my eyes. The song "You are so beautiful to me," came on the video and there, as a Valentine gift to me some 10 years ago, before all this new age electronics made it easy, was my husband's gift to me. He'd spliced together photos of me growing up, from childhood to the first days of our marriage, somehow getting the music in the background. Those three minutes were enough to remind me how powerful our love is, how much romance means to me and how very much my sweet loving husband remembers that.

Those are the reasons, I believe we write romance. At least, it is for me.

My own personal hero -