How do you write romance?

Sometimes I get asked...

How do you write romance?

Well, not from current experience, I can say that much. These lips may be made of velvet but they haven't seen any action lately. I know, I know...you read in the backs of books all the time how such and such author has been married to the same man for epic amount of time and how he fuels all her love stories because he is the perfect hero material...

That ain't how I do it.

I think I have been in love...It sure felt damn real and hurt like a bitch when it ended. But I am single and have been single for most of my life. So, why romance?

Well, for starters, horror stuff in my own head gives me nightmares. Seriously, the gore my mind can come up with makes me gag out loud. And since romance has elements of other stuff in it, sometimes the stuff I write for my paranormal can make me gag...

Once, while writing a fight scene for a book in the Odd Stuff series, the character bites...*gag* Never mind. The point is my imagination is rather verdant territory. I like romance because it allows me to use that verdant turf for something that doesn't leave me reeling in nausea for a week after I write it...and to be relived each round of edits...*shakes head* No thanks.

I also write romance because...confession time...I am a big softy at heart. I still want my happily ever after, just like you. I may be cynical as can be but...I still think that happy ever after is sometimes possible.

I have been grabbed and thrown into a wall before when someone felt so hungry for my lips that they had to taste them, my temper be damned. I have been treated like Cinderella and held in a man's arms like I was something to be cherished.

Just because I don't have that now...well, doesn't mean that I can't create worlds where perhaps a choice or two is made differently.

Where couples fight for each other...and nothing manages to come between them.

I write romance because the human condition leaves us all wanting to be really special to someone. Even the most crotchety person who says they don't believe in love...probably does. We like being the center of attention...having someone know us in intimate ways and being able to, with a glance, say things that words haven't yet been created to say.

So, yeah, I write romance because I am a sap down deep, where it counts.

I think some of you read it for the same reason. Don't worry. I won't judge. Let's just keep it between us, shall we?

Happy Writing!