Carolyn:
This is gonna be a tough piece to write, because you see, I'm not allowed to mention Divos here. I'm not allowed to swoon over, lust after, or just generally dream about the crossover band Il Divo. Please don't tell Lori I mentioned them even this much.
So, the difficulty is, 'they' - the unnamed ones - are the origins of romance for me. I can almost pinpoint the exact day. Oprah 2006. Used to watch her a lot back then til they changed her showtime in my area and she came on while I was at work.
The unnamed - and unknown - ones were singing. Good lord, I've never heard the like. And I wanted to find out more. I wanted a CD, full of their songs and their voices.
Until then, I'd lived a mostly routine married life. Having kids, working, attending every kind of sports game there is to support the offspring. But I never wrote and what I read was SF and fantasy with hardly nary a kiss.
Those boys - the unnamed - woke something in me. A sort of yearning and a need to express it. And so I did. Started writing, expanded my reading and found some of the best stories! And they were Romance, the red headed stepchild of literature.
We all come to things in different ways. At different times. Sometimes finding it can be a life saver. Sometimes it gives you a new life, with new people. It can expand your horizons as well as your heart.
So - how did you come to Romance? And did it 'take'? Was it worth it all?
Lori:
Il Divo started a lot of women writing the romance that the music inspired. However, I wasn't one of them.
I started reading romance way back when dinosaurs were roaming the earth. I also read fantasy, literary fiction, humor and anything I could glom onto. Literary fiction is, and will always be, my real love. But well written romance can slide into the literary fiction toe-hold.
I didn't try writing romance until I read Miss Jayne Ann Krentz. JAK lives in Seattle (as do I). The books she wrote had the elements I loved: humor, sex, intelligence and local landmarks. I devoured her books. And I wanted to write just like her.
JAK also tends to write to a formula. So I thought I could steal her formula and write a novel. Well, I couldn't. But it did teach me a lot and I appreciate much more what she does and her skill in doing it.
It was Il Divo that was behind my first full length romance novel/fan-fic. And I will forever be grateful and be in love with Carlos Marin for providing the sex appeal and baritono voice that made me want to write a romance around him.
The greatest pleasure is that even if Il Divo was the catalyst, the writing continues even without them. Whether it will ever be read by more than just our friends remains to be seen. As long as it's out there.
Ok Carolyn, your secret is safe with me. Shh...
ReplyDeleteI've always loved romance - been a 'girly girl' since way back when. Maybe because I've always been a dreamer. My life has never been 'normal' and so to cope with things like moving all the time and making new friends etc, I created myself a fantasy world.
Of course I've never stepped outside of that world and thought any parts of it were real. I'm a lot of things, delusional isn't one (I hope...) I still live a relatively normal life but when things get a bit rough, I retreat. It makes me feel better. Cheaper than the therapy I desperately need, let me tell you :)
I've been writing off and on since I was about 17. Back in the beginning the 'object of desire' was a guy a couple of years ahead of me in school. Rick D... Oh the stories I could tell about the nightmare that particular crush caused me one year - OMG lol
Over the years I replaced Rick with other people - celebrity crushes, fave football player, friends of family etc. All the time I was writing these pieces (or starting but never getting more than a page or three) I never shared the fact that I was writing. I don't know why, it just didn't feel right.
It wasn't until I happened upon the official forum for the un-named source of Carolyn's inspiration that I first shared something. It was a small piece (sorta) for a Writer's Workshop and I got a buzz out of it. From there I did a few more and actually enjoyed sharing. The comments were also part of that - whether or not they were just being polite or they thought it was actually funny/sad/good etc is by the by. All I knew was it was a good feeling to share, and on a subject that we all seemed to be there for - the Unmentionable Ones.
From there I got an idea for a 'full' story and set about writing. Well... what a rollercoaster that turned out to be - finished that, wrote a completely seperate one and have more or less just completed a sequel to the first. From someone who was never ever (even under threat of death) going to share her work to writing three full stories and numerous short stories, well...
Most have a romantical feel - I've yet to master the art of science fiction/horror/makebelieve - but that's ok. It's good to have romance in your life. Even if it is between two fictional people you will never meet/know.