Genre romance: expressing our values, sharing our myth

Earlier this month, the podcast Fated Mates, by Sarah Maclean and Jen Prokop, had an episode with genre romance legend Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle, she of the many pseudonyms, queen of “reinventing herself under a new pen name as circumstances warranted”, as part of a series of Romance Trailblazers interviews.

I have been thinking about it a lot, just…not very happy thoughts.

Wherever you go, there you are.

This is one of those things that are self-evident, no? And yet, sometimes we fail to see what’s evident until something forces us to focus on it.

“Unrealistic expectations”

(Originally posted in the community section at MyMedia)

I’ve said it before, here and elsewhere: genre romance is the single most lucrative branch of publishing, and has been for nigh a century. In these days of shrinking profit, genre romance *still* bails out ‘literary’ fiction, by a mile.

Yet, it still gets shit on, constantly, everywhere. The media is generally shitty towards genre romance, with very few outlets even hiring someone half-conversant with the genre to write the ubiquitous ‘think’ pieces around Valentine’s Day, or during the June wedding season, or even to recommend summer ‘beach’ reads.

Making lists, checking them twice.

This post has existed in draft form for…well, yikes, almost two full years. Something came to light yesterday, that made me come back to it. And you, lucky readers, get to read my thoughts.

As I’ve mentioned before here and elsewhere, I do have a list of authors who, in my opinion, behave badly.¹  And, since my time, emotional labor, energy, and money, are limited, I quite simply refuse to even try their work. It’s still, at least in this small area, a free country.

By the same token, I have a much, much, much longer list of incredible people who are authors who will always get my support.