Why I write romance.

I come from a family of irritating overachievers. My father (Dr. Dad) has a Ph.D. My older brother (Dr. Bro) has a PhD and two post-doctoral degrees. Dr. Sister had a PhD (of course) and full tenure at a prestigious private collage.

My Mom had a Master's degree. My step-mother has a Master's as well. 

I'm the black sheep. I stopped after two Master's degrees (BA and MA in history, specializing in international relationships between Safavid Persia and Europe, and a MS in Library and Information Science).

So what called me to fiction?

Yes, we have silly covers.

Especially to romance, the most denigrated of genres? And even worse, what drives me to write sexually explicit novels? It would be much more comfortable to write something respectable, like literary novels.

This is why.

Romance is the most important genre of all fiction.

Our covers might be silly, but they beat this bullshit.

In romance novels, a woman will have an adventure, be she a kick-ass, special-ops sort or a sheltered Regency debutant. She will not be sacrificed to further a man's story (Women in Refrigerators, anyone?) 

What about the loss of this fabulous character in Skyfall?

The world hinges on sexual politics. Romance is also the only genre that creates a new framework the most deadly of all adventures for women - that of an intimate relationship with a man.

Romance is the only genre where a woman will live all the way through the story and have an arc of her own. It is the only genre will the woman will win.

No other popular media takes on the fundamental fear of half of the world's population. It is a brave genre filled with brave characters and brave writers.
 

And that is why I write romance.