Hi everyone-
Be sure to visit Skylar Kade’s post and enter to win her great new books and her GCs! Click HERE. And tomorrow, DON’T MISS BIG BACKLIST WEEKEND with my special guest, Mary Calmes!
I wanted to share some thoughts on the topic of Romance. When i first became a published author at the beginning of 2011, I never described myself as anything but an author of erotic romance or gay romance and usually both — Gay Erotic Romance. After all, if someone read my books by accident, they could be shocked to discover that i described sex scenes graphically and male on male sex scenes at that! Back then, gay romance was a fast growing niche market, and erotic romance was the preserve of independent publishers. We EROM authors went to trade shows and were tolerated by the writers of mainstream romance so long as we didn’t get in the way.
But that was BEFORE. Before 50 Shades of Gray. Before readers wanted to know what to read next that would be spicier? Better? Before J.R.Ward. Before New York publishers started seeing the wisdom of attracting the huge female audience that loves to read MM romance. Before the first football player came out. Before NBC hired Johnny Weir as an Olympic commentator. Before the majority of people in the US were willing to declare Love is Love!
That’s when i became a romance author. Not an erotic romance author. After all, a big chunk of the most popular “mainstream” romances today are pretty close to as spicy as anything i write and often not half as sweet. Most romance authors recognize that sex is a part of falling in love for the majority of people and leaving it out of romance novels makes the story less real. Less relatable. I also don’t saay i’ a gay romance author. If love is love, why should i have to declare? So i and a whole lot of other authors have come out of our own closets.
Hi, i’m Tara Lain and i write romance. : )