How "Romance" Is Defined

I used to think "romance book" was a synonym for "love story." It's not, at least not in the publishing world. It took me a few years and a couple of conversations with those in publishing to understand this. In publishing realms, a book is only labeled as a romance, if it meets a very prescribed format. There must be boy meets girl, problems ensue, but eventually they get together in the end. It must follow this exact formula. I dislike writing books by a formula, and that's probably why most of books I write will never fit the romance category.

However, all my books have a bit of romance in them, some of them more than others. I think all humans seek love and acceptance; it's a basic need. Still, none of the books I've written so far fits the romance category, even though I've written thirteen manuscripts and am now working on the fourteenth. Both of the ones I've already published in my Appalachian Roots series, Cleared for Planting and Sown in Dark Soil, are historical fiction, but that series does have a romance element, too. 

The manuscript I'm writing now, the second one in my New Mexico series, may fit that label, but I won't know until I get it finished. I'm not writing it with that in mind. My characters drive my stories, and I don't make them fit into any particular mold. Many of my readers seem to like this. They say they have a hard time putting the book down, because they never know what is going to happen, and they read to find out. Most of my novels are labeled "historical fiction," although 4 of the manuscripts so far are contemporary fiction. My next series may be a contemporary series about betrayals, but there's likely to be about 5 in the New Mexico series I'm working on now, so the betrayals will be quite a while coming. I'm just having a great time, because I do love writing!

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