Monday, July 18, 2022

For the love of Romance

Once upon a time.....
 
That is how it all begins. We first fall in love with fairy tales and happily ever after. Our love for story telling grows into "it was a dark and stormy night". 
From fairy tales we branch out to our favorite genre. Mystery, Paranormal, Romance, and more. I fell in love with romance. Western romance specifically.


The very first romance book I read was Apachee Caress when I was about 12. Took it from my mom's shelf and snuck to my room to read it. Loved it. And I read the rest of Georgina Genty's Panorama of the West Series.


  Do you remember your first romance book? Share in the comments.

Then came Betty Brooks. I loved her books as well and read them all. (Exept one that I am searching for)

Then I discovered Victotia Thompson and Jodi Thomas. And my own desire to write took over. I was passionate about telling stories of strong people in the Wild West.


 

What I loved most about these authors and the way they wrote their books is that they all tie together in some way. Characters from other books appear throughout the series. Each title is a stand alone but reading them in order gives the sense of knowing the characters on a deeper level. Several authors added Paranormal elements to their books and I loved it. My books all tie together and many have paranormal elements.
    These amazing authors were my inspiration to start my own writing.
    I've read many, many books since those teenage years, but those books published over 30 years ago are still my favorite ones. I have every book of every series (except that one elusive Betty Brooks book) on my shelves in my office. A constant reminder of my original inspiration. 



      Outlaw’s Redemption is the first book in the Wild Love Series. The second generation of my Rimrock characters. The families of the Rimrock Series span three generations so far. I love the familiarity of the characters I’ve spent the last 25ish years writing about.



 

3 comments:

Julie Lence said...

Hi T.K.! I began reading romance in the late 80's. Johanna Lindsey and Judith McNaught were (and still are) my favorites. They were also my inspiration to write my own books. And like you and Johanna, I love incorporating my characters into more than one book. Hugs and thank you for sharing your inspirations!

Sandra Cox said...

Twenty-five years and three generations of characters. That's amazing. Congrats;)

Anonymous said...

For my entire life I never read anything but nonfiction books about US History. One day I ran into a book by Rosanne Bittner and I feel like it changed my life for the better because I started branching out. I prefer historical fiction but I’m proud of myself because I’ll even read a contemporary romance from time to time. I prefer series because I enjoy it when characters pop up through different stories.