Hooked on Romance with Sonja Foust
I was an English major in college. I read a lot of great literature. Said great literature was also really depressing most of the time. After college, I stopped reading. I’m such a self-centered little brat that I really internalize everything I read, and if I read nothing but “real” literature about how hard life is and how we’re all going to die without figuring out why we’re here, I get sad. (Imagine that.) I just couldn’t handle being depressed on top of all my brand new real world responsibilities. So I stopped reading.
Ok, confession time: When I first latched on to the idea of writing a romance novel, it was a bit of a Get Rich Quick scheme. (It’s not anymore. And “ha! ha ha!” to anyone who thinks writing any kind of book is a viable Get Rich Quick scheme.) Anyway, the conversation went something like this:
Robbie (my husband): How can we get rich?
Sonja: I dunno, honey. Buy Google stock.
Robbie: Yeah, I wish. We have no money. [later kicked himself for not coming up with the money because we would have been zillionaires by now if we'd bought Google stock]
Sonja: I know! I can write a book. Lots of crap gets published. Why shouldn’t it be my crap?
Robbie: Sure. Whatcha gonna write?
Sonja: Hmm. Romance novels seem pretty formulaic. [Ha! Haha!] I mean, not that I’ve actually read one yet, but hey. Maybe I’ll write one of those. And your mom just gave me a bunch of old ones from her basement to read, so I’m set on research.
Robbie: Cool. So when we gonna be rich?
Sonja: [doesn't answer... already planning on quitting job and sitting around all day in slippers and pink boa eating bon-bons while dictating the next great American romance novel to mousy assistant]
Lady Sophia’s Lover by Lisa Kleypas was the first romance novel I ever read (in the name of research, of course), and I was hooked from the beginning! Not only was there adventure, mystery, history, love, and a happy ending, but there was also hot sex! Why did it take me so long to discover romance novels? I plunged into the romance world, both reading and writing, and soon found myself in a fun and challenging new place. Not only that, but I got back one of the joys I’d lost after college: reading.
When I pick up a romance, I know I’m going to be happy when it’s over. That doesn’t mean it won’t make me cry, because the best romances always make me cry. It means that by the end, they’ll make me happy again. And that’s how I want my life to be: sad is ok (and even necessary to appreciate the un-sad times), but I want to end up happy.
Sonja Foust is a romance author, and though her Get Rich Quick scheme hasn’t panned out quite yet, she’s living most of her dream with her hot husband and her cute doggie. Her life is sometimes sad, but always ends up happy!
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Sonja - Ha ha is right on getting rich quick, but writing romance has made your life richer right? There’s nothing like falling in love and as romance readers we get to experience that every time we pick up the book and start that first chapter.
True, Sonja. Writing romance is a get rich slow proposition at best. It’s also fun and rewarding (in spirit, if not in money.) I get to feel all the feelings my readers will–joy, pain, despair, longing–but always in context of hope. I don’t know how, but I know if I stay creative, stay open to all possibilities, in the end it will all work out.
Which, as messages go, beats the hell out of “Life is hard and then you die.”
Hey, Sonja! I love that story! I know quite a few writers who started out that way, actually.
Me, I grew up reading romances. There wasn’t much else to do but read in the place I lived, so I read everything, classics, kid’s books, my parents’ books, and romances. I got hooked then and have been hooked ever since!
I just learned something new about you! : )
One of the ironies of publishing is that a lot of crap does get published while many people who know how to write well plotted, character driven novels struggle. Thank goodness the cream rises to the top!
You know, that’s what I like about Romance, and what I dislike about “Great Literature.” Great literature is all about how horrid life is….. while Romance leaves you that warm fuzzy feeling at the end of the book. You close the book at the end, get up, hug your dog (or cat) and give your hubby a kiss, just because you read a romance book!
Wouldn’t the world be a much better place if EVERYONE read romance novels? We’d all be much happier!
Get rich scheme? *snort*. Right!!!! We’re so rich, aren’t we? LOL.
I picked up romance about 5 or 6 years ago. I finally got tired of horror stories. In school, used to get by reading classics like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and The Three Musketeers. I hated James Joyce (shhh, don’t tell Sabrina) but liked Poe and Hawthorne.
I didn’t get into romance until late because well, I didn’t want to read about bedtime activities. I liked my Sci-Fi and Fantasy stories. A friend in college finally convinced me to try a romance and found I liked it.
Wow, thanks for all the great comments, everyone!
Karen, YES romance has DEFINITELY made my life richer. :)
Mary Margret, LOL, “life is hard, and then you die” cracks me up every time. That’s what my husband says to me whenever I get too whiney.
Sabrina, I only wish I’d found romances sooner! They really saved me, at least from a life of depressing literature. Heehee.
Elizabeth, glad you learned something new and thanks for stopping by.
Teresa, that sounds like a great plan: romances in every hand!
Beth C., yeah I was actually afraid the bedroom scenes would be a little too intense for my liking. Little did I know, reading about sex is kind of awesome. Heh.
I thought I was writing a mystery when I wrote my first romance. I’d never read a romance. But my daughters said, “Mom, it’s a ROMANCE” when they got to page 10 of my manuscript, so I started reading. Since then, I’ve enjoyed both sides of the page.
Yay Sonja, my hubby is waiting for us to get rich too. He keeps asking when can I retire? I just say not yet honey, someone has to have the insurance.
I first fell in love with Romance novels when I read Alinor by Roberta Gellis. I just read it again and still love it just as much. After that it was Kathleen Woodiwiss and then my own stories started to come and the rest, as they say is history…or historical romance.
Terry, yeah, when I wrote stories in high school, they were always romances even though I didn’t really know what a romance was and certainly had never read one!
Cindy, my husband does the same thing.
He says he wants to be a Kept Man. Haha.
Yeah, I was one of the ones who wrote that first book and then sat back, aghast, and exclaimed, “It’s a romance!” After which of course I had to learn about the romance genre (and RWA) in order to try to publish it. Which, 11 or so years later, it finally will be.
Rich, you say?
We should start a recovery group: “My name is Virginia, and I’m an English major…”
But it was in college that I discovered romance novels. A roommate’s mom used to mail her boxes of the old Harlequins (the doctor-nurse, boss-secretary kind) that we passed around up as an antidote to cramming for exams and boys who thought, “Can I crash here tonight?” was a sexy come-on.
You are so right about the importance of that feel-good feeling. My favorite writers deliver it. And my favorite letters are the ones from readers who say they got that from one of my books.
Hi Sonja–So glad you came over to the Romance Side! :-) My grandmother started me on them when I was young, and I’ve never looked back since. A lucky thing, I think. It’s easier to read a dark book or watch a dark movie, or deal with the crappy stuff in life, when you know you can turn to a Romance to make the world right again.
Carol, haha, yeah it’s a long road to rich I guess. :)
Virginia, YES! I always feel like a recovering English major.
Deb, yep, I do the same thing. If I read a really depressing book, I always follow it with a romance to get my head back on straight.