Why do I Write Romance?

         I love being a writer. To me there is nothing better than creating worlds in my mind and people who can make the mistakes I have made or live the exciting lives I'll never really experience-at least outside my mind. But when I meet people, one of their first questions is always , what do you write. I smile and tell them Romance.
          Now the Romance genre has been mocked for years, some saying it's to unrealistic or that it doesn't take a lot of talent to write that kind of stuff, and I have to say that is an utter load of crap! I recently read a blog by Dakota Cassidy on book adicts.com where she spoke about why she writes romance. And I absolutely loved what she had to say. As such I'm, coppying her blog here for you too read.

Why Do I Write Romance,
Because I want to.
The End.
No. I kid.
So why romance novels? I can’t tell you how often people outside the industry ask me that very question when they hear what my chosen profession is. “Why, of all the things to write, do you write romance novels?”
My answer is always the same: Because travel brochures are boring and Trigonometry For Dummies is so last year’s Slap Chop.
Again, I kid. But the truth is, if the question’s posed with one of those condescending sneers, I don’t get defensive. I don’t balk. Well, sometimes I flip the questioner the bird, but that’s only in the extreme disapproval stage of the game. Mostly, I just answer: Because dude, it’s good times!

I could spout all the pros for writing romance all day long, but I’d just be reiterating what romance writers have been saying forever. Stuff like, what better job to have than one you can perform in your pajamas? And I don’t mean the kind of pajamas you get at Zone D’ Erotica. What better job to have than one that takes you anywhere you’re little heart desires at any given time? What better job to have than one that allows you to make crap up and no one calls you a liar? What better job to have than one that involves paranormal creatures, or crazy situations designed to test the limits of credibility? What better job to have than one where you can claim your midnight run to McDonalds on your taxes because you had the best idea evah while you were in the car, heading to pick up your Value Meal? What better job to have than one that pays you to do all of the above?

I could also boast that in the fictional world, romance ranks purty damn high in the winner-winner chicken dinner industry payout. But what’s the point? Why should I justify what I write, or how I choose to make my living? I don’t ask the garbage man why garbage, do I? I don’t ask the stripper why a pole either. Romance writers are some of the hardest working people I know. They toil over every word. They spend long hours not just thinking stuff up, but bringing a story as close to perfection as they possibly can, and we don’t get a whole lot of respect from those outside the genre.
Yet, we survive. We thrive on the barbs and continue, as a whole, to make this genre one of the most popular in fiction. We adjust. We constantly reinvent ourselves. We pretty much rock.

I write romance because there’s nothing I love more than making stuff up. Making people up. I’m a born entertainer. I love a crowd, I love people, and I especially love to laugh. I love to make people laugh. But I also love love. Two people falling in love is, in my opinion, the slam-dunk of fun.

I’m not necessarily talking the rainbows and lollipops kind of romance—though I heart that, too. I just blow at writing it. I have a snarkier, more hard-edged humorous slant on falling in love, and I guess part of that comes from the hearty doses of reality I’ve experienced over the course of almost forty-five years. It’s probably given me the less conventional approach to romance in that, there aren’t a whole lot of “I’d die without you’s” going on in my books.
Because you most assuredly won’t die without a man. I don’t care how good he is on a Tempur-Pedic—you’ll live if he dumps you for Silicone Barbie.
However, I do believe in finding the one person in the world who fits just you. I do believe in never settling for anything less than the dude who makes your heart belt out Celine Dion songs while Boyz to Men sings backup and a field of buttercups sways to the rhythm of the beat in the background.
I do believe you can laugh, cry, share an adventure and a tube of toothpaste with one person and find the kind of love you deserve. I do believe you can be in love with someone without losing your independence, without giving up the things you enjoy (like, decoupage, for instance), without doing anything other than just being you. I believe falling in love should be an enhancement to your already full life, and that enhancement should always treat you like you’re the most valued human being on earth.
I write romance because I believe. I believe there can be a happily ever after. I believe there can be total commitment between two people. I believe the readers who love romance connect on a million different levels via something as unbelievable as a werewolf or a vampire.
This writing thing was a total accident for me. If I’ve said it once in my seven-year career, I’ve said it a thousand times, “I didn’t mean to write a romance novel—it just happened.” But I think it’s rather telling that the first thing I chose to write (and I do mean ever) was a romance. I’ve read them all my life, but they weren’t the only genre I read. Yet, I’m not churning out the next Stephen King (like I could anyway) or Robin Cook, and that’s a for sure kind of statement.
I write romance because it offers hope, joy, the chance to dream a little dream, hook up with a genie, visit a place I may never see in reality.
I write it because no one can or will tell me I can’t.
So the next time someone has the gall to mock you for reading a romance, offer them this: “Blow me. When was the last time you got your hands on a hot vampire/werewolf/demon/cougar while you were in the Netherlands on a pirate ship with a duke who’s just time-traveled with his spaceship from some newly discovered, unpronounceable futuristic planet via the fiery planes of Hell after meeting a millionaire Internet mogul on an island off the Ivory Coast?”
Yeah. It’s like that.
Dakota Cassidy lives for a good laugh in life and in her writing. In fact, she almost loves a good giggle as much as she loves hair products and that’s saying something.
Her goals in life are simple, (like really simple): banish the color yellow forever, create world peace via hot rollers and Aqua Net; and finally, nab every tiara in the land by competing in the Miss USA, Miss Universe, and Miss World pageants, then sweeping them in a stunning trifecta of much duct tape and Vaseline usage, all in just under one week. Oh, and write really fun books!
Dakota lives in Texas with her two sons, her mother, more cats and dogs than the local animal shelter and has a husband who puts the heroes in her books to shame.

If you have not read Dakota yet, run to your local bookstore and get a copy of her books because she is truly awsome.