LaConnie Taylor-Jones **Book Tour: Romance, It's More Than a Genre
The word romance can be defined in several ways—a brief, intense love affair, the sexual love between two people, a fascination with something or even excitement. However, most people associate the term romance with a collection of love stories, the genre. There’s another definition that best describes how I define romance and the role it played in my road to publication—the spirit of adventure.Aaah…the spirit of adventure! For me, this translates into heroic achievement because never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that combining two of my greatest passions in life would lead to the completion of two full-length novels. A challenge from my husband made me seize the opportunity to blend my enthusiasm for teaching health, social responsibility and social justice together with my love for reading.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a love affair with books. Give me a novel, any novel, and I would seek out a quiet space in order to read it. However, it wasn’t until my junior year in college that I discovered the romance genre. I flunked, yes, flat-out flunked an organic mid-term after staying up the entire night to read one of the greatest romance novels of all times, The Flame and the Flower, written by the late author, Kathleen Woodiwiss. I found an unexplainable passion for the genre and the following morning, I knew that this genre had hooked me for life. Over the next twenty-five years, I was content to sustain this romance as a reader.
After graduation, I pursued my education, which eventually landed me in my present occupation as a health educator. Along the way, I married, had children, and even managed to become actively involved with several social and civic organizations. Then in the summer of 2003, something amazing happened. The enthusiasm for my career coupled with the experiences I’d gained over the years teaching women, in particular, sparked a multitude of storylines. Another romance began to blossom and suddenly, I was no longer content to merely be a reader of the romance genre. I had to test the waters to see if I could actually craft my skill as a health educator with my passion for reading. In the summer of 2003, I decided to roll the dice and become a romance writer.
Was I frightened? You bet! There’s a world of difference between writing scientific publications and fiction. In the beginning, I had to learn the process of novel writing from the ground up. As a technical writer, I stated the facts and cited those references that supported my subject matter. But I quickly discovered that in order to write fiction, I had to acquire a more in-depth writing style and learn to show versus tell readers my story.
Did I stumble along the way? Absolutely! My first manuscript was rejected more times than I care to remember. But it was the innate spirit of adventure, that romance, which I believe is within all of us that allowed me to learn from my mistakes, listen to the advice that was given, and press forward. In October 2006, a publisher finally said what I’d longed to hear, “I like this story!”
Is there a romance you long to embrace that’s lying dormant inside of you? I bet there is and would love for you to share it.
Remember, romance—it’s more than a genre.
— LaConnie Taylor-Jones
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This Tour is sponsored by SORMAG: For Readers and Writers of Multi-Cultural Literature.
