I Write Romance (insert eye roll)

How many times have you heard someone say, "I'm writing a book but nobody knows." Why not? OH! Because someone will think you're silly. Yes, I get that. Just the other day I had a lawyer say to me, "Oh, you write girl porn." WHAT!?! No, I write romance with a dose of happily ever after in every book! It wasn't too long ago I was introduced to a man and his sister-in-law says, "You're both published authors." Well he looked down his nose at me and said, "and what do you write?" When I replied, "romance," you might imagine the view. Nose up...eyes rolled.

My question is, even in the industry, why can't we accept each others' creative outlets and congratulate that person on a job well done? I mean, it takes a lot to write a book--even a bad book. And you're exposing yourself just as much as if you were running naked through a crowd.

I can sit here and tell you that I'm not into vampires. Thousands of people just rolled their eyes at me. But I'm not. I'm not going to pick up a book with the thought of a vampire or werewolf in it.  But DANG if that doesn't take some amazing talent to come up with the world behind those kinds of stories. Same goes with Regency Romance. I'm not all for bustling dresses and castles, but the amount of imagination and background work that goes into that is amazing! And those who write sci-fi and create new worlds and new creatures...they blow my mind!  Everyone of these generes has authors who kill themselves for the art and yet, someone will roll their eyes.

Just because I would rather throw myself on a contemporary romance does not mean I don't think each of those authors deserves a round of applause. They do!

The man I'd been introduced to wrote "literary fiction." I did my best not to roll my eyes. (all kidding aside,) I wanted to let him know that more than 10,000 copies of my books had been downloaded (yes, non physical copies even) that month. I wonder what he would have thought of that. Then again, those thinking that each genre isn't as important as their own would probably have an opinion on that too.

Of course I think it is human nature to have it in our heads that one job isn't as stellar as another. I've lived this my whole life. By trade I am a cosmetologist. I started as a nail technician. Yes, you can imagine the eye rolls I got there. But at 20 I opened my own salon and began employing others. However, city council members would come to meet the new business owner in town, open the door, see a young girl, scoff and turn back and go out the door. Really? That made me want to be part of your community? Tell someone you're a stylist and they assume you dropped out of school and couldn't do something else; however, they will pay you their "hard earned money" because they need your service. Really who is laughing in the back room now?

Point being, no matter what genre an author writes, they deserve a round of applause for putting themselves out there. Every closet writer should come forth and bare all they have for the masses. I'm proud to know authors who write everything from Christian Fantasy to Hard Core Erotica. Those who create worlds and those who have extreme differences in opinion from me. It's amazing what is out there for the masses to read. And I promise...no matter what you write...I will never roll my eyes at you.