This YA Indie Carnival week’s topic is ‘Why the genre we write?’

Okay, I only have one published book and it happens to be a Supernatural Romance but I’m currently writing a novel that has no paranormal elements. So, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say I don’t write an especially specific genre but I will allow myself to be pigeonholed one particular way. I wear the label, ‘romance writer’. Oh! How I love to write about love!

So, why do I write about love?

Because it is why I live.  I live to love my God, my family, my friends. There is not a more satisfying, more fulfilling, more sensation driven happiness better than love. And that’s exactly what love is. A sensation driven happiness.

When you’re first getting to know someone there are first jokes, first car drives, first movies, first songs, first kisses, which are all phenomenal, by the way, but with love, you get third, fourths, fifths and infinities.  It’s the promise of infinity that is so beautiful to me. It’s a concept, I think, may be lost within today’s youth. I don’t think couples stick it out long enough to find out what longevity can bring them. Deeper love, deeper respect, deeper connections. You get to know one another so well you can read the other’s thoughts and feelings without them being voiced. This is love to me. Connection is love to me.

That’s why I try to write the love between my characters with a deeper connection. Nothing is superficial about them, and although, they are flawed, they still hold themselves to higher standards and strive to meet them. Elliott would do anything for Julia and I mean anything. There’s a conversation between the two of them in The Understorey where Julia tells Elliott that she can see that he would die for her and Elliott whispers in reply, “I would kill tigers for you, Jules. Of course, I would die for you.” Theirs is a selfless love which is the only way to love, in my opinion. When a love is so profound you wouldn’t hesitate laying down your life for that person, that is genuine love in the most true sense.

I also try to convey to my readers, especially my female readers, that when someone is honestly interested in you they would do anything to keep you safe, body and soul. I love it when my female leads get into some sort of predicament and the boys come to their rescue. I mean, I know it’s an antiquated concept so just go ahead and call me old-fashioned. Now, with that being said,  I do want to point out that my female characters aren’t pansies, either. They fight back, they’re strong and intelligent and each possess gumption, a trait, I think, every girl should acquire.

It’s important to me that my readers recognize that my female leads know their own value. I can’t tell you how many girls I’ve met where I walked away from the conversation thinking, ‘they don’t know they’re worth jumping out of planes for’.  It’s just another reason why I write romances. I write how romance should be and what the youth should expect from each other. I write for entertainment, of course, because love is just a blast but I also write so my readers know that it’s okay to demand only the best because that’s what we all deserve, the best.

This envelopment with Jules smothered all lingering agony from the wanting that had these past few weeks sat so stagnant in my heart. It was as if I had been wandering through the Sahara, with a canteen brimming with water and only allowed myself to drink one tablespoon a day, though my body suffered for gallons.

HelloGoodbye ‘When We First Met’

Fellow members of ‘The Lovely Hearts Club’: