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Thursday 8 November 2018

Proud to Write Romance

fierce-grace, jess-b-moore, book, blog-tour

It's all too easy for genre writers to be labelled and pigeon-holed - often before a reader has even picked up their book! Today, I'm on the blog tour for Fierce Grace by Jess B. Moore, with the author sharing her own honest account of the prejudices and common misconceptions she has been faced with by choosing to write romance fiction. Read on to discover why Jess is unashamedly proud to be a romance writer!


fierce-grace, jess-b-moore, book, blog-tour

My affection for romance novels remained a secret for many years. A so-called guilty pleasure. Better to read on my Nook or Kindle, to hide the sexy, cough embarrassing, covers.

Why?

Because when you say you read romance, you get answers like:
“They’re so cliché.” 
“Sex books?” 
“You mean with like Fabio on the cover?” 
“Yuck, too predictable.” 
“The writing is never very good.”
Then I started writing. Really hit my groove and spent years crafting stories and finding my voice. Guess what? My voice is romance. Didn’t matter what I tried to write - it all came out romance.

I was tempted to remain embarrassed. To hide away. I contemplated using a pen name to avoid the criticism that would stem from writing romance.

fierce-grace, jess-b-moore, book, blog-tour

After suffering through a few (okay, more than a few) awkward conversations about my upcoming book and the fact it’s romance, I had to make a decision. It took me exactly no time to accept that I LOVE romance.

I am PROUD to read and write romance.

You know why? I’ll tell you.

First, have you met any romance authors? If not, let me be the one to inform you, these are the best people. Kind, supportive, fun, and ready to rally around one another. I count myself lucky to be amongst the romance authors.

Also, hello, all the tired responses related to romance are themselves: cliché.

Cliché? Nah. People of all walks of life read and write romance - because love is a universal language worth telling.

Fabio? Well, there are plenty of covers with sexy images. Plenty without. Have you seen Penny Reid’s cross-stitch covers? Fabulous!

jess-b-moore, author

Predictable? Not so much. A romance features a central love story and a happy-for-now or happy-ever-after. Otherwise, nothing about any romance is predictable. In fact, I could argue that crime novels are predictable because there are always police/detectives solving crimes. Sheesh.

As far as the writing not being good... you’ll find that in EVERY genre, I assure you. We’ve all read books that we didn’t find well-written. Romance is no more or no less likely to have these books.

Hiding no more, I stand proud to be part of the romance readers and writers.

This is how those conversations go with people:
“What’s your book about?” 
“It’s a romance.” 
“Oh … um … I don’t …” 
“That’s okay. It’s a love story, but also features bluegrass music, small town gossip, family relationships, and learning how to grow past the labels we place on ourselves. You can probably relate, but I understand if romance isn’t your thing.”
Jess B. Moore is a writer of love stories. When she’s not writing, she’s busy mothering her talented and stubborn children, reading obscene numbers of books, and knitting scarves she’ll likely never finish. Jess lives in small-town North Carolina with her bluegrass-obsessed family. She takes too many pictures of her cats, thinking the Internet loves them as much as she does. She is a firm believer in swapping stories over coffee or wine, and that there should always be dark chocolate involved.

Fierce Grace is available to buy now. Keep up with Jess and her writing on Facebook or Instagram.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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