The Steam Room

I thought it fitting to end this weeklong tribute to love with some poetic talk.  Poetry isn’t easy to write, at least the kind that uses more than cheap rhymes and absurd situations.  Like poetry, love isn’t easy either.  But then, if it was easy, we wouldn’t want it so much, would we?

Please welcome Erin M. Leaf, Larion Wills, Frances Pauli,and Natalie R-G as they talk about the poetry of love.

For some of us, reading romance provides an escape from our daily stressors.  For others, it lets us enjoy romantic encounters and relationships that will never be our reality.  We love our Significant Others, but real relationships are seldom all about the romance.  Between work and family demands, we often have little energy left for even small romantic gestures. Romance is a habit. Once we fall out of that habit, it’s difficult to pick up again. Even so, that doesnR...

Like a river, love changes in response to time and climate.  It might freeze or change course or rush over rocky rapids, but it never goes away.  I think the key to any successful relationship is to make sure you change together, that your rivers run parallel, and that they frequently cross and twine. Rivers, like love, are a force of nature.  Never tamed, frequently wrestled, and always sought.

Please welcome Melissa Bradley, Laura Tolomei, and KR Bailey as ...

Life-changing moments are sometimes big events and sometimes nothing we notice at the time.  They can be a serious medical event or the same old thing that happens every day.  Whether it creeps up on you or smacks you upside the head, everybody experiences things that make them sit up and take notice of life.  We take stock and re-evaluate. We figure out what life we want and grab hold of it. Some people take up knitting or a sport. Romantics turn to reading and writing romance...

Entire novels have been written and entire careers have been dedicated to trying to define love. Romance novelists redefine it with every book they write. The definition changes with time and experience. It stays fresh and new and sometimes elusive. That’s probably why we keep writing it.  True romantics never give up! (And I had a really, really hard time not titling this 'Hump Day'.)

Please welcome ZA Maxfield, Karenna Colcroft, Tina Donahue,Lynne Rob...

In eighth grade, my friend Jenniferintroduced me to the Sweet Dreams series of YA romance novels. I fell in lovewith happy endings. From that day forward, I devoured all sorts of romancenovels. I think most people who read romance novels, no matter what heat level,love the happily-ever-after.  I likeknowing that no matter what chaos surrounds my own life, I can pick up a romancenovel and be assured that everything’s going to be all right.

Please welcome Stephani...

Cynics refer to Valentine’s Day as a Hallmark Holiday, something created to market cards, candy and flowers.  Romantics don’t care where it came from or why it’s become such an important holiday, we’re just happy there’s a universal day set aside to celebrate and honor romance. Those of us in the romance industry—whether we’re writers or readers—find a way to stretch this sentiment so that it touches our everyday lives.