Romancing the Romantic

Sondrae Bennett is a wonderful blogger and friend! Today she's here guest blogging on why she chose Romance! Her novel Arctic Winds has just been released!

Thanks so much for having me Jen!

I get a lot of questions about why I chose to write romance. The truth is I didn’t
choose romance, it chose me.

My fascination with the genre started at an early age. Strung out on pain killers after getting my wisdom teeth removed, my mom, probably tired of me complaining I was bored, handed me the book she had just finished. I still remember it to this day. In fact I think I still have it somewhere. It was a Nora Roberts romance, and I was hooked. I finished it in two days and demanded more. I gobbled down any romance I could find, falling in love with authors such as Julia Quinn, Johanna Lindsey, and Kathleen E. Woodiwiss.

There was nothing as magical as picking up a book and immersing myself in the story. I put myself in the place of the heroine. I saw the castles she rode up to and felt her fear as she was captured. I fell in love with the heroes, and cursed the day I reached the last page because I knew my adventure was over. At least until I picked up my next book and fell in love all over again.

It wasn’t until college that I started reading paranormals. I don’t know why it took me so long. I’d been reading fantasy and horror novels before discovering romance. So looking back, I’m surprised I didn’t merge the two together earlier. But once again, I was hooked.

When I first started writing, I was all over the place. I rarely finished what I started and honestly never intended it to be more than a hobby. At least, not until I saw a romance short story contest. The winner would be published as part of an anthology and I knew I had to try. I guess I’d always had the writing dream, I just never thought I could do it, so I’d hidden it away. But once I let myself believe it was possible, there was no going back.

I never did enter the contest. The story I started quickly outgrew the guidelines but I fell in love with my characters and with their story. I had to finish. What I started that day would later become the first draft of my book, ‘Arctic Winds’ and what I hope will be a long career writing the stories I always dreamed of. When I finished that first draft, I knew I had something special. I felt not just a desire, but a need to share the tale with other romance lovers.

I realize now why I was never able to finish my stories. It wasn’t until a contest forced me to sit down and write what I love, romance, that I was able to do it. It’s so important to write with passion and love. So when people ask me why I write romance, I tell them that I love falling in love.