Can Men Write Romance Novels?

I wanted to share this article I came across about an age old topic: Can a man write a romance novel?

Since romance novels are generally written from a woman's perspective the question is can a man REALLY capture the female perspective? Over the many years I have been in this business it seems that readers always know when a romance novel is written by a man.

Of course there are exceptions like Tom Huff who very successfully wrote as Jennifer Wilde, Mike (I forget his last name) who wrote as Vanessa Royale and then there is Harold Lowery who write great romances for Leisure as Leigh Greenwood. But I think they are the exception and most men who have tried their hand at writing romance have not been very successful.

I am just passing along the article not passing judgment and I would love to see the BBC series planned for this fall.

Carol Stacy
Publisher

P.S: Here is another article on the subject with seven women authors contributing.

Discovering New Authors

I'm jumping for joy as I type this. OK, so I'm sitting down and not actually jumping or doing cartwheels, but I am excited. What am I so happy about? I've found a new author to rave about. She's not a debut author by any means, in fact the book I read was, I believe, her sixth romantic suspense novel. But she is new to me and I'm thrilled. I finished the book at around eleven last night and quickly considered how fast I'd be able to buy the author's backlist. (For those of you wondering, which I'm sure you all are at this point, I'm talking about author Karen Rose, whose February 2007 release COUNT TO TEN inspired this piece. I was lucky enough to get a preview copy of the book from her publicist at Warner Books.)

To be honest, I had heard of Rose before I read this book. And she writes in my favorite genre -- romantic suspense. But until last week I'd never read any of her books. I don't really know why.

Let's face it. We all have so many books to read and so many favorite authors whose books we buy automatically when they are released that our to-be-read piles often don't allow for many new names. Sure we might buy a debut author, because it is their first book and we'd all like to get a jump on the next big author (Allison Brennan anyone?), but finding an author in our favored genre who's been toiling way for years and who we somehow overlooked -- well it's like finding a treasure that's been hiding in your attic for years.

So how you do you feel about discovering an author you've previously overlooked?

Faygie Levy
Executive Editor
RT BOOKreviews Magazine

M/M Erotic Romances (Male on Male)

Is this really a turn on for women and a "growing" market? I have been resistant to review them in Romantic Times BOOKreviews because I do not feel we have many readers who want this type of book. I would love your input on this in a poll I have created.

The more people vote, the more objective the result will be, so please make sure to vote. The poll will run for 30 days.


Thanks for your help,
Carol Stacy
Publisher