Rock Stars
- At January 22, 2024
- By Roxanne Snopek
- In For Writers
- 0
Rock Stars
I’ve been publishing novels in the women’s fiction (which sometimes includes romance) genre since 2012. And that makes me a rock star. That’s right, romance authors are rock stars. Don’t believe me? Read on, gentle reader! (Thanks to author and friend Jeannie Moon at Five Harbors Literary for the awesome graphic!)
From MACLEANS, April 26, 2015, by Emma Teitel:
When American filmmaker Laurie Kahn set out to make Love Between the Covers, a documentary about the women who read and write romance novels, she was struck by how often she heard the same story. It wasn’t a tale of beefy bodice rippers or love at first sight; it was a story about snobs.
“I can’t tell you how many people I interviewed,” says Kahn, “who told me that people will walk up to them on a beach and say, ‘Why do you read that trash?’”
One Man’s Trash
Apparently, where lovers of romance novels go, contempt follows. Sometimes it’s subtle contempt—a raised eyebrow from a colleague, or a snarky comment from a friend (usually the kind of person who claims to read Harper’s on a beach vacation). Other times it’s more overt, even potentially damaging.
When Mary Bly (pen name Eloisa James), an academic and New York Times bestselling author, began writing romance, she was advised to keep her fiction writing secret or risk not making tenure at the university where she worked.
Sexism in Publishing
For some reason, argues Kahn, perhaps because its subjects are female, romance novels are perceived as fundamentally silly, when other popular “genre fiction”—namely, fiction by and for men—is not.
“Nobody,” she says, would walk up to “a man reading Stephen King, or a mystery or sci-fi novel” and scoff. And she’s right: Stephen King is a prodigious talent… right up there with romance novelist Nora Roberts. Yet Roberts has been the butt of jokes—a universal default example of “bad writing,”—while male contemporaries with far less talent get a free pass.
Consider the Source
Perhaps, as the graphic says, it’s a woman thing. If the majority of these books are written by women and read by women, and the majority of people knocking these books haven’t read them… maybe it’s not about the books.
Maybe trashing romance novels is more about trashing women.
Read the full article at: Why romance novelists are the rock stars of the literary world.
Nevertheless, this author persists
- At September 07, 2022
- By Roxanne Snopek
- In Life, Roxanne Writes On
- 0
I’m in the home stretch of The Cowboy’s Lost Family for Tule Publishing and as always, the experience is a combination of excitement (it’s going to be so great!!) and abject terror (I will never un-knot this mess, what was I thinking, sob, grovel, check Facebook.)
The Creative Process
There is no Dark Night of the Soul for my characters until I feel it as their creator. There is no resolution for them until there is resolution for me. And the satisfying ending they reach will be nothing to the triumph I’ll feel upon writing THE END.
This is an important series for me. (Now I feel disloyal to the others!) I try to access some truth in myself for all my books, but in this one, I find myself digging deeper. I’m exploring subjects that have a lot of emotion attached to them.
The Search for Identity
These three books (though I may have to go begging for a fourth to tell it fully) are about adoptees searching for identity. But they’re also about the backstory, what it’s like for the mothers and fathers forced by circumstances to relinquish their children. About the grandparents who were part of that decision. About the micro-culture that determined social rules—and the cost of breaking them. The stories of the lost Malones of Grand, Montana, are about fear, pain, shame, regret… and also about discovery, joy, forgiveness and love.
Speaking the Truth
All authors work to tell the truth about human experience. Romance authors work to tell the truth specifically about the experiences of women. Our genre is about women discovering what they want, and then taking action to get it. It’s about courage in a world where many women’s voices still remain secondary. Where they’re told (directly or indirectly) that they should sit down and let someone else decide what’s best for them.
So, here’s me, getting into the final push of this book, taking courage from someone who refused to sit down and shut up, because Nevertheless she persisted. She believed in the power of her words. I believe in mine. I believe in yours. Whatever you’re struggling with today, reader, persist.
Why be Vulnerable?
- At March 04, 2019
- By Roxanne Snopek
- In Rox Reads, Roxanne Writes On
- 0
Why be vulnerable
… you might ask? Because that’s the key to connection.
Recently, I picked up a copy of Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown. You know what they say about the teacher appearing when the student is ready? It feels as if this is the book landed in my sight-line at exactly the right moment.
It’s about vulnerability and transformation.
If you’ve been reading me for any length of time, you know that one of my key-words is authenticity. I strive to tell the truth in my books, to dig into the real issues of a character, a relationship, and figure it out. I strive to be real, to be honest with myself and with others.
This is REALLY HARD. Because being honest, being authentic, means being vulnerable.
I’ve always secretly believed this desire for authenticity to be my super-power, however I’m extremely aware that vulnerability is not valued in much of our culture and that you have to have really good boundaries to remain safe, while being authentic and vulnerable. I’m not always that great at determining the people who are safe, the times and places where this part of me will be valued. Which means, I can get really hurt. And when I get hurt, I withdraw, like a turtle, into my shell.
I’ve spent a lot of time inside my shell. Note: it’s not a great place to be.
Brené Brown’s book, and her videos and TED talks, addresses this fear – terror really – that we all have of revealing our true selves… and being rejected. Her research is about the true power that lies within vulnerability, how we can’t fully engage in our own lives unless and until we embrace it.
I’ll tell you more as I learn more. In the meantime, watch this: