Day 5 of the Romancing September Across The World Blog Tour
Welcome to Day 5 of the Romancing September Across The World Blog Tour. The question I put out to all of these authors was “What challenges do you face in writing romance in today’s society?”
Don’t forget to go over to Rosie Amber’s page and check out her page too. I’ll put the link at the bottom of this post.
Today my guest author is Robynn Gabel. A big thanks to Robynn Gabel for blogging with me today. Here is a little about Robynn and her book Windswept Hearts.
What Challenges do you face writing romance in today’s society?
Having started my writing career later in life, I realize I may not be in touch with today’s younger generation. The taboos of my early years, may not apply in this day and age. For a writer to be successful we must take in the current trends, even if we may not like them. Morals have shifted, social settings have changed, and language is always evolving.
So first you must set what age group you are trying to reach, the era you want to write in. As a first time author I knew I had to write about something I knew about. It would have been easier to set it in a historical era that would have gone along with my comfort zone, but I knew more about the western culture I live in so I chose a more comfortable route. With any good story there is research, even if you live in it. Historical romance takes more research time than it does to actually write the book. I know this because I’ve been studying the Viking age for years, hoping to write a romance in that time period. But to test the waters, I chose to write a contemporary western romance, Windswept Hearts.
Then there are the questions, how far do I take the interpersonal romance? How much physical intimacy? I had to decide again who I was trying to reach. I also had to decide what I was comfortable writing. What level of erotica would I include? Ultimately, that was decided by my characters personalities, belief systems and age group. It is tempting to jump on the newest trend, but I have found it is my characters and the story they have to tell that determines what I will write.
Ultimately, I feel the genre of romance is a smorgasbord of choices, which gives me the greatest field of creativity. My only challenge is writing well enough to capture my readers interest and hold them captive until the end of the story.
Biography
When Robynn Gabel was a little girl, her mother was in despair over the tall tales she would come up with. Her mother would scold her saying, “I hope you can put that over-active imagination of yours to good use someday.!” So she decided to be an obedient daughter and follow her mother’s advice.
Robynn’s love of literature began with Dr. Seuss and hasn’t ever stopped. With the advent of the Internet she is never at loss for material. Through the years Robynn wrote extensively for business, blindly producing proposals, letters, advertising, convention fliers, and promotion material.
Several years ago, Robynn was talked into becoming the editor and producer of the church newsletter. During a search for material she ran across an ad for the Christian Writer’s Guild Convention in Colorado Springs. On a whim, she went and ended up sitting next to a publishing agent for Christian romances. After a nice chat Robynn was asked if she had any material. Amazed that someone thought she might be a writer, it ignited the fire that had been smoldering since high school. She signed up for a two year, on-line course through the Guild.
Since then, it has been a journey equal to that of any of J.R. Tolkien’s characters. She learned to blog, format, edit, Facebook, and Tweet. She has an interest in several genre’s but for now she wrote about the world she knows best, Romance.
Windswept Hearts is now available here on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback. Set in the contemporary west, it chronicles the struggles of a city girl who has inherited a very unwanted cattle ranch. Robynn is currently working on several other projects including a paranormal story involving the mysteries of autism, and a history romance set in the Viking era.
Robynn would be happy to chat and answer any questions you might have. She looks forward to continuing in this amazing journey of creating stories and hope you want to come along with her!
Windswept Hearts
Publication Date: January 1, 2013
Anna Sanchez, a recent college graduate, has inherited the family cattle ranch. Having promised her mother she would take care of it, she is now faced with a tough choice. She is a city girl, and running a cattle business certainly isn’t in her plans. A lot of repairs need to be done and she hires Steve Johnson, a local handyman. Their first encounter leaves them both at a disadvantage. Through the summer’s adventures, including a wildlife encounter that turns deadly, and a shadow from her past, Anna will learn that things don’t always go according to even the most organized aspirations.
Go on over and check out Robynn’s Books
Here’s a link to the other side of the tour over at Rosie’s page:
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