Xenia Navarre Historical Romance

Hi Brandice!

It's true that category romance, in particular, is sometimes looked down upon as inferior to "real literature." In fact, it's a challenge that commercial fiction in general--from science fiction to crime fiction to horror, etc--often struggles with. I'm in an MFA program at University of Southern Maine, one of the few MFA programs in the country that really welcomes romance, and the vast majority of faculty and staff there are highly supportive of my work. But I still sometimes feel, in writers' groups, that I'm being looked down upon just cuz I write romance. It's very frustrating!!

I actually tried to write a category romance for the Harlequin Intrigue line, but it was really tough to write such a concise, short, and focused story! Thus, my effort became a single-title romantic thriller called THE RUSSIAN SEDUCTION. I'm still planning to write a category romance, because I think it'll be good practice for me. So many writing projects though, and always so little time....

I prefer the Single-Title Romance. Especially historical romance. The reason I shy away from the category of Romance is that it is not taken seriously as a "real" or "credible" work of fiction. Do you know what I mean? Its almost as if we're second class readers because we were ...Romance...

-Brandice

JR, wow--I had no idea that Fiona Buckley also writes as Valerie Anand! Looks like she has quite a few historical epics set in some of my favorite historical periods (throughout medieval England). I look forward to reading some of these!!

Cheers,
Xenia

Hi,

Did you know that Fiona Buckley is the pen name of Valerie Anand?

Every one of her books written under the Anand name is worth reading, but try to read them in sequence if you can. She has a wonderful anti-romance thing going in her books where things are always going wrong for her protagonists and we never get the expected outcome, but she does it so brilliantly it's fun to read. And her history is perfect.

--JR

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