Romance Novel Sluts

Hi everyone… Wish we were doing this in person.  It’s so much fun for a writer to talk to other writers or readers.  Funny thing about being a writer.  The laptop doesn’t talk back which makes it a very solitary occupation.  Thus my love of talking when I get the chance.

So here’s the scoop on me.  I think I’ve loved romance from the start and just didn’t know it.  My first favorite author ever was Zane Grey.  OMG.  Picture an eight year old girl reading about heroes larger than life who are willing to die for the brand and for their girl.  I was hooked from the start.  I went from those to all of the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories (Tarzan).  I know, I know… but he was a nearly nude male who could swing from the trees and save people.  What’s not to love about that?

I went from those to the stories of Emilie Loring and Grace Livingstone Hill.  Those were all romances of the sweetest kind.  The most hot stuff going on in those books was a kiss at the end, but I had yet to reach twelve and was happy with that.  In later years, I became a huge Louis L’amour fan.  Read all of his stories.  I think my all-time favorite was actually one of the few he wrote that wasn’t a historical western.  It was called LAST OF THE BREED, about a Native American fighter pilot who crash lands on the coast of Russia, just across the water from the Alaskan shore.  It was about how he called on his knowledge of his warrior past to survive in the cold and snow and how he hid from the Russians until he could be saved.  I bought it for my son for a stocking stuffer one Christmas, (he was a huge LL fan, too) and then I sat up and read the whole thing before I could put it in his stocking and go to bed.  Call me obsessive, but I got my hero fix big-time with that one.

I mention all this because, if you know my work and the men I write about in my stories, you might recognize the same type.  I still love the men who are tough and strong, but not afraid to cry.  I love the men who honor their women, but never expect them to walk that step behind.  Instead, their women walk beside them, with their heads high, knowing they are cherished.  GREAT BIG SIGH.

So I have a trilogy out right now with heroes like this.  The first book in the Storm Front trilogy is called BLOWN AWAY.  It came out in June.  The second book is TORN APART.  It’s just out – a July release.  The last will be out in August.  It’s called SWEPT ASIDE.  It’s about what happens to three different families/people when a hurricane-spawned tornado hits their sleepy little Louisiana town.

The first “real” romance I read that made me want to write them was Danielle Steele’s PALOMINO.  I still love that story.
I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of the J.D ROBB books, as well.  Eve Dallas is my kind of woman.

There are so many wonderful writers and like everyone I know, I have a huge TBR pile, as well.  It sort of comforting to me…like my security blanket…to know that when all else fails, I still have those to fall back on.

The novel I’m working on now is called BLOOD STAINS.  It will be the first book in a trilogy I’m doing that will be out next year.  I’m actually about finished with it.  Just doing a little editing/cleaning up on it.  July 3rd is my birthday.  I’m planning on writing THE END on that novel on the 3rd as my birthday present to myself.

Hope you all have a safe and happy summer.

Happy reading and always…always…remember the romance.

-Sharon Sala

Sharon Sala is a long-time member of RWA, as well as a member of OKRWA. She has 80 plus books in print, written as Sharon Sala and Dinah McCall. First published in 1991, she’s a seven-time RITA finalist, winner of the Janet Dailey Award, four-time Career Achievement winner from RT Magazine, National Reader’s Choice Award, and Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence winners five times each. Her books are New York Times , USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly, WaldenBooks mass market best-sellers. Writing changed her life, her world, and her fate.

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