A long time ago, when I was tutoring students in writing and teaching writing classes in a community college, I decided I wanted to write a romance novel. So I told a fellow tutor (who was a novelist) that I wanted to write a romance novel - because they make the most money. Have you read any romance novels, he asked. No, I haven’t. Well, go get some to read and see what you think. But the books I read were kinda dumb and even boring. So I sort of dropped it. Besides I was in grad school then and reading A LOT. But skip a few years, and I got REAL sick, in and out of the hospital, and bored out of my skull. I looked up romance novels again - and, COOL! Found the right author, right characters and stories. I write something every day - journal, poems, trying stuff out. And one day, I started MY first romance novel! It was so much fun! I didn’t want to do anything else! Then I wrote 2 more, one for the pandemic - because how do you do that?? Once I figured that out, I was in a rush.
So thanks for writing this pep talk, Eva Luna