Jan 25, 2017

Just read... Kandy Shepherd

We’re having a long, hot January summer in my part of DownUnder—too hot really. So hot all I could do some days was sit near an air conditioner or fan and read. Turning the pages and lifting a cool drink to my lips was all the effort I could make!



Looking at what I read over the holiday break, I realised it was all romance and thrillers. I do read broadly across all genres as well as literary novels and non-fiction but recent reads, both print and e-books did not include those. Just romance and thrillers.

My family can’t understand why I enjoy thrillers and police procedurals, not shying away from the sometimes gruesome. (Or watch television programs where there is often a deal of screaming involved!) I say it’s because of the suspense of the whodunnit, the way characters react under pressure and danger, and because justice inevitably prevails.

And then there’s romance. Like many romance authors, I’ve often asked why I write romance. The implication is, why don’t I write something “better” than romance. Apart from the perhaps unintentional insult the question implies, I get a little cranky sometimes at having to “justify” what I write. The simple answer is that I love reading romance and decided to write what I enjoy reading!



Looking back (a looong time ago) I realise I always enjoyed stories with even a hint of romance in them—even in children’s books. My introduction to romance novels started with first my grandmother’s collection of Mills & Boon and Women’s Weekly Library that were considered “safe” for a young person’s eyes.

I don’t know that they realised how sensual some of the M&Bs were and how I combed them for the “sexy bits”!



When my mother brought home These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer from the library and told me she thought I would enjoy it, I got hooked on historicals. Then I really got into the “bodice rippers” of the eighties!

What I love about romance? That wonderful feeling of falling in love and that gorgeous, guaranteed happy ending. I love that about chick flicks too (but not when someone dies in the end!)

I still adore category romance, one of the reasons I love being a LoveCat alongside my favourite authors of the genre.  Sometimes I have to pinch myself that my bookshelves at home now include rows of my own books, not only in English but also translations!



Did you fit some reading time over the holiday? What is it you love most about romance? I’d love to see your comments!






12 comments:

  1. That is a lovely cover!
    I've always been a voracious reader, but I only discovered romance novels (especially category romance) a few years ago. What I love about well-written romances is that people not only find their better half but also discover themselves and their destiny along the way. I enjoy the sweet stories as much as the steamier ones - and I'm a huge fan of your books, Kandy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for those kind words Devika! I absolutely agree with you about those extra dimensions to a good romance.

      Delete
  2. Hi Kandy

    Oh and yes on this awful heat I am so over summer I want winter and yes I have been sitting in front of and air con reading lots of fabulous romance stories that make me smile sigh and end up very happy because that is what I want in a story not matter how hard the hero or heroine make it for each other the end will be so good and they leave me feeling good. And I too have been reading them for many years and those bodice rippers in the 80's still some of my favourites :)

    Have Fun
    Helen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Helen, sounds like we might have spent the last few sweltering weeks doing much the same thing! You are so right about romance - we know how it will end but a good writer really makes the reader worry about how the hero and heroine are going to get there so we can really enjoy that lovely ending.

      Delete
  3. I read 9 of the Lucky Harbour series by Jill Shalvis over the holidays, Kandy, which I (obviously) enjoyed very much :-)
    I love the happy sigh a romance novel gives you. I love feeling the feelng of falling in love all over again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also binge read an author new to me, Amy! I must read the Lucky Harbour series, I only hear good things about them! I'm all for the happy sigh to end a book!

      Delete
  4. I read widely but crime, romance and women's fiction are top of my list. What's there not to enjoy in these amazing stories?
    We could do with some of your heat over here, Kandy. The sun version, since the NZ summer is a bit of a fizzer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would love to send you some of our excessive heat, Sue! It's really been too much of a good thing here. The swimming is good though as the water temperatures are fabulous! There's still time for your summer to heat up, fingers crossed!

      Delete
  5. Will have to take a look at my reading record to be able to summarise what I read during the Christmas break.
    However the things I love about romance are the guaranteed HEA and the variety of subgenres/tropes so there's always something different for me to read.
    I've more recently become comfortable sharing that I read and write romance... but I'm still over the attitudes though. I recently got forced to block my grandmother from seeing a lot of what I like/react to/comment on on Facebook as she keep leaving judgemental type comments on posts that I'd liked or responded to. It was bad enough that I almost unfriended her. The one that offended me the most was her comment on Summer of Romance's page that if a person read all the books they are looking for that they would need a reality check. I very pointedly pulled her up and asked if I needed a reality check since I was at 200ish books for the year at that point that were primarily romance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so sympathetic, Lyn! It sometimes amazes me that that we seem to have to "justify" why we read romance. Well done on the 200 books - what a lot of reading pleasure!

      Delete
  6. Hi Kandy,
    I love crime and thrillers as well as romance too. I particularly love biography and social commentary books.
    I get the same comments from time to time about writing romance. But as I said in a recent interview, I would much rather write a sex scene than a murder scene!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm with you on that Melanie. People ask me why I don't write thrillers as I enjoy them so much. I say I don't want to go there in my imagination as a writer or revisit the murder/grisly/ scary scenes over and over as I write and revise. Now a love scene is a different matter altogether!

      Delete