Last week I, of all people, was contacted via email by a producer for CBS Chicago News. The t.v. station was doing a feature story on the ultra-hot storylines existing in the modern-day romance novel and wanted some reader feedback. Having this little, itty, bitty blog somehow got their attention because I was asked to be interviewed for the story. Unfortunately, due to the short notice, and prior commitments I couldn't back out of at the last minute, I was unable to meet with the reporter and tell my side - a reader's side - of the story, and hopefully put a positive spin on romance novels and why they are not smut, but wonderfully entertaining and empowering stories about healthy, relationships between consenting adults. Hot, sexy, funny, but not trashy. Believe me, I was actually looking forward to the opportunity, even to the point of making a list and taking notes on things I wanted to say, and if there's one thing that is true about me is that I am so not a listmaker, unless it's extremely important, or something I feel passionate about. As a reader of romances, this definitely qualified. I would have overcome my stage fright all for the greater good. Maybe worn a cape. Red satin.....Okay, no. At least not in public.
Yet maybe it was just as well I was unable to set up a time with the news station since the readers' side of the story wasn't represented very strongly due to everyone's insistence on privacy. Sadly, that would have been an issue for me as well. Basically it would have been an issue with my employer since I have a rather visible position in the company with many of our customers in the Chicago area. So yeah, anyway, blah, blah, blah, the bottom line is that I wasn't interviewed. This is how the story went down:
Turning up the heat
So, tell me....what do YOU think?
Yet maybe it was just as well I was unable to set up a time with the news station since the readers' side of the story wasn't represented very strongly due to everyone's insistence on privacy. Sadly, that would have been an issue for me as well. Basically it would have been an issue with my employer since I have a rather visible position in the company with many of our customers in the Chicago area. So yeah, anyway, blah, blah, blah, the bottom line is that I wasn't interviewed. This is how the story went down:
Turning up the heat
So, tell me....what do YOU think?
posted by Stacy~ at 5/03/2006 11:00:00 PM
I wish you could have been interviewed, but I understand why you couldn't. It frustrates me that so many people have such a negitive idea about Romance books. To me, the sex is just part of the story. I necessary part. When, in adult relationships do the couple not have sex? Never! So why is it such a negitive to write about it? If you write a murder mystery do you not write about the murder, blood and all? I find that much more disturbing (not that it really bothers me) then reading about natural human emotions. I just dont get it. Sorry, didnt mean to ramble there. I just know when I tell people I read romances or that I am writing one I get either an odd look, or a laugh. Not that I care what those people think but, I just dont understand it. When they mention that the neighbor next door could be writing erotic romance or that a mom of all people write about it, they act like its such a bad thing. I'm sure my neightbor next door has sex, and I know if someone is a mom they had to have, so what is the difference in adding it to adult, love relationships in books?
byI totally agree with you Kelley, just like Robin Schone had said. I mean it's such a natural part of life yet people continue to ridicule it or treat it with scorn. Makes no sense to me that people are more likely to accept a murderer than someone who writes romances. Crazy world...
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