Recently I've had several would-be writers tell me that they'd read a few romances and they'd decided anyone could write them. And naturally they wanted my advice on the easiest way to sell a manuscript. They didn't like my answer, which was to write the very best book they could. What did I mean, the very best book they could write? They'd read a couple of romances they'd bought in an op-shop (thrift store) and they thought the books were DUMB!

I didn't go into much detail explaining the facts of life to them because I figured that they'd pretty soon discover that it wasn't as drop-dead-easy as they thought. What I said was that if you think you're writing rubbish...you will write rubbish. And no publisher is buying rubbish. And also the romances you usually find in op-shops are the ones people don't want to keep! (hint, hint). I believe if you're going to write romance you want every one of your books to be a keeper. It probably won't turn out that way, but you have to try your best to make every book a keeper, otherwise, what is the point?

But the notion that some romances are dumb stuck in my head. I've read plenty of romances I didn't like. Some I didn't finish. Some annoyed me. But just because those books didn't please me, doesn't mean that the books are dumb. It just means they weren't my particular "cup of tea."

My grandmother was an avid drinker of tea. Her whole day was punctuated by cups of of tea and her greatest pleasure was to welcome people into her big, old-fashioned country kitchen, pull out the cake and biscuit tins (always full of fresh, delicious, home-made goodies) and make a large pot of tea in the big brown teapot with the knitted tea-cosy over it. When I was about sixteen I bought her a packet of Earl Grey tea. I thought she'd love it. I knew it was pretty special tea and that connoisseurs all over the world adored it. With great ceremony she made a pot, let it draw and finally poured a cup. She took one mouthful, walked over to the sink and poured it out."Horrible" she said. "Like drinking perfume. That's not tea, my girl, it's rubbish!" And she made a proper pot of tea instead.

Romance is like that. There are books to suit every variety of taste. A book that I adore, someone else may hate. That's what's so nice about having so many different romances out there. If you want to write romance, you have to be inspired by books that are your absolute cup of tea. Read widely within the genre and find the books and the authors that ring your bells. Then you have something to aspire to.

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