ROMANCE WRITERS (Part 1)
Reid Lance Rosenthal: This is Reid Lance Rosenthal, On the
Right Side Radio, broadcasting to you at a KGAB AM 650 on your dial
Cheyenne, Wyoming, and the Townsquare Network serving the Intermountain
West, and KFEZ Colorado Springs, Southern Colorado, Northern New Mexico,
welcome Rocky Mountains. And, we have a special treat for you today,
you know, last week you were subjected to my crooning Christmas Carols
in our Special Christmas Show with some of the words changed. You’ll die
laughing, go back to the Archives and take a listen, get a grin.
But today, in the New Year spirit since we have a new year coming we
have a divided country intentionally, you’ve heard my opinions on that.
There are certain universal energies which bridge gaps between people,
and I don’t care what race, what culture, what creed, what religion,
what gender, or what political persuasion, and that’s love and romance.
That’s right, love and romance.
Think about it. Everybody listening to you, listening to this show
right now, everybody has had a romance; maybe more than one, maybe
you’ve got several going right now. The bottom line is it brings
everyone together. It knows no political persuasion. And on the show
today with me, I have four great romance writers who write in all sorts
of genres. They are members of the Utah Romance Writers Group, which is a
branch of Romance Writers Association of America, thousands of romance
writers literally from all around the world.
I mean, one of the most noted, if not the most noted organization for
romance authors to, anywhere in the world. And just like Western
Writers Association, as Western Writers and Historical Fiction Writers
Association writes historical fiction, I’m a member of both those groups
too. The Romance Writers Association of American brings lots of smiles,
lots of tingles and lots of grins to lots of people.
In fact, $1.3 billion in romance books were purchased last year. So,
there is a lot of people writing romance. And, you know, with that kind
of interest and intrigue – and by the way guys, don’t turn off. Don’t
groan and hit the dial because romance is a growing segment of male
readership. You know why? Because there is lots more action, there’s
lots more realism. These are not the [butters reapers] of your mama’s
romance. All of these girls that you are going to be meeting today and
you’ve heard insensately about my books. I won’t bore you with them but
all these guys you are going to be meeting today write in different
styles of romance. And many of them will appeal to male readers, just as
my books are 46% male readership. So, stay tuned because it’s kind of
fun. And, I’m going to let each of these terrific ladies introduce
themselves. Clancy, why do you go first? Tell us a little bit about what
you write.
Clancy Metzger: Okay. My name is Clancy Metzger and I am on
Facebook, Twitter and my website is Clancy Metzger C-L-A-N-C-Y,
M-E-T-Z-G-E-R. I write contemporary books, I write in-contemporary, I
write paranormal and action.
Reid: Clancy, you’re …
So, one that’s coming out in January is a contemporary action called
This Side of Legal. I write everything from steamy all the way to the
erotic romance, but it is romance. So, while there maybe lots of heated
action there is, also, it’s all about the romance. It’s about the
relationship. This Side of Legal is …
Reid: Excuse me, Clancy.
Clancy: … about the men. All the main characters are the men.
They are pilots. They are men to men and the women are the loving
trips. So, that’s not your typical romance, I think, because generally
it’s the women and the men are the loving trips, so these are the guy
stories.
Reid: So, Clancy writes books, guys, about pilots and
macho-men, okay. And, these are real guys with real interests you’d
like them. And girls, obviously, you know what’s not to like about
pilots and those types of guys, right? So, Lisa welcome to the show.
Lisa Deon: Yes Reid.
Reid: Tell us about what you write.
Lisa: Good morning Reid. Thank you for having me. My name is
Lisa Deon. I write contemporary mainstream with romantic elements. And,
all of my stories have people and horses in them. My current novel is
called The Carriage Trade and it is about a couple who have had romance
in the past but they can’t get the ‘Happily Ever After’ because the
woman has brain damage and can’t remember where it began.
I, also, have a short story on Amazon called Splitting the
Difference about a budding romance for two people working together. I am
on Twitter as Lisa Deon, Facebook as Lisa Deon and my website is
www.lisadeon.com.
Reid: Super Lisa, sounds great. I feel sorry for that poor
guy, you know, he is all invested in this girl and she can’t remember
him. I love it. It’s terrific. Alright Jenifer, tell us about you.
Jennifer Beckstrand: Well, I’m Jenifer Beckstrand. I write
Amish romance. Amish is a very big category in the Christian fiction
market right now. My first two books are Kate’s Song and Rebecca’s
Rose. And my third book Mary Misquote comes out in March. And, they are
not just written for Amish people. They are about Amish people and have
a really wide group of readers that love them. They are clean
inspirational romances and they have – but they do have a lot of
romance. The Amish …
[Crosstalk]
Reid: And, clean inspirational, folks means PG.
Jennifer: That’s right. There is a lot of romance and there
is a lot of tension but no sex in this, and also a lot of inspiration.
There is, definitely, a Christian message that goes along with these
books. But, my main focus is the romance. I love romance and the Amish
have a very simple way of life but they still have very similar
concerns, and interests, and pains, and sorrows that everyone else does.
And, you can find me at jenniferbeckstrand.com. It’s J-E-N-N-I-F-E-R,
B-E-C-K-S-T-R-A-N-D.
Reid: Super, thank you Jennifer. How about you, Joy? Tell us about you.
Joy Spraycar: Hi, my name is Joy Spraycar. Thanks Reid for
having me today. I write action adventure with paranormal romance
involved. I have a website, it’s JoySpraycar.com
www.joyspraycar.com
. I have three books out. My newest one is called Tawny’s Ghost and
it’s sort of a young adult romance about a girl who’s been haunted by a
ghost.
Now, this story is inspired by a real life experience that my own
daughter had in our house. So, it’s kind of special to me. Anyway, it’s a
mystery kind of thing where she tries to find out who this ghost is in
order to help him move on and there is this twist to it. It will keep
you laughing and crying and in the end, you will be glad that the ghost
and the girl can have a relationship.
Also, I do write urban fancy and so my other book that just came out
last year is called Phantom Wolves and it’s also an action adventure.
Now, the men readers that I have absolutely love my books because mostly
they are action adventure. This is a story about a girl who lives in a
small town in Montana, of course, that’s where I wish I lived, but you
know, hey. Anyway, she loves her small town life and she finds that it
is being threatened by a man who is cloning dragons. If you like
Jurassic Park, this is kind of a long those lines. And Kat finds that
she has a family she didn’t know about. And, her unknown ally that comes
to her aid is the coveted black dragon. If you like action adventure
you will love Phantom Wolves.
Reid: Right.
Joy: My other book is Quicksilver. Yes.
Reid: Joy, I got a quick question for you. So, like in your ghost love story is the love like misty?
Joy: Is it misty? Oh yeah, for a long time it’s misty.
Reid: You know, via several mist of the ghost. I’m kind of
interested in that myself. I would love to see the way you wrote that.
So, please continue. I interrupted.
Joy: Oh that’s fine. And, my first book is called Quicksilver
and it’s a werewolf story, kind of. Different in that they get together
early on in the book ferries, dreamt about this man her whole life. She
is married to an alcoholic husband and when he runs into this man’s car
she sees a man from her dreams coming on the hospital on a stretcher.
And they get together and in order to have a real family they have to
hunt down the man who turned him into a werewolf. So, it’s a big hunt
and kill story. The men love that part of the book. Of course, there is
the romance involved. All mine I would say are PG13. I’ve had people
say, “Wow! Those are really steamy” and I’m like, “That’s your own
imagination. I guess what happens behind the door is all in your head.”
Anyway, then my new one that will be coming out this year is called
Changing up the Glads and it is actually an interracial gladiator
romance.
Reid: Okay. So, folks you’ve heard about my books. And by the
way, I want to thank – I went through 2,000 cards on my recent book
tour over the last 25 days and I want thank the hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of folks who bought the books and are starting the series,
and the hundreds and hundreds that came in to say “hi”, grab Book 2,
reserve Book 3. And they’re historical westerns with a strong romantic,
shall we say, tinge. And my books, as you know, are kind of PG’d R. I
mean, it’s real Wild West in all sorts of ways, Threads West: An
American Saga, they’ve been #1 National Best-sellers and won some
awards.
And all these authors on here, I think you’re getting a feel for
this, right? You have Clancy who kind of writes the steamy erotic,
paranormal type stuff. You have Lisa who is writing contemporary action.
You have Jennifer who’s writing inspirational, which is what’s called
in the business. But, you know, from an Amish point of view, a nice
clean, clean pros, none of the steamy scenes that you might find in some
of the other books. You have Joy who is writing paranormal type
adventures in the West.
So, this is a huge set of genres that appeal to a wide range of
people but you know they all have one thing in common; we’re going to
talk about that. Number one, they have happy endings. Number two, they
have that universal energy of romance, some to varying degrees and some
in varying ways but, you k now, romance is a universal energy. And, I
think people liking happy endings, is a universal hope.
And, they also, have values. Okay. They have values and the values
are; family, tradition, relationships, man-woman good communication and
interaction. And they transcend, as I said at the beginning of the
program, political persuasions. And I really think, I know it sounds
crazy but I think romantic type novels, the types that we are talking
about today are one of the platforms that can be used to bring people
together. There is nothing like a liberal and a conservative discussing
a good book that they both liked.
I will tell you that in my book signings I’ve talked to several
thousand people over the last month. Liberals, conservatives reading my
books, reading other books and I’ve gotten some great conversation. And,
what gave me the idea for this [jaw] was the fact that I had a girl in
Moscow, Idaho who definitely left December, we got in a wonderful
discussion. She loves my books and, you know, my books obviously are
written by a guy who is, shall we say, leans right rather than left.
But, you know, that book bridged the gap between she and I. If we had
been sitting at a coffee house having a strictly political discussion,
we probably both would have thrown the saucers at each other. But, in
talking about the book and using it as common ground we bridged that
gap. I had a better understanding of how she thought. She had a better
understanding of how I thought.
So, what I want to talk about now is, kind of, shall we say, the
values in America that we can use in this platform to bring people
together and end this division, because, I think we are all very well
aware that we are divided country and we are divided on purpose, right? A
bundle of sticks is much harder to break than a single twig. And
divided we fall, united we stand.
Now, the folks who divide us know this for a fact. It’s one of the
reasons they employ division. They employ division to divide us and
distract us from the issues at hand, which must be dealt with as a
country and they use division to gunner votes and to maintain their
power. And in the cases of many, they are corruption. If we can get – if
we can find a common platform such as these types of books that these
wonderful girls write and we can understand how the basic values of
America, how the basic universal energies that affect us all left,
right, in between, doesn’t matter, I think we can make some progress. I
really do. And that discussion in Moscow, Idaho and that was one of
scores I had with folks of opposite political persuasions over the last
25 days, has convinced me of that fact.
So, ladies I’ll tell you what I want to talk about. Let’s talk about
family values a little bit. Lisa, talk about family values in your
books. And, you know, family does not have to be the edge oh family. It
can be the contemporary family. It can be a man and a woman without
kids. It can be a travelling couple. I mean, do your books kind of bring
out those types of values? I mean the sanctity of a relationship
between a man and a woman?
Lisa: Well, Reid my books have a lot to do with community.
They are an urban family. You can’t always have the family you were born
with, which the people in my novels are the only people left of their
families. So, they create a family and their family is there to back
them up and help them through the processes that they are going through.
