Cathy Maxwell Guest Blogging

Love, Love, LOVE

 

 

I had a great radio interview about Valentine’s Day.  Hey, I’m a romance expert.  I spend most of my time in front of a computer screen mulling over why people fall in love.  Or better yet, why they stay in love.

 

 

The interviewer mentioned that she didn’t have “someone” for Valentine’s Day and asked what advice I had for her.  I responded that she should treat herself.  Valentine’s Day is a celebration of all sorts of love.  Yes, the day focuses on couples, but I like to expand the whole idea of Valentine’s Day.  I want it to include all the important kinds of love–love of family, of community, of ideas . . . and love of self. 

 

 

Look, people who don’t read our books may not “get it.”  They think the stories are a syrup fest, but I know you understand.  Yes, Romance is about relationships but we don’t feel a woman (or a man) needs a significant other to be fulfilled.  The Romance Novel is about a woman with goals.  She will fall in love, but she never starts off that way.  No, she is usually setting out to change her world for the better.  She’s no sleeping princess waiting for the prince.  Instead, she might be pulling some madcap stunt to get her job done, taking on terrorists, battling vampires, or showing some arrogant lord the door.  That’s when she meets not just “someone to love,” but a man worthy of her love.   

 

 

Come to think of it, that is exactly the sort of readers we attract—people who have goals and yet know that love and purpose go hand-in-hand.  And that love, all kinds of love, is really what makes life worth living.

 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day, my friends!

 

 

 

Cathy Maxwell is the best-selling author of IN THE HIGHLANDER’S BED. 

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