IF WE WRITE THEM, WILL THEY READ

Fact is, romance doesn’t die at any one specific age though to peruse the Romance section of a book store one might draw the conclusion a heroine over thirty is also over that proverbial hill. At a time when publishing decisions were based on advice from people barely out of college, that might be understandable. But in this very brave and shiny new world of small presses and self publishing, why don’t we see more heroines, well, our age?

Could the lack of mature heroines be caused by habits and standards established in those earlier days of publishing (all of five or so years ago?) Or do we write what we believe people want to read? Do we worry if we were to write about people falling in love at the same time their arches are falling, we won’t find enough of an audience?

Remember the phrase “Love, like youth, is wasted on the young” from that lovely 1960 song “The Second Time Around?”
 

Just as wonderful with both feet on the ground

It’s that second time you hear your love song sung

Makes you think, perhaps, that love like youth

Is wasted on the young…”

Words by Sammy Cahn and Music by Jimmy Van Heusen

-Performed by Bing Crosby in the 1960 film “High Time”,

It’s an intriguing question. Right now the hot age group seems to be teens into twenties, and some of those books are extremely well written. Does this mean we should all be pounding out our own YA or MG books? I admire these authors but teens live in another universe with their very own language from me, and I sincerely doubt I could ever create a book in that genre. Having survived my teens, twenties, thirties, and beyond, I believe I could create a story about those young people many decades later.

What do you think? Is there a need for books about people whose libido didn’t dry up and blow away the day they bought their first pair of support hose?

Monica Stoner writes as Mona Karel in multiple sub genres.