On romance

My guess is a lot of people will be linking to this, Tor editor Anna Genoese's latest juicy post on her LJ. Anna's forthright posts on publishing are a goldmine of info. You can find her "demystifying publishing" index HERE. I loved what she had to say about romance in this latest post. I think I'll have to pin it up on my offfice wall. Check it out, here's a snippet:

Romance readers are not idiots. The biggest difference between romance novels and every other genre is that romance novels have--always!--focused on relationships between characters. Sure, there's hot sex and crazy plots involved, but the main story one is always telling in a romance is about the relationships, and the complexity of emotions that humans face on a day to day basis. Sure, sometimes the window dressing of a romance novel is just as complex as the relationships, but unlike with the majority of other genres, a complex bit of window dressing or a complex plot does not and should not take away from the complexity of the emotions and relationships.

If a romance novel does not have complex and mature emotions and relationships, the romance reader will not be satisfied.