A Bear on Books on…
Can a Man Write Romance?
I read a little.
Okay, okay, that’s not quite true.
I read a lot. Anything from science fiction/fantasy to
serial killer books to humor to – surprise, surprise – romance. Especially gay romance.
In fact, you could say I’m getting to be a minor expert in
the genre. I have about, oh, twelve
hundred m/m books on my Kindle that I’ve finished. Everything from shifters to mysteries to
space operas to romance to flash fic.
And I found a little something to like in almost all of them. I can count on one hand the number I wish I
could wash from my brain. One in
particular…shudder
Anyway, there are a few things the really good ones have in
common. Characters I care about. Realistic situations, appropriate for the
characters. Now, this can be shifters,
scifi/fantasy/horror too – the realism is specific to the world in which the
book is set. Good, crisp, interesting
dialogue and story telling.
I may be one of three who will say this, but unless the
editing is egregious, I won’t let it get in the way of my enjoyment. No book I’ve ever read is perfect – there’s a
flaw somewhere. But if the story grabs
me, a few missteps won’t break the spell.
And I think I’ve said this before, but it bears (ha – he
said “bear”) repeating. I don’t pay
attention to the name of the author unless it’s someone I know already and
love. Give me an Amy Lane or Sue Brown or Lee Brazil book
and I’m happier than Porky in poop.
Think about it.
So I don’t know going in most times if it’s a man or woman,
someone white, black, Hispanic, Asian, young, old, deaf, blind or whatever that
is writing. And I don’t care. If when I finish, I’m moved, I’ll read more and
maybe look up the author to see if I can find out a little something about the
person behind the talent.
This is a long way around to get to my point, maybe, but
that’s how I operate. Does it matter if
it’s a man or woman who wrote the story?
A resounding “Hell No”!
First, I guess, we have to define a Romance. To me, a Romance is a story where there are
(usually) two main characters who meet, fall in love and end up together. There may or may not be intervening
circumstances that keep them apart, interfere with their happiness, or break
them up temporarily. Here, we mean, boy
meets boy, boy loses boy, boy gets boy back and lives happily ever after.
With that as a working definition, I can name twenty good –
no, excellent – romance authors off the top of my head. And quite a few of them men.
Lee Brazil (shut up – I’ve read “Loving Jacob” and “The
Librarian” and “Loving Eden” and you get the point). Damon Suede. TJ Klune. John Goode.
Rick Reed. Xavier Axelson. Derek Adams.
Jake Mactire. Eric Arvin. Scotty Cade.
William Neale.
Need I go on?
Men feel emotions just as deeply as women. We just don’t necessarily always show them or
put them on paper. But it’s a gross
injustice to men AND women to think only a woman can write a romantic
scene. Or that only a man can write a
good action thriller.
We do each other such a disservice when we take the focus off
the books and worry about the hand that wrote them. Do we worry about the gender of an artist
whose sculpture we admire? The painting
that moves us? The movie that makes us
cry sitting there in the dark?
Art, of whatever kind, is about the WORK, not the artist.
So, yeah, men can write Romance. Do a damned fine job of it, too. Thank God.
Gives me more to read and enjoy.
Tom. Out.
