I’m a romance novelist. It’s taken me a long time to say that because I hate that every love story written by a woman is trivialized, and every man who writes one is shelved with literary fiction. It’s a gender double standard, but the truth is that I also had feelings about the romance genre that weren’t universally positive. I, too, used to sort work into high brow and low brow and thought I’d write certain kinds of stories. What I ended up writing was a charming small town love story with funny, quirky, relatable characters I think people will enjoy reading. Will it change your life? Probably not. And that’s okay. I wrote 4 of these. Then a family drama I’m still revising. Next, I’m exploring something altogether different. I write stories that want to be told, ones I hope will be enjoyed. That’s what matters to me now. I don’t just write romance, but I do write them and love them. I read them, too. I just stopped judging myself for not writing the kind of book that makes required reading lists.

Thank you for your beautiful and relevant article!