This week we're talking about books that changed our lives and made us want to become writers. I can't think of one. There are too many. But I can tell you what publisher made me want to write romance. Harlequin. Who else? Like Margie, I read Deck the Halls and loved it, but it wasn't my first. I can't remember my first. Romance novel that is. But I do remember some of them. The Match Makers was another Harlequin I fell in love with. It was about about two young girls who were trying to set their widowed father up with the nanny. Years later, the girls got their own stories.
When I turned sixteen, I kind of got tired of the virgins and stated reading Second Chance at Love books. Loved those too. Strange though. I can't remember the names of any of the books.
In my twenties, it was Rosemary Rogers and Jackie Collins all the way. They introduced me to vamps. No, not vampires. Women with a little tramp in them. They were sexy, ballsy, and got themselves into outrageous situations.
Steamy paranormals are my books of choice now. Especially Sherrilyn Kenyon. That woman has one hell of an imagination. She's the reason I started writing paranormals. Her Dark Hunter books are dynamite! She now has a serious of young adult paranormals called The Chronicles of Nick. Love those too.
But every once in a while, I miss the virgins and the purple prose. I wonder if anyone has any good old fashioned Harlequins laying around.
Not only lying around--I still read them once in a while. I miss the way they wrote then.
ReplyDeleteLinda Howard, Kill and Tell.
ReplyDeleteMe too, Liz. When I moved away from home, by Mom gave away a big box of Harlequins to the thrift store. I was heartbroken. Every once in awhile, I find one at a garage sale.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look that one up, Julia.
ReplyDeleteI have a few on my Keeper Shelf...where they will stay long into the day when only ebooks are available for purchasing! :)
ReplyDeleteI read that one you have up!!!! I used to be skeptical of the romance genre, until I picked up a Harlequin in a bookstore in Britain. It was "A Stranger's Glance" by Jessica Marchant. I've been addicted ever since. My mom also got rid of a lot of my early Harlequins, but I managed to track that one down through Ebay, along with another one "The Asking Price" by Amanda Browning. And now I even write romance!
ReplyDeleteYeah! I wonder how many careers those HQs launched? Loved em. I have a co-worker who has/is collecting every single HQ Presents ever written...kind of cool.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any of those old books, but you can find them at garage sales.
I used to dream of being a Harlequin writer. Unfortunately, none of my stories fit any of their lines.
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