I was talking to a couple of friends who knew about my writing fantasy, but not of my forays into romance. (Except for the fact that there's a romance in every fantasy story I write, of course.) They didn't realize that there were subgenres in romance, and I tried to explain the ones I knew about, only to realize as I stumbled for examples that I don't know very much.
There are foundational works in science fiction and fantasy. Take The Lord of the Rings (which I actually only read a few years ago, ironically because it sounded too cliché to me — of course it did, since it kick-started epic fantasy as we know it today). See Neuromancer for cyberpunk. Chances are that you've at least heard of these, if not read them, if you're acquainted with these genres. But with romance I'm all a-flounder. Are there authors I should know? Books I should own, before I can call myself a romance reader?
As my friends marveled when I tried to explain the breadth of romance sub-genres, essentially any genre can become conjoined with romance if you throw in some sweet lovin'. Thriller + romance = romantic suspense. Urban fantasy + romance = paranormal romance. Historical + romance = (surprise!) historical romance. And my yearnings toward romance were satisfied for the longest time by these edgewise explorations from other genres.
So I went and checked out all the Shana Abes, Connie Brockways, and paperback Loretta Chases that my local library had, because their names rang a bell as I skimmed through the fiction shelves. Alas, there is no separate romance section. But I'll work my way through the alphabet and try to rectify my lack of education. I remember feeling this way when I read my first adult mystery novel. There's a whole world out there with different rules and shiny new things, and I am determined to explore it.
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