This week LUV's spotlighting @HeatherOsborn who's been editing romance novels for over 20 years. She's worked at Tor Books, Samhain Publishing and now she's freelancing and staying current with the growing trend of self-publishing. LUV: You call yourself a romance junkie. Can you share how you came to the romance genre and why? Who are some authors who influenced your early reading and who are you wild about today? Heather: Oh man, you don’t want to get me started! I have been a fan of romance novels since I figured out they existed, LOL. As a kid, I loved books like Heidi, The Secret Garden, and Anne of Green Gables precisely because they were romance adjacent. When I was about 12 we stopped to visit my Aunt in Idaho while on a family vacation/road trip. As we were leaving she handed me a plastic grocery bag absolutely bursting with Barbara Cartland romances. After assuring my mom they were fine for me to read (you rarely got more than a kiss in those books and the very rare love scenes involved flowery descriptions of heaven, hahaha!) I was let loose on them and my life forever changed. Even though reading in the car made me carsick, I persevered and probably read 2 books before we stopped driving for the day. From there I started reading all the regency romances our local library had (after my mom gave her permission to the librarians, allowing me to check out the regencies and category romances, despite me being too young for an adult card.). Early influences besides Barbara Cartland were Patricia Veryan, Victoria Holt (although gothics were never really my thing), Mary Balogh, Carla Kelly, and series romance authors like Diana Palmer, Nora Roberts, Jayne Ann Krentz, Kay Hooper, Iris Johansen, and Lindsey McKenna. As far as author faves today go. My gosh. I read so broadly and just know I’m going to forget some favorites, but I will do my best! I love paranormal and fantasy/urban fantasy romance, and authors like Nalini Singh, Thea Harrison, Sharon Shinn, Anne Bishop, Ilona Andrews, and Patricia Briggs are some of my faves in those genres. I also love contemporary romance, and recently I have been on quite a rock star romance kick. Some of my fave contemporary authors are Kristen Ashley, J. Bengtsson, Rosalind James, Trish Doller, Linda Howard, Elle Kennedy, Kylie Scott, and Kristen Callihan. I’m going to go ahead and stop here, because I can honestly list a ton more!

Posted by LUV Team at 2023-10-16 19:00:45 UTC