This week LUV's spotlighting @ToniBlake who's a USA Today bestselling author of over twenty novels. Her heartfelt and sensual stories are known for taking readers on an emotional journey. LUV: What is the best thing about being a romance writer? Toni: Afraid I can’t narrow it down to just one best thing, so … Getting to be a woman who’s writing books about women for women. That’s not to exclude men, but let’s face it – we’ve long lived in a man-centric world, and the romance industry is one made up primarily of women who are out there lifting each other up and putting something into the world that makes it a better place for all the women who find joy or escape or anything else positive in our books. On a similar but not-quite-the-same note, the romance community is a sisterhood. When I’m on the dance floor at a publisher’s party, I’m overwhelmed with the feeling of: Every woman here followed her dream and is living it! Every one of us worked incredibly hard, learned our craft, believed in ourselves, and put ourselves out there – and we made it happen! And that’s pretty great. I simply love the work. I love telling stories where women’s lives and loves and endeavors are of top importance, and where the woman ultimately gets everything she wants. Romance is feminist literature! LUV: And the most challenging parts? Toni: The maligning of romance as being “less than” or frivolous or “porn for women” – and I could go on because the list of insults by the uninformed is long. That said, this has changed a lot for the better over the course of my career. There was a time when if a stranger asked me what I wrote, I was gritting my teeth as I answered, knowing that about fifty percent of the time my reply would produce an insulting response – yes, even right to my face. But I’m grateful that hasn’t happened in a long time. The market is fickle and always changing, and a great deal of what happens in your career is out of your control. The upside is that it’s taught me to be pretty Zen about it all.

Posted by LUV Team at 2022-07-18 21:00:13 UTC