About Romance Reader & Writers' Resource

I’m a geek, former systems administrator, former software instructor, former typesetter (back in the day before what we mockingly referred to as ‘kitchen table publishing’ became popular). I am a homeschooling mom whose first purchase for the nursery was a bookcase.

My sister got me hooked on romance novels (see history below). But being the geek I am, there are always typos that make me crazy or ill-chosen words that distract me from the scene.

i.e., “He ran his fingers through this hair.” Because it’s not grammatically incorrect, computerized proofreaders don’t flag it.

i.e., “She loved the way his jeans adhered to his butt.” She being a 25-yr-old cocktail waitress who barely made it through high school. Poor word choice on the author’s part. I think “clung” would have been more in keeping with the character.

I also hate it when characters disrobe twice during a love scene. Very distracting.

On the flip side, there are books that “haunt” me. That’s how I describe plots or character traits that are so unusual, or stories that make me laugh or cry, I can’t forget them. I reread them again and again. And there are series in which secondary characters are so interesting I can’t wait until their story is written.

So, I’ve reviewed scads of books on goodreads.com and have discussed lotsa plots on various forums, so I decided I’d like to have one place where other readers could find my musings.

It occurred to me that with my background as a typesetter and MS Word expert, with my software that generates MS Reader and .pdf docs, I could offer my services as proofreader and eBook producer.

So here I am. Don’t know if I’ll ever have a huge following, but at least my thoughts will be preserved for posterity…

History of a RoHo

As a child, I was a voracious reader. I read all of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books and all of Louisa May Alcott’s books (including at least 4 readings of Little Women) by the time I finished elementary school.

While in college, my tastes ran to John Irving and Irwin Shaw. In my 30′s, it was Brad Meltzer and John Grisham. I enjoyed those authors but never sought others writing in the same genre.

In my early 40′s, with a genius daughter in grade school, all my reading focused on raising an extreme nerd. With the loss of my job and a decision to homeschool, I once again had time to read…

It all started with my sister’s move. She culled 3,000+ books from her 6,000+ book library. She gave them to me to sell on eBay. But 1/3 of all fiction sold in the US is romance. Lotta supply, not so much demand for used books. So I started reading them instead…

Flash forward 4 years. I’m reading at least 5 books each week. Nowadays, sis and I take turns buying books and borrow from each other. We split ‘custody’ according to author, with her keeper shelves filled with her favorites, my keeper shelves filled with mine. I do wish I had unlimited real estate for books because it’s so much easier to add keepers than it is to subtract.

I’m not wild about time travel or fantasy. But I alternate my reading amongst all the other sub-genres of romance fiction.