In keeping with the recent
campaign #Romcom4all - which calls for men who love reading romance novels to
‘man up’ and admit to it and for publisher's and book stores to refrain from
tagging Relationship Novels as gender specific - I asked internationally
bestselling romance novel author Kenneth Rosenberg to tell us all his ‘Big
Secret’!
Take it away Kenneth!
I’ve always loved
ships. Big or small, old or new, there
is something about the romance of the sea that I always found
irresistible. When I see a ship I have
to wonder, where has it been? Where is
it headed? What adventures await whoever
steps on board?
At one point in my life, I
decided to finally put these questions to the test. Like Hermann Melville and Joseph Conrad
before me, I opted to sign on as a deckhand and go to sea. My first big voyage was on a ship laying fibre
optic cables across the Pacific. I took
two books with me. Moby Dick and… Bridget Jones’ Diary.
The first book was an
obvious choice. I was partly inspired to
embark on the journey by Melville after all.
I took the second book because, well, I’ve always had a soft spot for
romantic fiction. I just can’t help
it. I suppose I’m a born romantic at
heart.
The problem in this
particular case was that the cover consisted of a woman’s giant red lips. There was no question that this was a book
for women, not for deckhands on a ship in the middle of the ocean.
Now I will assume that most
of the readers of this blog have not been fortunate enough to work in the
merchant marines, but you can probably imagine that by and large the other
sailors were manly men. Not the type who
would read fiction in general, and definitely not women’s fiction in
particular.
Every time I went to the
lounge at the end of the day to read a little bit, I found myself doing my very
best to hide the cover from anyone else’s eyes. I loved the book, but I was embarrassed. The last thing I wanted was for any of these
sailors to see me reading a chic-lit novel!
I might never hear the end of it…
Now years later, I struggle
with a similar dilemma. I’ve written not
one but two romantic novels myself. One
of these even has hearts all over the cover.
I can only guess what the deckhands might think of that.
When people ask me what
types of novels I write, I still have to pause sometimes before saying romance,
but I’m getting used to it. I guess my
point is; I can understand men being a little embarrassed to admit that they
like romantic fiction. I’m a little
embarrassed and I write it! But just
because I still struggle sometimes to admit it, that doesn’t mean I enjoy
romantic novels any less.
Perhaps the stigma will
never disappear. Men in our society are
supposed to be tough and unemotional, but the truth is that everyone wants to
fall in love, no matter your gender.
I have been fortunate enough
to receive e-mail messages from some of my readers telling me that they enjoyed
my books and several of those have actually come from men. It always surprises me when I do hear from a
man, first that they read the book and second that they bothered to tell me
they liked it.
One came from a retired
postal worker in a small English village, half a world away from me. That one made my day, and I figure if he can
admit he liked a romantic novel, perhaps the rest of us men should take a lesson
from him! And if not, then maybe keeping
romance novels as a secret, guilty pleasure, isn’t so bad either.
Kenneth Rosenberg is a
California writer whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Surfer
Magazine and other publications. When he is not writing, Kenneth spends his
time surfing, snowboarding and traveling the world on a shoestring. His next hotly anticipated novel 'Natalia' is available soon!
Buy Kenneth’s books on:
Thank you Kenneth!
I'm really looking forward to reading everyone's comments on this post - so please do leave one before you go!
