My day job is university professor, and a lot of people there know that I write. Most know what I write, and a few have even read my books. But there’s one guy—since retired—who spent several years walking up to me and asking how my “smut-writing” was going. He meant this is a joke, I guess, and I’m not the type to confront someone about this kind of crap, so I’d smile wanly and move on. But I think he was typical of a whole class of people who belittle romance.

Other people have written well about why romance is so often snubbed. In fact, genre fiction in general is frequently looked down on, even though there are so many brilliant works of fantasy, sci fi, mystery, horror, and romance. But romance gets particularly disparaged, no doubt due to misogyny. After all, how can books written and read primarily by women possibly be any good, right? Add to it that we’re talking about—gasp!—LGBT-oriented romance, and people in general will be especially unlikely to see its value.

But you, dear reader, know better.

I read a lot of books in a lot of genres, and I’m here to tell you that some romance writing is as good as anything you’ll find anywhere else in the literary world. Some of my fellow authors can tell a hell of a story. They’ve mastered all the technical aspects of good writing and they make us think about important stuff: social issues, emotions, the impact of past injuries. And they do it while making their characters feel so real to us that we get caught up in their lives. We root for them to make things work. We cry. We rage when they act like idiots. We celebrate when everything works out.

And you know what? Writing good romance is hard work. As authors, we have to create people and places with such authenticity that readers almost forget they aren’t real. In a lot of genres, it’s perfectly okay if the reader maintains emotional distance from the characters. The reader might even hate a character and yet still enjoy the book. But not in romance. If my readers don’t love a character, that book is a failure. In addition, portraying the mechanics of romance can be a challenge. Do you have any idea how hard it is to craft a good sex scene, for instance? That scene has to advance the plot and/or character development; it has to properly build tension, describe what’s going on with enough clarity (and accuracy) that readers aren’t mentally putting the lovers into a painful game of Twister, and avoid purple prose and awful euphemisms without sounding like a medical manual.

Romance is a generous genre. The lovers can be in the contemporary world or in a historical setting; I’ve written everything from cavemen to 1950s Hollywood to present day. Or the lovers can be elves or aliens or vampires or hedgehog shifters. They can have all kinds of careers and all sorts of interests, both inside and outside the bedroom. And the plots can be sweet and fluffy or dripping with angst. As long as we get that happy ending, it’s all fair game.

Finally, romance is valuable. It takes us on adventures and removes us from the cares and drudge of our daily grind. Sometimes it educates us. It makes us feel like love is possible, even when we’re feeling unloved. It entertains us. It gives us our happy endings.

I wish we could do some sort of intervention with anti-romance snobs. I’d sit them down in a chair—okay, I’d tie them down in a chair—and make them read some of my favorite books. I’d force them to see how good romance can be and how much it has to offer.

That colleague who called my books smut? I think he was envious, honestly. He kept asking me for writing advice and talking about this amazing adventure story he was going to write. Someday. As far as I know, he hasn’t yet.

If you were able to run one of these interventions, which books would you have the person read? What benefits do you get from romance?

***

Kim Fielding is the bestselling author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible obstacles, but they always find love.

After having migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States, Kim calls the boring part of California home. She lives there with her family and her day job as a university professor, but escapes as often as possible via car, train, plane, or boat. This may explain why her characters often seem to be in transit as well. She dreams of traveling and writing full-time.

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