Recently I was honored with the task of moderating a question and answer session with the Pioneers of Romance: Bertrice Small, Roberta Gellis, Jennifer Blake and Janelle Taylor. Wow. I felt like bowing while chanting “I’m not worthy. I’m not worthy.” But I didn’t. I just smiled and tried to find my voice.
As I introduced each of the speakers, I realized that without these amazing writers paving the way, carving out the genre, I might never have been standing in the same room as these authors, facing an audience full of readers. I might never have become a romance author at all, because romance novels, as we know and love them, may never have existed. Listening to these women talk about the early days in their publishing careers, I could see how easily they could have given up and written something else. But they didn’t. Instead, they pioneered a genre. Did I already say wow?
