Men and Romance

Romance

So here's the question for tonight; What do men know about romance?  Do we know anything?  Can we be romantic?  Well of course we can, and there are quite a few romantic men!  Yes there are a lot of unromantic men out there, but there are also a good number of unromantic woman.  Take a look at this guy:

This is Rudolph Valentino.  Actually that was his acting name.  His real name was Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaello Pierre Filbert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla.  Leave it ti the Italians to give a guy eight names.  Anyway, he was one of the first sex symbols.  Women loved this guy.  He did films back in the 1920's before "talkies" were invented.  Women swooned when they saw this guy!  Go figure.  So did he know romance?  Who knows?

Rudy's probably going back a bit far, though.  Let's take a look at a more modern sex symbol.  This guy is Viggo Mortensen.  

Viggo hit it big playing a Ranger named Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings movies.  I can see him being a huge sex symbol for nerd girls, but for most women?  Well...I guess he is the rough and tumble strong male lead.  Both he and Rudy the amazing Italian name master (Rudolph Valentino) were both film icons.  How about regular guys?

What about me?  I'm a regular guy.  Am I a sex symbol?  Probably not.  But I do know a bit about romance.  I've written three books in a romance series.  The majority of women who have read them have enjoyed them.  But there's the catch, getting women to read a romance written by a man.  A lot of women won't read a romance that was authored by a man.  I'm not sure why not.  Don't they think we can write anything romantic?  Maybe they think we don't understand how women feel?  I did write and get published a romantic series of my own.  The first book was called A Writer's Love Story.

Here's a link to the first book in my romance series:

Feel free to click on the link and Amazon will let you read a free sample of the book.  This link takes you to where you can buy a Kindle copy of the book, but you can also order a paperback version.  Do I know anything about romance?  Read the book and find out.  But do I just write romances?  Nope, I've written other kinds of crazy things.

I did write a book called Frigate: November.  Some people like it, and some don't.  Is it realistic?  Of course it isn't!  The book is meant to entertain, not tell you how the real life American Navy works.  It's full of outcasts and crazies.  It was fun to write and still sells a few copies each month.

I'm getting off track trying to promote my own stuff.  *chuckle*  Take a look at Frigate if you want to, I've heard it's pretty good.  Back on track for romance, I decided to continue on with my first romance book and tell what happened to the main characters after they finally got together.  One friend asked if this was a "true story".  I told her no, the guy in the story had become a millionaire after writing his first novel and I hadn't hit it big quite yet.  She then surprised me by saying "No, I meant the relationship between Robert and Katie.  It seems so real."  ... ... ... Uh...it did?  *chuckle*  I guess that's quite a compliment!  So what happened in the second book?  Well let's see...

Yes, the main character of Robert proposes!  It obviously doesn't happen for quite a few pages, but it does happen.  But most women see that author name of "Robert" and shy away from the book.  Instead of saying never judge a book by it's cover, maybe we should say never judge a book because it was written by a man?  *chuckle*

Now the third book in the series is about to be edited and put up for sale.  It probably won't make it out until December or so.  But it'll be out for Christmas!  Hooray!  *chuckle*  It's called A Writer's Wedding and tells about the challenges and problems the couple has right up to and through their wedding day.  I think this third book is probably my favorite of the bunch.  It has a few more characters and a lot more funny situations.  So cheer me on while I get through edits on this book.

Last, but not least, I wrote a book about a wounded air force sergeant.  This guy loses his eyesight in Afghanistan and ends up falling in love with a nurse at his rehab hospital in Germany.  This one had romance, but also dealt with some pretty extreme issues.  Probably not a book to read if you're squeemish about a few things.  It's called Kiss the Darkness.

Ok, well I've tooted my own horn enough for the night.  Click on one or two of the links if you think they look interesting.  I'll go back to writing about amusing things soon, but wanted to promo a bit of my own stuff tonight.