Taking Chase is out in print today. This makes me very happy. I loved writing it and I love Cassie and Shane as a couple. I love writing romance. All kinds of romance from sensual to downright scorching and I love to read romance from all spectrums. Sometimes, I wish spines weren’t imprinted with genre labels because inevitably people will see that and build expectations and be disappointed.

I was thinking about romance and the things I’ve read lately about romance – from Maureen Dowd’s dismissively insulting op ed piece in the New York Times to some of the things around the web about what a romance is and isn’t and what makes an erotic romance erotic, etc.

It gets back to something I said recently at RTB about perception. We all read a book from our own perceptions. It’s a matter of what we like and don’t like, what our experiences are and what our biases and filters are. Some people look at the Sookie Stackhouse books for instance and think they’re romances while I look at them and see them as paranormals with romantic sub-plots. Doesn’t stop me from reading them, I like them very much, but my perception colors my opinion and expectations.

One person’s best romance ever is another person’s DNF. And IMO, that is what makes the world so interesting. That two people can view the exact same thing in such a different way. I think that’s worth celebrating.