The romance novel mentions made me think of all the romance novels I read when I was way too young, like 12. Those big, fat historical ones available by the millions (it seems) on library shelves, with titles like My Brazen Pirate and The Wolf and the Hummingbird or whatever.
Admit it ... you read Kathleen Woodiwiss books, didn't you?
Because, um, me too.
The Wolf and the Dove, Shanna, Ashes in the Wind, A Rose in Winter, Come Love a Stranger, So Worthy My Love ... oh yeah.
Crud monkeys! How did you know?? Seriously, my very first romance novel ever was A Rose in Winter. Actually I consider her a good writer, but that may be because she was my first, so it was everyone else I read later whose plots seemed derivative.
A Rose in Winter is what I refer to as my first crazysauce romance novel. (My first "regular" romance novel was Keating's Landing by Willo Davis Roberts, then my first mainstream novel was Castles by Julie Garwood.) To this day, if I want something crazy and epic and not at all PC, I go to Woodiwiss. Bertrice Small and Rosemary Rogers just don't do it as well for me.
