New Sister Sayin' Howdy!

Greetings! I figured it was time to take the plunge and introduce myself. Yes, my name is Sharon Lathan and I am a romance-aholic. Well, sort of! Truth is, I am one of the NBs – that is, ‘New Babes.’ Just coined that phrase and I think it fits, yes? Judi, Beth, agree? So I am not sure if my addiction is quite as profound and debilitating as the rest of ya’all, but I feel it coming on!

Seriously, I was blessed to all-too-briefly meet a number of the Casablanca gals at the Sourcebooks Author’s Dinner in SF during the RWA, and am still pinching myself over the experience. I cannot believe how wonderful you all were and how the experience, as short as it was for me, has opened my eyes. Those of you who have so encouraged me regarding the RWA will be pleased to know that I have printed the application and will be mailing it off this week! Go me!! I am very excited to get completely involved and learn even more.

And, I am hoping that my humble contributions to the Casablanca Authors' Blog will be a welcome addition. Thank you for the invite and trust. I will make every attempt to fit in! As for me, a very brief bio: I am, I think, the only Jane Austen-genre author on the blog, and the second (counting Michele Ann Young) of the Regency/Austen Fans part of Sourcebooks. I joined the Sourcebooks family last year and my first book, ‘Two Shall Become One ~ Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy’ will be released on March 1, 2009! I shan’t bore you with more blah, blah about me or the series I write. All details can be read at my website: The Darcy Saga.

The point I shall make before I end this entry is that I have a completely new respect for the romance genre, and it is greatly due to you ladies here. I freely confess that even as I embarked on my own romantic, happily-ever-after ventures with the Darcys, I harbored the prejudiced belief that all ‘romances’ were flimsy and fluffy with no real meat, and thus pointless and largely a waste of paper. Please, don’t throw tomatoes! But it had been decades, literally, since I had read a romance and the last few – way back in college – were of the *gasp* Harlequin variety and they frankly bored me to tears. Then, about 4 years ago, I got turned on to Diana Gabaldon. I will tell you all that I was actually embarrassed to walk into the romance aisle, praying that none of my sci-fi/fantasy or literature friends would see me! Ok, go ahead and throw the tomatoes…I deserve it. I figured that it must have been some mind-boggling, she-lost-her-job error that placed Ms. Gabaldon’s story of time travel and history into the dreaded romance aisle. Right? Well, wrong. Ok, I get it now! Romance can have depth! Beat me over the head, why don’t you. Even more amazing is that as I get older – don’t ask – I have come to realize that there really isn’t anything wrong with wanting to read a fluffy, feel-good story where the lovers ride off into the sunset together. I may not be as old as my grandma, but I can now understand a bit more why she loved to immerse herself in light tales of sweet romance with maybe a bit of hot sex thrown in for the icing on the cake. I get it! An epiphany!

So, thanks again for allowing me to fully embrace my inner sap and smile proudly as I say that I am a Romance Novelist! My husband has been calling me Joan Wilder for the past 3 years, and now I am happy to identify. And, thanks for allowing me to join the sisterhood and feed my obsession….or find support for the recovery, not sure which.