Many years ago, my aunt gave me a copy of Anne of Green Gables…
At the time, I got caught up in the sorts of things teenagers are interested in, and I set the book down. I never read much beyond the first chapter and I didn’t pick it up again until this week. I’m so glad I did. My aunt struggles with end-stage Parkinson’s disease and isn’t able to speak for most of the day. It turns out, I know exactly why she gave it to me.
People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven’t you?
LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY
When my parents were cleaning out the attic now 25 years later, they found the book. I asked my father to mail it to me. Dad was also mailing things to my cousin in Hawaii that day and the packages got mixed up. So the book flew all the way to Hawaii to confuse my poor nephew. I explained it to Daniel, and he mailed it back to New Jersey. It arrived no worse for wear. I figured at this point, the least I could do was read the travel-weary book cover to cover. So, I downloaded the audiobook version and have been listening to a few chapters at a time at night before bed.
Anne was a kid very much like me. She was talkative, outspoken, and very intelligent, but she cared for the people she knew deeply. She had a very active imagination and spent a lot of time in her own head–to the peril of at least one pot on the stove. Anne knew herself to be “ugly” and when her best friend told her she loved her, Anne said she didn’t think anyone ever would love her because no one ever had. Now I can’t say that, but I know I spent enough time alone to value love equally as much once it found me.
Moreover, this was a book about a girl I could identify with. As writers, sometimes I think we forget what Anne is so quick to remind us of. Characters are people, too.
Somewhere out in the world is a girl who uses big words and has an incredible imagination who doesn’t believe she will ever be loved for who she is because of where she’s been. I think it’s important to remember, the romance books we write have the potential to remind girls like us we aren’t alone.
Our books might get dismissed or overlooked because they are “just romance,” but they are certainly more than that. These are books of hope and happy endings. Romance novels tell us love wins and no one ends up alone with 300 cats–in case we forget and start visiting shelters.
The books I found growing up in the romance section of the Barnes and Noble were never “just romance” to me. I should be so lucky as for someone somewhere to read my book and feel a little more positive about the potential for a bright future.
From the little orphan girl warming the hearts of Green Gables, to the grown up woman in my book, lost and homeless, here’s to the potential for good things and happy endings.
All my love and gratitude,
