TODAY I’M POSTING something completely different from a regular Friday post. Writing books—romance books—featuring mature couples because I have a book coming up with a mature heroine. I suggest pouring a beverage if you plan to stick around. This is long. I wrote this post at least a month ago to fill in for a Friday post. Today is the day.
When I say “couple” as female and male in this post or on my blog, I do so because it is what I write so it fits my blog. We all know romance and falling in love can happen to anyone and everyone no matter who you love.
I’ve been researching the genre called Seasoned Romance. Here’s an example.
Some websites write that the characters in this genre/sub-genre are over forty and up. Some even say thirties.
If thirty is the case, all of my books are Seasoned Romances because none of my main characters have been under thirty except for Natale in Christmas at Love House, A Bittersweet Interlude.
She isn’t really a main character but an important secondary character because the story is partially about her too.
Now, at this point in my multiple series, the heroines and heroes are in their mid-thirties and beyond. My brand-new upcoming series hero in book one is forty. His sister is older than him by two years. There are three younger brothers.
In searching Amazon, numerous books came up under Seasoned Romance. I noticed some “sponsored products” or “advertised products” showed a short description specifying the main characters as forty in those books.
I guess I write seasoned romance. Who knew? Ha-ha.
I’m mentioning this because my upcoming heroine is in her sixty’s. That’s right Double Dutch Ranch readers. Through the progress of the series, Judy Carlson has slipped into a new decade and a few years beyond. She’s far from old. To avoid the idea that she may be lonely, she distracts herself with her grandkids, the horses, and the ranch because she still pines for her first love, Bill Carlson.
Nonetheless, Judy discovers much about herself while rediscovering what she’s missed for well over a decade. This lady is not beyond eyeing a hard body, or a worn ranch foreman’s strong arms from tossing bales of hay for a lifetime, or sexy eyes on a distinguished looking man with salt and pepper hair.
My goodness, she isn’t dead! Once accepting it, she’s thrilled about her new internal and external revelations.
My debacle is in questioning whether I can call this book a Seasoned Romance because my cowboys get a say throughout the story in their POVs.
I can’t write her story, this story, without letting her family talk and share their own thoughts, and they have many. It’s because of their ages and their role in the story, that made me think I couldn’t call this book a Seasoned Romance.
Research has told me it’s okay.
This one is about Judy as the main character, but they all have their own little stories with updates about their lives going on—in their words.
However, I don’t consider my other books to be Seasoned Romance and haven’t promoted them as such. Maybe I should.
A year ago or more, when I mentioned writing this book to a woman some years younger than me, but still a senior, she told me she could never read about an older couple and especially an older couple having sex, so she wouldn’t buy a book in my character’s age group—my sixty-some-year-old heroine. She’s an author of steamy romance, so she isn’t against reading or writing love scenes, but this thing called Seasoned Romance would not appeal to her. I bet she isn’t alone in her thinking.
Let me tell you…
Like Judy, I had become a dating senior woman with two men younger than me, and then I became a wife. Honey, I’m not dead or blind, either.
No, I didn’t date them at the same time! One relationship lasted for five years. The other one I married six months after meeting. I’ve lived through my own seasoned romances.
Regroup. Ah, there we go…
I can’t speak for all, but women in Judy’s age group and older, still crave passion and desire and have a lot to give in that department. Match that up with a lifetime of experience while still having the ability to keep on learning. I learned some new things. Whew! We’ll stop there.
I hope this leaves you–dear Double Dutch Ranch reader and new readers–curious as to how I handled sensuality in the book—referring to Judy, of course. I wondered how I’d write it too. Once I followed the characters wants and needs, I had no problem.
Her sons are still hot-blooded-sexy and their heroines are sexual and sensual even in their late thirties and forties. This doesn’t change in my upcoming book within their POVs. I can’t believe I said “even” in their late thirties and forties. To me, that age group is not…uh, um…for lack of a better word, senior.
I use the words steamy, sexy, sexual, and sensual, but I don’t write erotic romance.
To some, my books are more sensual than they’d like. To others, it isn’t enough. So, I write what is right for me and my characters.
Most of you following my blog don’t read romance, or my romance, I should say. For those of you who do read romance whether sweet, steamy, or anything in between, would you read a romance about a couple in their sixties and beyond? Maybe, like me, you wouldn’t know until you read one.
Any thoughts?
Yes, even though I do LOVE COWBOYS and the whole western environment, I’ll read other books. Most of my Kindle and iPad books are western unless I have purchased books by fellow author friends who write different genres of contemporary romance.
I, as a writer, still need to slip into other worlds now and then.
At the time I read those books, I never gave a thought to writing a seasoned romance until readers asked me to write about older couples. It wasn’t called seasoned then. Maybe mature romance? Unfortunately, in a search for mature romance, what came up wasn’t what I had expected. <eye roll>
You might find this website interesting. It features Author Nan Reinhardt. Is Seasoned Romance a Real Thing? Coincidentally, Jacquie Biggar, hosted Nan Reinhardt on her blog today.
I have read a couple of Nan Reinhardt’s books and thoroughly enjoyed them.
A couple of the authors at these links might be members of Marketing for Romance Writers group, but we’ve never corresponded. I came across these links while searching the topic of seasoned romance and recognized names, but I didn’t post the links because of recognizing them, but because it gave you a couple sites to take a peek at if you’re curious. Maybe you’ll take a chance on reading a seasoned romance with mature couples.
Maybe when Judy’s book comes out, you’ll take a chance on reading one of mine.
UPDATE: The two books mentioned in this post are now published and can be found on their own pages by clicking the LINK below. Judy’s book will be available this spring 2020.
Find information about Judy’s upcoming book on the Double Dutch Ranch Series Page.
New:
Two-Five Ranch Outlaws, Imprisoned in a Cowboy’s Heart, #1
Single Title Holiday: Secret Santa’s Rundown Sleigh: A Holiday Romance Novella.
Thanks for sitting through this. Enjoy your weekend. 💙
Images from Pixabay.
Mary J. McCoy-Dressel ~ Contemporary Romance 
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