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Hello readers!
My name is Emory Gayle and I am a fantasy romance author.
Romance. Now, there’s a word that used to turn my nose straight up. I loathed the idea of the romance genre so much that when I was younger, I swore I would never be a romance reader. Fast forward *cough* years and here I am writing fantasy romance. But, even when I started writing, I was still stuck in the stigma that others had created about romance. I even used to gloss over the fact that I wrote romance when people asked me—a fact that I now cringe at. Somehow, I was convinced that loving romance was a dirty secret.
But why?
No one had ever said anything directly to me before, but it was in the looks that I got from non-romance readers when I told them about my fav genre—you know the look, all romance readers have got it at some point. The look makes you feel one thing . . . shame.
So, I had to ask myself . . .
When did loving love become a bad thing? When did bed acrobatics become something to be ashamed of? And why is there so much judgement about us readers who love a steamy story?
Unfortunately, I don’t have all the answers, but I feel that it has something to do with never having actually read a romance book—because I’m convinced that if most of the judgy people tried a romance they would join our cult in a heartbeat. Mostly, I got over the sigma by simply no longer sparing time or thought into caring about what people thought about my book choices.
I realized that writing about love and reading about it, in all its forms, brought me joy (and my hubby joy too, depending on the steam in the book). Getting over the stigma of being a romance reader/writer was really freeing! I highly recommend it!
Not only did it open me up to so many new authors and stories, it also opened me up to new friendships with women I met through readers groups and social media! And oh, are there a lot of us ladies out there! In my opinion, romance fans are the best fans!
So, I decided to embrace the romance genre for all its wonders and wet-dreams and have never looked back—a decision that has brought me to Jennifer Armentrout, Stephanie Meyer, J.R. Ward, and many more fantastically talented authors. It also led me down the path to my own writing and the worlds they take place in.
Myth, magic, and epic romance fill the pages of my books, with various levels of steam involved. Through the Eternal Realms, which are the worlds that run through all my books, you can travel to many different realms—including Mer, Siren, human, Olympus, Naiad, Nereid, Gigante, Underworld, and much more!
So how did I come up with all these fantastically magical places for my characters to fall in love? Simple. I wanted to travel to new places and take my character there! This might seem like an over-simplification, but the heart of my writing is what’s most enjoyable to me as a reader. Where do I want to go? What magic do I want to see? Who do I want to meet? As you can see from the list of realms in my books, it turns out I’m quite the traveler!
Do I have a favorite place to travel to?
It’s hard to pick a fav, but I think it would be Mer. I would love to be Mer. To be able to breathe water and command it as the Mer do would be incredible. Also, I really want a hippocampi, like Rufus, to bond with (you can meet him in my Water Series).
It’s hard imagining my life without romance books. They have become such an important part of my world, not just as an author but as a reader. My form of self-care and source of joy whenever I need it, they are a reliable friend I can go to for a cheer-up.
And there is nothing shameful about that!
Romantically yours,
Emory
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