Celebrating Women

Today the collective voice of women is being heard around the world, celebrating the progress we have made over the years.  At the same time, we in the U.S. celebrate the 101st birthday of Women's Right to Vote.  We are proud and grateful to those who went before us and fought to give us a voice.

We are women, hear us roar.

We are no longer the silent partners of men.  Every day, the voice of women is being heard, and one of the most powerful ways it is heard is through romance novels.

According to RWA (Romance Writers of America):

• Romance fiction generated $1.358 billion in sales in 2010.
• 8,240 new romance titles were released in 2010.
• Romance fiction sales are estimated at $1.368 billion for 2011.
• 74.8 million people read at least one romance novel in 2008. (source: RWA Reader Survey)
(source: Business of Consumer Book Publishing 2011)

Those statistics are nothing to ignore or deride. Romance novels, whether contemporary, historical, suspense, inspirational, paranormal, or any of many sub-genres, outsell every other fiction genre. Be proud, whether you write or read (or both!) romance.

 As romance writers, our job is to show that women are as individual as snowflakes. But whether blonde, brunette, redhead, white, black, brown, tall or short, they share one thing in common.  Our heroines prove over and over that love really can conquer all.  Our heroines' strength is a reflection of our own and lives in our souls and in our hearts.  We are the mothers, the sisters, the grandmothers, the daughters, the friends.  Without us, there would be no tomorrow.

Be proud.  Roar.

There is in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity. - WASHINGTON IRVING, The Sketch Book