This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
I was 19 when I read my first romance novel. It was the summer before my sophomore year in college and I was back home in Maryland, living with my parents and waitressing at one of the waterfront restaurants in St. Michaels. One day, my mom handed me a copy of Sea Swept by Nora Roberts. She had just finished reading it and had loved it.
I immediately turned up my nose at the thought of reading a romance novel. I was studying English in college, reading ‘important’ works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Austen, Hawthorne, and Dickinson. But my mom insisted I give it a try, and since we have the same taste in books, I finally agreed and wandered outside to skim the first few pages.
I didn’t move from that spot for the rest of the day.
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I was stunned by how well Sea Swept was written. The characters were complex and interesting. The story was compelling. The setting was beautiful. And the ending made me believe in true love all over again. I had always been a hopeless romantic and a total sucker for a happily-ever-after ending, but I had never imagined that I could connect so deeply with a book that was basically written for pleasure.
For the first time, I thought: “Hey, I could write a story like this … and wouldn’t that be fun?”
Four books later, I am now living my dream and working as a full-time author. Thanks to my readers, the first book in my new contemporary romance series, Wind Chime Café, hit the USA Today Bestseller List recently.I have returned to my roots with this new series, setting the stories in a small coastal town in Maryland, on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, just like Sea Swept – the book that first inspired me to become a writer.
I am very grateful to Nora Roberts for unknowingly showing me the path toward my dream of being a writer. I hope that one day I'll get to shake her hand and tell her that.
Wind Chime Cafe by Sophie Moss is out now.