I joined a local romance writer’s group last year and, admittedly, I was a bit nervous at first because I knew nothing about that arm of the publishing industry.

Well, here we are months later and I’m very happy with my involvement with this group for several reasons, the biggest one being that they are definitely a very supportive group of people regardless of where you are in your career or what genre you write. While it does have a focus on romance, since that’s what many of the members write, there’s a lot of discussion around topics that appeal to all writers.

Since joining this group I’ve learned that…

1. The RWA is a well-oiled machine that offers a lot of support for both new-and-experienced authors. Also, there’s quite a bit of community support on the author side as well.

2. The publishing side of romance is very well-defined, to the point where publishers may have expectations for certain types of novels based on how they fit into their business. (e.g. single-parent vs. historical, etc.)

3. There are a lot of technical similarities between writing romance novels and writing other genres. After all, every novelist — regardless of genre — wants to tell a good story. Many of the elements (plot, characters, etc.) are still the same.

Now, as many of you know, I enjoy writing horror, dark fantasy and dark science fiction. However, that does not mean that a romantic relationship or a love interest won’t ever appear in one of my stories. A lot of times, romance (or infatuation, etc.) can provide excellent tension between two characters and it can also humanize a terrifying monster like Dracula, “The Hulk,” etc. Also, those relationships can give readers something to relate to, especially if you have a very complex setting.

Of course, the opposite is also true — that romance authors can learn a lot from different genres as well. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why paranormal romance is so popular?

Either way, I now have a profound respect for romance authors that I wasn’t sure I had before. Even though my tastes run dark, I’m finding some romance authors are not all that different than I am.