All romance novels have a HEA, aka Happily Ever After. Just like fairytales we read when we were children, the story ends with happy feelings, contentment. Sometimes it’s the whole shebang, loving marriage and lots of babies. Sometimes it’s just a really healthy and happy relationship. There are so many tropes used in romance novels, like enemies to lovers, grumpy-sunshine, forced proximity, and brother’s best friend. According to Tiktok, there are also microtropes like ‘he washes her hair’ or ‘there is only one bed available’. These tropes and microtropes can be mixed and matched and can be used in abundance, but there is always a HEA. This is a must in the romance genre. In fact, it defines the genre.

The journey that Tabi and I have traveled to publish Rossi’s Cottage is not typical. Being co-authors is already pretty rare in the romance genre, unless you are both established writers, like Luanne Rice and Joseph Monninger in The Letters, collaborating on a book or series. And being co-authors who have never met in person, I am going to go out on a limb and say, it is the rarest of rare. But the success of Rossi’s Cottage is proof that it’s possible. 

What made me think I could write a book? Bold and unwarranted hubris? Perhaps. Absolute delusion? Probably. But mostly, my inflated view of self comes about because of Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule from his book Outliers. The concept is simple. You can become an expert in anything if you put roughly 10,000 hours into it. Years of training as a ballerina or violinist, about 10,000 hours worth, result in proficiency and excellence.  

Gather around ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary friends to listen to one woman’s journey from avid reader to potential writer. This tale is about a young woman (okay, a middle-aged woman) who had a career hiccup, leaving her a little without purpose. Work, kids, and being an adult had resulted in very few hours to herself, so with more free time, she dove back into something she loved--reading. As a voracious romance and fantasy reader, she read about 250 books a year for a few years. At some point, stories started to appear in her head. Sometimes it was just scenes or a few lines of text, but the ideas kept coming. Then characters and storylines started developing. Still with time on her hands, she decided to try her hand at writing down these stories.