On the Matter of Romance
On the Matter of Romance Following on from the month of Sad-Singles-Sod-Off day (otherwise known as Valentine’s Day to the masses, though quite what a Roman bishop ministering to persecuted Christians would make of what’s become of his day is an interesting thought), I thought I might address my own feelings on the matter of romantic entanglement in fiction. As I suspect may be obvious from the previous sentence, I think it’s fair to say I am not, and never will be, one of life’s hopeless romantics. In fact, I verge on not being a romantic at all and it is certainly not my favoured genre. I mean, I have written romance. I wrote a number of couple-based fanfics around my favourite characters in the Harry Potter series, though they were definitely more character pieces than anything, and of course, there’s Dullard and Pleasance. And I did to write a purely passion-based attraction in a previous novel attempt that will probably never see the light of day now, but it was mostly t...