Imagining: Romance Diversity

What I love about Bookrix is its diversity. We all have different backgrounds, religions, cultures and ideas, but we seem to come together when it comes to writing. We all feel it, the rush the spark of inspiration when we set down in front of a keyboard to create life, a story. Some of us start with a certain character, others with a particular scene and still others with just a single thought, what if. Bookrx loves to get our creative juices flowing by offering contests and there have been many that have sparked that creative flow to begin in us.  Recently the group AA SpecFic held a Romance contest to insight such a reaction.  

 I’m so proud to announce our winners. The stories were diverse in genres but held to the Romance theme.   Although we only had four entries, I was pretty impressed with the talent of these authors. Each one was a winner and I felt should be highlighted on this Blog.  They ranged from the retelling of an age old classic, a peek into a mother daughter relationship, a mystic foretelling of love and a bit of Zombie Romance. They were all wonderful reads and sparked Romance within me and I hope once you have read these lovely stories you will agree with me.  They are not in any order, so enjoy.

Tanya 77 Alias/Pseudonym: T.Black

Tanya placed this statement on  her homepage:

" I'm just someone who needs some time away from her devils. Recently, in December 2011, I had this great idea to start writing something, must have been moon madness, which made me do it. Whatever it was, here I am, trying to teach myself how this art can be done."

I think she has done more than just  try and teach herself  this art form. I think Tanya has more than surpassed anyone's expectations in just one year. This talented woman not only writes wonderful stories, she creates her own covers fantastic books , self taught as well. As you can see Tanya is a very gifted woman.

A self professed lover of Romance, Tanya's contest entry was the retelling of an ageless classic beloved by so many young girl. I have to confess it was one of favorites as a child. In this lovely story she even answered a few questions , I'm sure we all had been pondering since childhood. She has a talent to draw you in the story, twist it with her colorful words and have you gasping with joy at the end.  You can find this story displayed on the homepage of Bookrix as a recommended book.
Congratulation on both fronts Tanya!

Blurb:

A prince is searching for a princess, Rapunzel to be exact. He travels far and at last finds the tower he was looking for. But a surprise awaits him as he calls out to her and her braid cascades down the tower
to read more about Tanya>>>>

Aravon is so new to Bookrix that she has only four friends and I'm so very glad to say that I'm one of them. This talented woman has added just one book to her homepage, but oh what a book. Aravon is from Redmond and her status as a Scribbler is only temporary, I'm sure. She has brought to the page a story so revealing that I had to give her a heart before I even finished the book. I've only done that a few times since being on Bookrix. Her story is a timeless one about the struggles within the daughter/mother relationship. If you are a woman you know this struggle all to well. But Aravon has brought this ageless battle of wells with a new light, her light and her life. She forces the reader to not only see from her side of the story, but both sides so that the reader might truly understand this conflict and seek to change.  Aravon wrote this about her book." I'm so glad you saw the positive, rather than the past. I hope this book does help people. That's why I wrote it, so someone can see they don't have to hold on to pain."
This was a Beautiful Romance story told seamlessly by a daughter to a mother.  I hope you find her contest entry as beautiful and heartfelt as I did. She might not have but a few friends now, but I foresee Aravon having many in the future with her unique  style of writing.
Congratulations Aravon on a truly wonderful story of Love!

Blurb:

It's a short story about how a daughter and mother finally come to terms with their relationship.

His alias is Alsam2  but his friends know him as simple John.
John C. Lard is a prolific writer who spans a wide range of genres. Read what he said about himself. "My imagination zigs and zags all over the place. If you read my work you'll find that it may range from spirituality to horror, from romance to violence and death. I do lean to the unexpected, and what you get depends on whether I'm zigging or zagging..."

I'm so glad he decided to zigged our way. I was so greatly  honored to have John add his contribution to the contest that I had a preconceived idea of what we would receive.  So when I saw what he added, I had to say I was shocked. Now this was a Romance contest, not horror, but I did say any and all genres welcome. But from the start he had me hooked with these two young lovers , why were they hiding, who were they hiding from? I was totally engrossed, when suddenly he turned the story again, or should I say zagged. This contest entry was just what I was looking for, it was lovely, fun and funny. Not the usual Romance story by no means, or what we think of a classical Romance. You can find his story on the Homepage for  recommended books.
Bravo John! Bravo!

Blurb:

A romantic light-hearted spoof of our culture's "new" literary genre--vampires, werewolves and zombies.

to read more about Alsam2>>>

Safire.pen is also a new comer to Bookrix. She has two books one of them a poem. She comes to us by way of the dirty south, Memphis and her writing  reflects her southern heritage. She asked me to remove her story because she read the other entries and thought it wasn't as good. " I'm not a writer, I just play at one." It took some talking on my part and other members of Bookrix, thank you Tanya and Sereni, to convince her to keep it in the contest. She wrote a lovely story of the mystical, and how when we least expect it, love can overwhelm us in the most unlikely places. I really enjoyed this story. She might just play at this art form, but I believe if Safire.pen put forth the effort, she will make a wonderful author someday. In fact, I believe that can be said about us all.
Congratulation Safire.pen.on this lovely mystical story. Also love that cover

Blurb:

She has never been in love, but now finds herself engaged to a stable handsome man. A chance encounter, during a Summer Solstice festival, just might set her life in a new direction.

I want to thank everyone that offered their help and support with this contest
:xmeli.j.nightlyx ( Melissa Castillo)
 Moderator of ArtWriters group.
She offered her talents to make a professional book cover
to read more about Meli>>>>

My  lovely judges:
 Bookzilla ( Veronica)
Moderator of Health and Fantasy and Science Fiction group

foreverfemme(Andrea Javel)

Moderator of  BetterWriters  and AA SpecFic groups

Andrea also graciously offered her talents to edit a book

paper.planes ( Beth Stafford)

Moderator of the Coffee Shop

to read more about Beth>>>

A very special Thank You goes out to Lazarus67  for making the lovely banner for the contest.

Thank you everyone.
 I hope you check out these stories I know you want be disappointed.