One of the first things I noticed as a romance author was that I had more male readers than I expected. I figured some of it was due to the fact that I had as many male as female friends, so of course they were reading my books. Friends are friends and mine are some of the best! Then came the contests and email lists and other places where I ran across information on my readers, and it was clear that at least 10-15% of my readers are male. That seems to align with this article on Examiner.com from 2012 that cites a study by Romance Writers of America (RWA), which identified 9%, or over $100 million of the romance market, is male.

Although no one may take me up on it, this site is being built so that men can have a forum for talking about romance. This is not meant to be a men-only club. I hate genderism of any variety and it simply irks me that men don’t seem to be “allowed” to enjoy romance. Heck, I realize most of us aren’t allowed to enjoy romance without being ostracized by *some* people. But this is going to be a place where we can all revel in our love of romance books, especially highlighting male readers.

If you know me at all, you will not be surprised by the following caveats (aka, blog rules):

1. Keep it civil. If you are rude to others, or just generally rude, I will Sue-fu you so fast that your head will spin (delete comment, block, whatever). In case it isn’t intuitively clear, in the Sueniverse I get to decide what is rude.
2. Keep it clean (relatively). Some romance books are racy. Some adult language is salty. That’s all fine. Don’t post paragraphs that would qualify as erotica and expect it to stay up on the site. We’ll probably target about a PG-13 rating, if that helps. When in doubt, keep it clean.
3. Keep it going. This isn’t set up as a place for you to post your diatribe about [insert topic here]. Those are conversation enders. We need conversation starters and to keep the conversation going. Of course you should share your opinion, but be open to hearing what others’ opinions are, too. Invite them to share with you.

For now that’s all the rules. More may be added if it seems this blog has some particular issues we need to be proactive about. Meanwhile – come hang out with us for awhile! Tell us what you think! We’re here with our ears open.