I've just completed a short story, Wings of a Sparrow, 2,450 words, and have submitted it to a market that was requesting short love stories. I hope they buy it.

I think it's a good story: a little magic, a little reconciliation between people who care about each other, and that spark that makes it a romance.

The publisher of The Muse, the newsletter of the Midwest Fiction Writer's group, asked me to provide three or four paragraphs of bio for their 'Getting to Know You' column. It's a feature used for getting to know new members, and although I've been a member for most of this year, it was overlooked earlier. Here's what I sent her:

When I first learned to read I was most interested in fantasies and folklore, later adding animal stories and science fiction to the mix. I didn’t become interested in romances until I heard about a study that found that Romance readers tended to be happier in their love lives than nonreaders of the genre. I became curious. I started reading romances to see if I could learn what it was about them that had this effect.

What I determined was that Romances are doing something very important. They are important for human society in general and for the happiness of their readers. In this world where there is all too much conflict, not only between cultures and between individuals, but within our own souls, romance stories provide models for resolution. Not just peaceful resolution, but loving resolution. They give voice not just to women as members of society, as friends, and sisters and daughters, but to women as passionate sexual beings with the right to their own desires and their own fulfillment.

I had always wanted to write. I’d imagined stories before I learned to read them, inspired by the adventures of cartoon characters like Rocky and Bullwinkle. When I realized the importance of romances I wanted to write those, and I set out to do so. I wrote three complete novels before I produced one that I thought might be publishable. I found an agent who liked it and shopped it around to eight different publishers. Unfortunately, none of those publishers found that it quite fit their needs.

Although I had won third place in the City Pages fiction contest that year, I took this failure too much to heart. I was discouraged from writing for years afterward… until this past year when I took the NaNoWriMo challenge and succeeded in writing 50,000 words last November. In the months that followed I wrote another 30,000 words, cut, edited, sought feedback and went through two more drafts until I finally produced a draft I’m calling final – until I find a publisher who might suggest just a few more changes… Of course, now that there is a market for paranormal romances, I’m thrilled to be able to combine romance with my first loves of fantasy and science fiction.

It's been so long since I read the book that I couldn't compare between the movie version and the original text. Taking the movie on its own merits I had a wonderful time: it was beautifully done, and the story reminds me of all that I found enchanting in the fairy tales I read while growing up. It's the kind of story that reminds me of what true love means and why writing romances is important to me.

I particularly love what Captain Shakespear did with Tristan's hair.