MamaWriters are thrilled to have romance author Sharon Page with us today, who just made it onto the USA Today bestseller list with her most recent release, The Club!

She’s here to chatting about being a mom and a romance writer,
so come, relax, and chat with us.

sharonpagesmallerauthorphotoWhy My Daughter Loves Villains—
and Other Things I’ve Learned as a Romance Writing Mama

I have two children under 8, and my writing career only began when I had the kids.  Staying at home actually gave me the time to write!  My latest book, The Club, just made the USA Today Bestseller list—I don’t know if the kids understood what it meant, but they got to go out for dinner a few times.

It also made me realize my kids have taught me a lot about writing:

Why my daughter loves villains:

When my daughter was 5, she stuck a pencil between her fingers, wore play high heels, and wrapped a Dalmatian-shaped sleeping bag around her shoulders.  For weeks, she pretended to be Cruella deVil.  And every time we read our Disney picture books of Snow White and Cinderella, who did my daughter want to talk about?  The Evil Queen and the Wicked Stepmother, of course, and why they did the things they did.

I wondered about this.  Was it because she was suddenly seeing there might be ‘bad people’ in the world? But then I realized—the women villains had the strongest roles in the story.  They’ve got goals.  Motivation.  And conflict.

Okay, maybe it was irrational jealousy, or an inexplicable need to wear black and white, but these women had agendas and they took steps to see their plans through.  So I learned how important it is to write heroines who don’t just stand around in their underwear while the world sneaks up and grabs them from behind.  I want my daughter to have heroines she can relate to (now or eventually, when she’s allowed to read my books.)

Asking why isn’t a bad thing:

My kids have taught me to ask why.  It drives my daughter crazy when she asks why the Evil Queen wants to kill Snow White and I say:  “Because it’s the narrative drive.”  She rolls her eyes.  Stomps her feet.  “Stop teasing me!” she’ll shout.

When I write, I think:  How would I explain my character’s motivations to someone who keeps asking why?  If my answer quickly becomes, “Because the author wants him to do that,” I haven’t worked hard enough.

I wouldn’t be writing the stories I am, if it weren’t for the kids:

I sold my first book to Ellora’s Cave when I was pregnant with my son.  I’ve realized that issues of family, children, childbirth come a lot more into my stories now than they did when I didn’t have kids.  For me, I feel it’s a perspective that gives my stories more depth.  And trying to see the world from the kids’ point of view enriches my writing.

Every minute is a deadline:

When I was revising The Club, which was the biggest revision I’ve ever done, my son was diagnosed with colitis.the-club-bruce-page He was three, and it was a shock.  My husband spent ten days with our son in the hospital.  I would visit, then go home and write—but, of course, nothing I wrote seemed to be working.  Our son improved, thanks to the terrific doctors, and we can manage his condition well with medication.  Once he was at home, all the areas in my story I thought I would never fix suddenly clicked into place.

I’ve learned that kids will come down with stomach flu right before a deadline.  So I have to be efficient and I write as hard as I can when things are going well.

Has having children changed what you write about, or how you write? Has writing or reading romance influenced the way you introduced reading to your kids?

You can visit Sharon at http://sharonpage.com