
Romancelandia. When I started my writing career, I had no idea I’d end up here. Originally, I wanted to be a horror writer, maybe some historical fiction—I was a history major after all—and though I loved writing fiction, most of my reading was in the literary world through my minor in English. Since I had little time to read outside of class in the early part of adulthood, I consumed most of my stories via the quicker, less demanding medium of television. TV fangirl yes; reader not so much, but this fact would eventually become an important footnote in my career.
After college, my goal of becoming any kind of writer just sort of fizzled. The real world makes it hard to focus on art. It’s constantly screaming at us that art and creative endeavors are frivolous and, oh by the way, you can’t live off of them. So I packed that plan away with some of my other college experiences, like carbonated wine and wearing pajamas to dinner, and set about a rather productive, though creatively unfulfilling, adulthood.
I’d like to say meeting my husband was the serendipitous moment where I found my calling to writing Romance… but it wasn’t until I met my OTP (original true pairing for those not in a fandom) that a light shone down from heaven and flicked on my creative switch yelling, “Wake up! Your life is about to begin.” Maybe that’s hyperbolic but I’m using my writer card here because that’s what it felt like.
See one day my husband suggested we watch a show called The Walking Dead. Fast forward to the end of episode two, and there I was watching one of the most gory and violent shows I’d ever seen, suddenly looking a little (a lot) like that swooning Alicia Silverstone gif from Clueless, all because of a fictional man named Rick Grimes. I hadn’t had a crush like that since high school. With multiple seasons to binge, I was in heaven. Was this what it was like to be in love? (I swear my husband knows. It’s fine.)
But here's where it gets good, in addition to dealing with zombies, this man of my dreams was in this awful, toxic relationship. It was heartbreaking. I know, I know, the show takes place at the end of the world. Hierarchy of needs and all, but all I could focus on was how much this new love of mine deserved better! The romantic subplot was reaching through the gore and bullets and grabbing me by the throat like the undead on screen.
After multiple seasons of me screaming at my television for someone to please love Rick Grimes the way I did, it finally happened. He met the love of his life. Beautiful, smart, capable, compassionate Michonne. Zombies? What zombies? The Walking Dead was the most captivating love story I had ever seen. Suddenly this horror series became a romance with a capital "R."
I didn’t know it at the time, but there was a classic slow-burn, friends-to-lovers trope building before my eyes. Every night I binged, I found myself scouring episodes for just a little crumb of this budding romance between Rick Grimes and Michonne. I couldn’t look away. It consumed me—zombie pun intended. What was this obsession? Was there a name for what I was feeling? Turns out there was. It’s called fandom and this is where the life-changing started. I learned the term ‘shipper’ and immediately became one, jumping head first into my new community. (Still using that word today despite it dating me a bit) Here, all the crumbs from the show led to a veritable feast of Richonne (their proper shipping name) content.
This new world was magic. That moment in season four when I really really thought Rick and Michonne were finally going to kiss on screen and then they DIDN’T? Here, my disappointment turned to rejoicing when not only could I find fan fiction where that moment was rewritten with a happier ending, but I found alternate iterations of all the moments! And new moments were being created daily out of the amazing imaginations of these other fans.
But where fandom really got me was the A.U.! Not only could I see these characters play out their scenes in all different ways, but I could also just pluck the love story out of the confines of the canon world and see it blossom any and everywhere writers could imagine! I. Was. Hooked.
Once I saw the possibilities, I had to get in on this action. I penned my own fanfic, and it went surprisingly well. Hey, maybe I still had this little talent, even though I hadn’t used it in years. Over the course of about eighteen months, I wrote twenty fan fics for Richonne. Sure, I was creating a form of fan art, but I realized after a while that what I was doing was writing romance novels. Yes, novels. Some of these fics were a hundred thousand words! Here I was creating new and exciting meet-cutes, crafting swoony dialogue, and imagining awkward scenarios where the characters were forced to deny and then pledge allegiance to their undying love, and it was a blast.
Coincidentally, right around that time when my OTP was coming to an end on screen, I happened upon a romance novel recommendation on Tumblr, a place I was only habitating because it fed my fandom addiction. A lot has been written about how that new wave of contemporary romance covers drove sales to a previously untouched demographic. I won’t expound on that, except to say: that was me! I was drawn to all of the beautifully illustrated covers coming out at that time. I bought the book, devoured it, and immediately yelled for more! And just like fanfic, I wanted in. I’d been honing my skills online for a couple of years at that point, and no way was I ever giving up the art of writing again. I had my own second chance romance with an art I'd missed so much since school. But most importantly, I had found my genre. I was a Romance writer.
I wrote my first romance novel from a meet-cute I had used in a fic. Actually, it was a meet-cute from my own life that I had given to the fandom first. That idea turned into a whole plot, and then I got to do my favorite part of this writing process—character building. I wanted to break free of the constraints of someone else's characters and create my own. I wanted to give them hopes and fears and a rich backstory, and of course craft a deep and effective emotional wound (my personal favorite part).
Since then I've published four romance novels, both indie and trad, and co-wrote one of them with another Richonne fanfic writer! This year, Rick and Michonne came back to the screen for their own story to be completed. All roads really do lead home. I sailed this ship all the way to a place called Romancelandia, and the weather is fine. All those years I spent not writing was the real tragedy, and thanks to shipping, I finally found my happy ever after.

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