Last year, a famous writer told me I was a romance writer. The confidence with which this pronouncement was made was completely on brand but not, in my humble opinion, accurate.
That this person thinks romance is beneath them tells you everything.
To be fair, I was writing a contemporary romance novel at the time but this person is no expert on me or my writing. (Considering they didn’t even get my name right in a post about the festival I helped run…)
But you know what? I bloody wish I was a romance writer!
Romantasy and Rom-Com are apparently the genre to write if you want to sell books! Along with crime, true and otherwise, romance readers are keeping the publishing industry afloat.
Alex Adsett said according to BookScan, book sales recently had their 4th best year on record, BUT, it is mostly down to romantasy and romcom.
From Anna Featherstone’s excellent blog- The Australian Book Market August 2025
As I said, I wish I was a romance writer!
I can’t quite nail the tropes and beats that romance requires.
And I’m just a bit too weird, big-wordy and probably a touch too literary.
I have been experimenting with genres and styles. I’ve written crime and romance, achieving a glimmer of recognition in both.
I’ve written well-received crime short stories and a novel that got some attention in a manuscript competition. I’ve had multiple romance stories published and as a new member of the Romance Writers of Australia, I’ve started entering their contests.
I took time out in London last year to enter the RWAus Sapphire contest and the annual short story contest. The Sapphire is the unpublished manuscript prize for previously published authors. Judging is still underway for the Sapphire but I have some great preliminary feedback.
Plus it’s lovely to remember sitting in that sunny flat in Sloane Corner, working on my entries.
I didn’t place or win a spot in the short story anthology but it’s the feedback aspect that attracts me to these contests.
The judges said they liked my “author voice.” This is good to know because it’s hard to find your voice. They also said they “enjoyed the strong female friendships” in the story. So while I’m now convinced I’m probably not quite a romance writer, I am happy that some people think I write excellent women’s stories.
So… I’m a contemporary fiction writer who writes about and for women. The best part is I can add a tasty side of romance, magical realism or even crime to that dish.
I’ve been serialising my 2020 novel Alia Henry and the Ghost Writer on Substack while I write the second book in the series.
Come over and read a chapter a week on my Substack.
