Do you remember when you fell in love with romance?
I was eleven years old, watching Sullivan Entertainment’s 1985 film Anne of Green Gables. I had never read the book and knew nothing about the storyline. I thought Anne was a little loopy but intriguing—and then Gilbert Blythe winked at her.
I was a goner. The next day I snuck to the basement where we kept our little TV and rewatched Gilbert’s wink, then rewound that VHS and watched it again and again. I was obsessed. If you ever read my first manuscript that I wrote at age fourteen (don’t worry, you won’t—that is for my eyes ONLY), there is a whole lot of winking going on. Maybe I went overboard, but winks are still a favorite of mine, and my books feature their fair share.
I guess it was my first time truly seeing a small romantic gesture for what it is—a moment of notice. A communication of “I see you, and I like what I see.”
My love of romance continued to be fanned when I discovered the Mandie series by Lois Gladys Leppard at my local Iowa public library. If you’re not familiar, this Christian YA series contains historical mysteries, all solved by the adolescent heroine, Mandie Shaw, and her friends. While I loved the suspense as she figures out the strange happenings around her, my favorite parts always involved Joe—the slightly older teen who has an ardent crush on Mandie and never fails to remind her of his promise to marry her.
I just couldn’t get enough of that sweet, fluttery “ahhh” feeling I experienced whenever I read about even the smallest romantic gesture. While it took me some time to find my way into the Christian romance genre as a writer, I am glad I found my rightful place at last.
My name is Emily Dana Botrous, and I’m a new blogger at Inspy Romance. If my name looks familiar, that is because Milla Holt invited me to be a guest blogger in her place one time last year. It was an honor, and I had immense pleasure interacting with you, the readers, in the comments section. When I was asked this year if I wanted to take on a regular role with Inspy Romance, I didn’t have to consider it for long.
Currently, I have nine Christian romance books published. I love small towns, close-knit families, and characters who have made mistakes, even colossal ones. God’s power to redeem the broken will never cease to amaze me, and my goal in every book I write is to showcase His redemption as my characters fall in knee-wobbling, spine-tingling, heart-fluttering, long-lasting, Christ-centered love.
I live in San Diego with my husband, who is originally from Egypt. Together we share two children, a seven-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son. My husband also has two teenage sons, aged seventeen and fourteen, who live with us the majority of the time. Being a step-mom and having an intercultural marriage has enriched my life and given me first-hand knowledge of the sometimes messy and hard parts of real life that need representation in romance.
After all, romance isn’t only the swoony gestures. Sometimes romance is about sacrifice, and washing dishes when your significant other is tired, and editing an important document for an ESL spouse.
But winks are always welcome.
I’d love to know…when did YOU fall in love with romance?
Emily Dana Botrous is an east-coast transplant who now calls San Diego home. She is a wife and mom of four. When she’s not busy doing laundry, packing lunches, and picking toys off the floor, she enjoys reading, cooking, music, long walks, and writing. Always writing. It is her goal in all things to make Jesus first, last, and always.
Welcome Emily (you have gotten to know about me a bit at CRRG) Not sure when I fell in love with romance. I did like the Peggy books which have a teen romance and I use to read teen romance book by Harliquin, But I think the book that got me into Inspirational Romance would have been a historical by Janette Oke. An older lady gave me the first book in the Canadian West series When Calls the Heart for chirstmas. I went from reading all the time to around 18 not reading at all it was around 7 years and I started this book Christmas night and had it ended by the next day. The lady was giving me book 2 for my Birthday and gave it to me early and I ordered the next two books and that was it I was hooked on reading and romance again. I also fell in love with Canada and mounties (Have been to Canada and loved it but didn’t see a mountie).
Welcome Emily to Inspy Romance! As a retired teacher, mom, and Oma I first began reading romance in high school with the Grace Livingston Hill. Best wishes and enjoy your weekend.
Hi Emily, good to have you here! I’m afraid I haven’t read any of your books yet but they look really good and I will definitely add to my TBR list. I have discovered so many great writers here at Inspy Romance!
I loved the Anne of Green Gables books too, but I think the first real romance I read was Georgette Heyer’s ‘Bath Tangle’, when I was about 13 – it’s a historical romance and I then moved on to contemporary romance and CCR and have been a reader ever since.
Hi Emily, Welcome to Inspy Romance! We’re glad you’ve joined us. I adored the Anne books and read the series multiple times. My mum had the hardcover series on her bookshelf. I’ve always been an avid reader, and I can’t pinpoint a particular book or series that ignited my love for romance novels (and romantic subplots in other genres). 😊
Thank you, Narelle! I’m so happy to be here! I have the whole series as well. I need to finish reading it!
Thank you, Ruthie. I’m glad to be here! I hope you enjoy my books whenever you get to them. :)
Thanks for the welcome, Renate! I have heard that name, Grace Livingston Hill, so much but never read anything by her. I’ll have to try to find a title. Enjoy your weekend, too!
Thanks for the welcome! I read a LOT of Janette Oke books as a teen. I discovered our small Iowa church had an old, unused library when I was maybe 14. It didn’t have a lot that was of interest to me–but it did have some Janette Oke books.
Welcome! I honestly don’t know when I fell in love with romance. I guess it could have been when I read Nancy Drew and she and Ned were an item, or it could have been when I started reading Betty Neels’ books with Harlequin. I know I started reading CF in the early 80’s, when Zondervan started a CF line with books the length of a Harlequin. From then, I was hooked on CF!!
Welcome Emily. Glad to see you here. I think I have always been in love with romance. My sad story is that I was an ugly ducking growing up, the chubby girl who would be pretty “if she wasn’t so fat”. So I was always searching for love and romance. Really, I think it was acceptance, but my little mind thought it was love and romance.
Looking forward to your blogs. ❤
Thanks for the welcome! What a blessing CF is! I’m thankful it’s been around as long as I have. Young pup over here. ;)
Hi Bonnie, thanks for the welcome. In the heart of every little girl is the longing for love and acceptance–and the fear that she’s not good enough. That’s why I love to include the message in my books that if you’re good enough for God, you’re good enough for anyone! I hope you found your belonging in His heart. <3
cute pic
I enjoyed your first post, Emily! Like many others, Janette Oke’s books were my first foray into romance. She was one of the pioneers of the genre, no doubt about it.
Thanks!
Thank you, Erin! I read a lot of Janette Oke, too, when I was a few years older. I’m thankful she paved the way, so to speak, for so many future aspiring authors of Christian romance.
Welcome to InspyRomance, Emily! It’s wonderful to have my good author buddy here. :-D
When I first read Anne of Green Gables I was about ten, and totally into her feud with Gilbert, ha ha!
My love for Christian romance came a bit later when I read Grace Livingston Hill’s Marcia Shuyler. That delicious, warm, satisfying sigh when two hearts already devoted to God come together in love… so precious! That’s the feeling I always strive to create when I’m writing.
I honestly do not remember. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.
Thanks, Milla! I’m so glad to be here. :) Much thanks to you, I believe! I’ll admit the terrible truth that I don’t care for the Anne of Green Gables books. Anne talks waaaaay too much. They tone it down to a tolerable level in the movie. In real life, I would go into hiding anytime I saw Anne coming.
I keep seeing that name, Grace Livingston Hill. I need to find a title by her!
You definitely accomplish that goal in your stories! (I have a hard time believing your blacklisted story is THAT bad, by the way. But I’m glad you grew from the experience!)
And that’s okay. Not everyone has a definitive moment like that.
I fell in love with love stories (not necessarily romance, and I did not know then the difference that romance must have HEA) around 10 years old, when I read retellings after the great legends of the world (including Tristan and Isolde, Sigfried and Krimhilde, The brave in a tiger fur, El Cid, which had also romantic elements) and the retellings after Shakespeare.
Hello! and you can find his books for free at project gutenberg!
You were quite a reader for a 10-year-old. That’s really neat!
Hi Emily! So glad to see you here!
When I was in high school, I discovered Grace Livingston Hill books at my local library and went through all that they had. It was also during that time that Janette Oke’s book Love Comes Softly was published and I read through that whole series, too.
Thanks for the welcome, Betty. So glad to be here. Thank goodness for those Christian fiction pioneers!
Oh my, I love winks too! Playful, sweet, innocent … winks are just the best. ;)