Manic Monday: Q&A with romance author Paula Roe

I recently interviewed award-winning romance author Paula Roe on all things ‘90s for DUO Magazine. Here’s the interview...

Do you see any differences between romance books today and those from the '90s? Plus, any fave books/authors of that decade? I read a lot of romance in the ‘90s when the trend was swinging more towards independent career women in contemporary novels. I also noticed that category romance started featuring stories with a male point of view, which was a refreshing change from just the heroine’s point of view. 

Also, the surge of chick-lit, with the publication of Bridget Jones’s Diary in 1996, created a massive need for women’s fiction. I went through a whole stack of these books!  I especially loved the Harlequin Desire line (Eileen Wilks and Elise Title were my favourites).  And I always had to have the next Johanna Lindsay, who, I’m happy to say, is still writing her gorgeous historical romances.

What were your fave love songs or ballads of the ‘90s? I worked as a fitness instructor through the whole of the ‘90s, so I got to hear a lot of new dance stuff and reworked slow songs we used for classes. I always had the best cool new music (and was quite proud of that!) Scanning my CD collection, I spy an old favourite: Favourite Love Songs of the 70s, 80s and 90s. I can remember playing that thing over and over! 

Some of my repeat offenders were Sorrento Moon by Tina Arena, Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover by Sophie B. Hawkins, anything by Shania Twain (I went through a whole Shania phase!), No More I Love Yous by Annie Lennox and Black Velvet by Alannah Myles.

Who was your ‘90s dream guy? And what ‘90s heroine did you want to be like? Oh, gosh, I had a few... Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Johnny Depp.  But my favourite all-time show was Friends. I LOVE THOSE GUYS! I have the whole 10 series on DVD and watch it every year. Plus, I do have a huge thing for Chandler Bing ;-) Love a guy who can make me laugh!

Any funny dating experiences from the ‘90s? Oh, God, I HATED the whole dating experience! The start of the ‘90s was marked by the massive crush I had for my best (boy) friend – an agonising, bittersweet behemoth of a thing that basically took over my entire life.  With all the best friends-turned-lovers shows on TV at the time, my constant dilemma was always, ‘Do I say something and possibly ruin the friendship, or take a chance?’ Needless to say, we kinda/sorta danced around the topic, as you do, and we ended up just remaining friends :-( 

Check out www.paularoe.com for details on her sizzling books including the new romantic novella anthology, Moonlit Encounters (TWC Press).

And here’s the full article, Nineties Guide to Romance, in DUO...

90s books vs tomes of today

I I recently chatted to bestselling author and astrologer Jessica Adams about the books she penned in the 90s versus those of today - for DUO Magazine. Here's what she had to say...

 

"[My debut novel] Single White E-Mail was in the first wave of books about single women in their thirties - mine was set in Sydney, Candace Bushnell set her book, Sex and the City, in New York - and, of course, Helen Fielding set Bridget Jones' Diary in London. In the late 1990s my generation was probably the first to hit the big drop in marriage statistics. We were all in shock as all our fairy stories had led us to believe we would be married by 30 - and so these books (and most importantly, their millions of single readers) were the result.

In the year 2013, the focus has been taken off women's marriage anxiety and anger - and onto adventurous sex instead. That's much healthier. Whatever you might think of the particular kind of sex in Fifty Shades of Grey, it's leading a new wave of female fiction where women are writing and self-publishing their own sexual fantasies. Together with Maggie Alderson, Imogen Edwards-Jones and Kathy Lette, I am now creating a sequel to our erotica anthology, In Bed With, for publication next year - and I can't wait!

Writing is such a different business now. When I wrote my early novels, Single White E-Mail, Tom Dick and Debbie Harry and Cool For Cats, I remember one editor telling me I had to have a happy ending (as in, my heroine married and lived happily ever after). Now, that's less relevant or important.

Writers are free to be more creative than ever, partly because of the massive success of paranormal romance and vampire sex. In fact, with the freedom to also self-publish and promote, there has never been a better time to be a woman, writing about dating, mating and relating. At last, honesty!

In 2013, Single White E-Mail, Tom Dick and Debbie Harry, Cool for Cats and I'm A Believer will be reissued as e-books in Australia through Momentum."  

 

And here's the full article on a '90s Guide to Romance' in DUO...