Hi ya’ll. My name is Laurie Lee, and I’m an indie romance author who has stumbled into love with an uptight and snobbish literary writer named Aaron. Frankly he can be somewhat of a pill, but I think a vivacious gal like myself is just what this emotionally frozen man needs. I’ll let you eavesdrop on an imaginary conversation between us that sums up our differences.

Aaron: For the life of me I don’t understand why a smart woman like yourself would want to write parlor fiction.

Laurie Lee: Ha! What kind of fiction?

Aaron: Books that appeal to women only. Books with heaving bosoms and tumescent breeches.

Laurie (winking): You keep talking like that, mister, and you just might lose your breeches.

Aaron: Be serious for a moment. Why anyone would any want to read a novel in which the outcome is predictable? There’s no suspense.

Laurie: When it comes to romance novels, it’s not the destination but the journey that makes them satisfying.

Aaron: But it’s always the same destination. It’s like taking a Carnival cruise to the Bahamas over and over.

Laurie: I would love going to the Bahamas on a cruise ship, and I’d never get tired of it. They have movies, show, shore excursions and midnight pizza buffets. And besides what’s so great about what you write? That boring book club fiction stuff.

Aaron: It is not book club fiction. Book club fiction is commercial fiction masquerading as important fiction. I write literary fiction.

Laurie: I don’t think I’ve ever read any literary fiction. Give me an example.

Aaron: Blood Meridian.

Laurie (shivering): Sounds like horror.

Aaron: The Body Artist

Laurie (smiling): Sexy!

Aaron: The Human Stain

Laurie: Ewww! Get out the Comet.

Aaron: There you go again, making light of a serious issue. Literary fiction takes considerable skill and artistry to produce. Unlike genre fiction, which takes very little effort at all.

Laurie: Wrong, buddy! It takes plenty of artistry to create a plot that sweeps away readers for hours.

Aaron: Readers may be temporarily swept away but when they come back from the trip, they are unchanged. Literary fiction, on the other hand, challenges readers to confront their lives. As the essayist Arthur Krystal says, “Literary fiction melts the frozen sea inside of us.”

Laurie: Fine. May I assume you’ve read a lot of literary fiction?

Aaron: Of course. It’s all I read.

Laurie: Then why are you still as frozen as a popsicle inside?

Aaron: I’m not frozen. I’m just… reserved.

Laurie: I know exactly what you need. A HEA.

Aaron: What’s an HEA?

Laurie: A happily ever after, of course.

Aaron: I don’t believe in happy endings. They’re inauthentic.

Laurie (kisses him the cheek): I’d like to challenge that assumption.

So what do you think, readers? Will I be able to melt this emotionally stunted man? Do I even want to? Lots of challenges lie ahead of us especially when I become a bestseller, and he loses his book contract. Will we get our HEA? Or will our story end on a negative note like one of Aaron’s morose literary novels?

Love Literary Style is published by Henery Press, November 2016.

They say opposites attract, and what could be more opposite than a stuffy literary writer falling for a self-published romance writer?

Novelist Aaron Mite meets Laurie Lee at a writers’ colony and mistakenly believes her to be a renowned writer of important fiction. When he discovers she’s a self-published romance author, he’s already fallen in love with her.

Aaron thinks genre fiction is an affront to the fiction-writing craft. He often quotes the essayist, Arthur Krystal who says literary fiction “melts the frozen sea inside of us.” Ironically Aaron doesn’t seem to realize that he’s emotionally frozen. The vivacious Laurie, lover of flamingo-patterned attire and all things hot pink, is the one person who might be capable of melting him.

In the tradition of The Rosie Project, Love Literary Style is a sparkling romantic comedy which pokes fun at the divide between low and high brow fiction.

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About the author
Karin Gillespie is the author of seven novels, and received a Georgia Author of the Year Award in 2016. She has written for the New York Times, Washington Post and Writer Magazine. She’s a humor columnist for Augusta Magazine, writes a book column for the Augusta Chronicle, and teaches writing at Augusta University. Connect with Karin at karingillespie.net.

All comments are welcomed.

Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win a print copy of Love Literary Style. US entries only, please. The giveaway ends November 4, 2016 at 11:59 AM EST. Good luck everyone!