What picks you up?

I find this time of year always hard -- the holidays are over, it's still cold most of the time (at least if you live in an area that has winter), and colds, flus, and other viruses are still knocking people out. Yet the promise of spring is starting to appear. Daylight is lengthening, trees are starting to bud, early spring flowers are preparing for growth.

The sun is a very powerful force. That's why people tend to feel gloomy on cloudy days and brighten up when it's sunny. There are other things that can pick you up, too. Reading a good book; a smile; a hug; an honest compliment; a nice cup of tea; a piece of rich chocolate; a relaxing walk; visiting a new place whether it's in real life or a virtual world like Second Life; petting a kitten, puppy, or other animal; a bubble bath; watching the sky, and writing. All of these can take you away for a few minutes to a few hours and give you a much needed break from the stresses of everyday routines.

So when you're feeling low and the skies are gray, do something that picks you up. You'll feel better and more hopeful that brighter days are coming.

What makes a romance romantic?

Valentine's Day is symbolized by hearts, flowers, and chocolates, but there's a lot of romance in literature, too. In fact, most books, whether they are classified as romances or not, tend to feature at least one love story. People like to read about romance, not only young people. It's an ageless topic, so writers have a variety of ways to approach it. By changing the setting or time period, characters or themes, a romance can be historical, suspenseful, heartwarming, erotic, or paranormal. Romances compete with mysteries in the large number of subgenres they can occupy.

But what makes a romance romantic? You can ask a dozen people the same question and get different replies based on their experiences, ages, education, etc. As a librarian for a public library, part of my job is ordering the books for the fiction collection which include romances. I have also recently written my own romance, "Cloudy Rainbow." For me, the best romances and the ones that patrons at my library ask for most, are the ones that tell a good story and don't necessarily have a happy ending but make you feel special and touched along with the main character. Authors such as Nicholas Sparks, Debbie Macomber, Luanne Rice, and others including myself, convey romance without racy dialogue but the use of words that invoke images and feelings, a setting that enchants more than seduces, and characters that are realistic and not based on super heroes, vampires, or Scottish Highlanders. No need to kiss the frog to turn him into a prince. In the best romances, the prince doesn't change into anything but himself and that's more than enough for the princess.

What makes a romance romantic most of all is what makes people fall in love in the first place. It isn't easy to define, but you know it when it happens. When you read that scene, peruse that page, close the book and wish it hadn't ended, you've experienced the magic. Whether you're 90 or 19, you never get enough of romance, and luckily, romances continue to be written and published every day. Find one that touches your heart and don't settle for a cheap date. The one you take to bed should be special and, of course, romantic.