Romance in the Life of the Romantic Fantasy Author

You may think that authors who write about romance have the most romantic spouses and amazing love stories. I have to admit that when we were dating, my now husband did some romantic things that made me fluttery. However, we do not have the most exciting, romantic love story out there. In fact, we disliked each other immensely when we first met. I told him on several occasions (daily) how much I hated him, and he periodically (at least hourly) called me a few unflattering nouns accompanied by colorful adjectives. So...when I happened to notice a familiar-looking car smoking (actual flames from the engine) on the side of the highway one day on my way home from work, I did not bother to stop. Nope. When my husband recounts the tale, he adds a lot of exaggerated details about how I tossed a fire extinguisher at him, flipped him off, and did a plethora of other ridiculous things. Those didn't happen. I honked my horn and waved. Still a jerk move, right? :-) Fast forward a month later and he was in a really bad work-related accident. Somehow, that threw the two of us together and I went from ranting at him and telling him how much I could not stand his presence to driving him to the hospital and holding his hand in an emergency room while nurses and doctors rushed frantically around. While we argued incessantly on the way back to work after the ER visit, a few days later, he asked me to go to a movie with him. Oddly, I said yes after professing adamantly for months how I wouldn't date him if he were the last living amoeba on the planet. The rest is history. Over twenty years, four kids, a grandson, two cats, a dog (and some fish) later, we're still together...and the least romantic couple you've probably ever met. LOL Or just unconventionally romantic. I mean, I found it a romantic gesture when my deathly allergic husband brought me home a cat from the ASPCA (she's now 16 yrs old and still living with us) one day. He buys me trees even though he complains that he has to mow around them. Now, I'm writing romantic fantasy and he is quite often my sounding board who huffs exaggeratedly when I ask for his take on things. He gives me a few useable ideas then others are a little more...not so romantic but certainly funny on a darker or sarcastic level. He tells people all about my writing even though he'd rather staple his...finger...to the ceiling than sit down and read something that's not work-related. Maybe he's more of a romantic than I give him credit for. :-) Thank you, my love, for inspiring me in your own romantic way!

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