VALENTINES DAY – 2018
My friend, Marianne Petit, is a romance author. When I found out that her writing was soon to be featured as part of a newly released boxed set of stories, I was impressed.
I met Marianne about a year and a half ago at a summer barbecue, and then based on her suggestion, I joined the Melville (NY) Lions Club, where she is an active member. She performs good deeds, such as delivering ice cream treats to overworked medical workers or packing up bags of groceries for the needy.
Marianne is much more than a published author or a Past Lions Club District Governor. Among other things, Marianne is someone who loves history and travel, as well as being a wonderful grandmother and a loving wife. So, why was I so surprised when I first discovered that she wrote romance novels? Not only does she write them, she is a past president of the Long Island Chapter of the Romance Writers of America.
New Boxed Set
Just as I tended to think that all college professors should wear blazers, with elbow patches (Dr. Barkhan, Biology, Springfield College, I am thinking of you!), I had also expected that romance novelists would fit into my stereotype.
I imagined romance writers to be a group of mostly female, frolicking daydreamers, dressed like Stevie Nicks, dabbing on perfume, and lighting candles. As soon as the pandemic concludes, they will all dash out to rebook their European vacations, and then travel across the countryside searching for castles, to be the next setting of their upcoming fictional romantic liaisons.
But thanks to Marianne, I realized that this image I had come up was untrue, after all romance writers can be men or women, live anywhere, and each of them can dress differently.
Similar to most writers in a pandemic, in reality, Marianne is at home, typing on her computer. She is probably multi-tasking, with the dishwasher running and some laundry tumbling in the dryer nearby. She works hard to care for her family, entertain her readers, and face various challenges, such as defending her work from computer viruses or retrieving lost documents.
However, it is fun if I imagine that she is wearing a colorful dress, with flowing sleeves, and jangling bracelets on both wrists, while arranging colorful bouquets of flowers. Birds perch nearby on her kitchen windowsill and sing out to her, “Best of luck with your new boxed set!”.
Visit her website below: