How was your weekend?

Mine started off with a flurry of OCD cleaning, vacuuming cat hair off kilims, and a green tea face mask, only to end in a majorly unproductive Sunday. With a migraine, I laid around most of the day under a blanket hiding from the light, and then wasted two hours watching the terrible vampire movie Twilight (thanks for the suggestion Netflix).

I would like a Sunday do over. If possible, I would like to repeat the energy of Saturday that ended dancing by myself to “Time of My Life,” from the final scene of Dirty Dancing.

But there’s a silver lining to the sheer awfulness of my Sunday. The movie, despite being bad, has done a surprisingly good job of inspiring me. I once tried to read Twilight, to see what all the fuss was about. I downloaded a sample on my Kindle and attempted to read the first page. I couldn’t get past the first paragraph, which is interesting considering I love romance novels and can tolerate a pretty low bar for a hit of smut. So, watching the movie, I gritted my teeth and seriously thought, I can write better than that. My true side-gig/hobby has been awakened: romance novel writing.

I’ve meddled in writing one for several years, the closest being my senior thesis play called Brute Passion Beyond the Hudson. It was mostly campy, making fun of romance novel tropes, but I loved writing it and I like to think I was a natural at the genre. Well I’ve been sitting on some novel ideals for a while (I keep a secret list tucked inside the antique jewelry box in my velvet boudoir) and I think I was just waiting for the right moment to get started.

And so, at the very least, a mopey Sunday has turned into an inspiring, motivational day. It would be delightful if my true calling was authoring “bodice rippers.”

All I need now is a good pen name…any suggestions?

P.S. check out SNL’s romance novel skit Scorched Corset Bookstore for a good laugh.