Romancing Professionally

Writing a romance novel is harder than you might think. The romantic encounters have to be planned like military campaigns. I've been told that many prolific romance writers burn out from the pressure of having to write the sex scenes. I mean, how much acceptable sexual variation can you devise for 36 books?

*****

I knew my mother's taste in books because I grew up reading everything in the hall bookshelves. She would have enjoyed every throbbing page of my romances, but died of shame if she knew who had written them. But then, we lived in Waco.

Just ran off all 320 pages of my latest magnum opus. There goes another rain forest.

Ding dong, the book is done!
I'd like to say that it was fun,
But I bet that you would smell a rat
'Cuz I'd be lying though my hat--
I wrote and read and wrote again,
I beat my brain and cursed my pen,
I yelled and screamed and threw a fit--
But now that I am done with it,
Yes, of course, I've begun
To write myself another one!