True love lasts forever. 
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We all believe that don’t we? If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be gobbling up romance novels where everyone falls in love and lives happily ever after. Or binging on Hallmark movies like Christmas Class Reunion. Or listening to all those sweet love songs on our playlists. One of my favorites is Taylor Dayne’s I’ll Always Love You. Remember that one?

Gotta love that late-80's hair, right? Anyone else miss MTV videos? Did anyone not know that MTV actually used to play videos?

We all want what Taylor is singing about, don’t we? You are the one that I’ve been searching for. You are my everything. Tell me, who could ask for more? Yes, please. Pretty please! Give me that!

​But while real love is forever, the way it’s portrayed in books and on screen isn’t. Ready for an example? Try this passage from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, written in 1847.
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What do you think? It probably depends on your perspective.

If you’re a lover of the classics, you’re swooning as you visualize Mr. Rochester proclaiming his love of Jane. 

The rest of us? And I include myself in this group. We're not swooning. This scene starts out pretty good. I have for the first time found what I can truly love. Nice opener, Mr. Rochester. Unfortunately, you lose me when you claim you are bound to me with a strong attachment. And then you go completely off the rails at a solemn passion is conceived in your heart. I’m a lot of things, buddy, but solemn isn’t one of them. Not many women want their lover to call them solemn. Beautiful? Smart? Sexy? Yeah. Solemn? No, thank you.

And that last line, about us fusing together? Mr. Rochester, are you talking dirty to me?

I think we can agree, Romantics, that while true love is eternal, the way we write about it is always changing. Many of us would be hard to slog through Bronte after a long day at work. I pay better attention when expressions like solemn passion and kindling in pure, powerful flame aren’t being strung together.

By now you’re probably wondering why I’m writing about this.

It really has nothing to do with Charlotte Bronte. 

It has everything to do with General Hospital.

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​We’re going to go out on a limb and guess you’re a fan of romance. We certainly are, and while our choice to write romance was an easy one, we had no idea it would lead to so many decisions that wouldn’t be as easy. Like what kind of romance to write. And what you expect.
 
Do you read different types of romance? If so, you probably know there are many genres, but how many are you familiar with? Billionaire romance? That’s where one of the lead characters is uber-rich. This used to be millionaire romance, but everything costs more these days. There’s even a sub-genre called billionaire cowboy romance. There’s Gothic, which Paul thought was like the Addams Family or the Munsters but isn’t really that at all. There’s medical and military, LGBTQ and paranormal, and a bunch of categories involving vampires and werewolves and time travel. And we can’t leave out romantic comedy, romantic suspense, and sports romance. The list goes on and on.

​Okay, before we get too friendly let’s get something out of the way.
 
Robin Paul isn’t a real person.
 
If you stopped by the front page of our website you already know that. If you missed it, sorry for the surprise.  Take a moment now to jump over and meet the people behind Robin Paul.
 
Are we all on the same page now? Good. Please keep reading.
 
When we decided to collaborate we actually gave ourselves titles, but they seemed kind of dumb so we left them off our new business cards. Robin is our Chief Romance Officer. She earned that title by being an awesome wife and by watching Hallmark movies nonstop from October through January. She has dragged Paul to a gazillion chick flicks by promising him the large tub of popcorn. 
 
Paul loves popcorn. A lot. His title is Director of Words. His vocabulary is endless. Robin has to remind him sometimes to tone it down. Not everyone uses words like extemporaneous or commonsensical. Paul does. And he doesn’t mind tossing them in with his order of long ends and fries at Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque. Paul loves barbeque. 
 
Alison loves barbeque too. When she was being tested for kindergarten, they asked what her three favorite foods were. Her answer? Burnt ends, ribs, and brisket. Alison is Robin Paul’s Counselor of Cool, because she’s young and keeps up on trends that Paul and Robin miss. Plus, she lives in New Jersey which is right next to New York where everything is cool.