So there's this guy who reads romance novels...

No, this is not the set up to a joke...although I'm sure if I thought about it long enough I could make one up...but that would take away from the fact that there's ACTUALLY A GUY WHO READS ROMANCE NOVELS! And I'm proud to say I now call him "friend." And sometimes "fucking nutjob." But mostly the former.

His name is Romance Man, or RM for short. But if you're like me and you're not real fond of calling people by initials (like with my friend Lea Ann who also went by LA, but it made me think of the city and it didn't roll off the tongue properly, so I decided to pronounce it Ella, which is how she got her pen name--yay me!) you can call him Remy. I'm now 2 for 2 on creating successful nicknames. Let me know if you're in need of a new identity. Apparently I rock at giving them out.

Anyhoo...

I found Remy when he did a review of my BFF, Ruthie Knox's debut novel RIDE WITH ME. He totally loved it, by the way, and loved the heroine so much that his wife now goes by the online personality of Lexie, which is the heroine's name in Ruthie's book.

At any rate, Remy is a total hero in the romance world (pun intended). He's not a literary buff in touch with his feminine side who can relate to the female psychosis. He's ex-Navy, swears like the sailor he is, and is just as naturally insensitive as the next guy.

What I mean to say is, HE'S A REGULAR DUDE!

So why would a regular dude read romance novels? Excellent freaking question. But I'd rather you get the story from him here because he tells it better than I ever could paraphrasing him. Since he began this strange journey of discovering that romance novels are indeed worth their weight in gold when it comes to understanding the opposite sex, he's blogged almost daily and accrued a group of women followers who eventually named themselves the BBL--Braless Bawdy Ladies.

Remy has accomplished with his blog something I've only seen with one other blog, ever. He averages over 100 comments per blog post! But whereas that other blog I'm referring to has thousands of followers with hundreds of regular commenters, Remy has a lot of lurkers but only about 15 regular commenters. But his topics spur conversations, like an open forum. So these women go back again and again to read the latest comments from the other BBLs and then put in another two cents themselves.

But these are not boring conversations, nor are they for the timid and meek. Besides the obvious cursing, words like pussy and cock are thrown around occasionally. Okay, maybe more than just occasionally. And a lot of these women are my mother's age who are discussing things like sex, blow jobs, and bedazzled vaginas. They're fearless in their candid openness with the rest of the online group. It's a place where they can remain anonymous or take on an identity like Lady Godiva, Vibrating Vixen, or New York Girl, and discuss things that are normally too taboo to ask even their closest friends without getting strange looks.

And the best part? Getting a guy's point of view in the mix! And what's even better than that? Getting the guy's wife's point of view on things! Lexie doesn't pop in often (we're trying to change that), but when she does, it's a real treat. One night she gave her husband the acronym nickname of NGL, which stood for Not Getting Laid because he was in the doghouse for something. We all thought it was hysterical. Him? Not so much. LOL


To give you an idea of his topics, here are some post titles:

• WHY CAN'T I STARE AT YOUR BREASTS
• THINGS MY WIFE HAS SAID TO ME DURING SEX
• HOW TO PLEASE YOUR WOMAN EVERY TIME AND GET LAID WHENEVER YOU WANT
• HOW NOT TO BE ROMANTIC
• BLOW JOBS AND THINGS THAT KEEP ME UP AT NIGHT
• WOMEN WHO READ ROMANCE NOVELS AREN'T STUPID, EXCEPT FOR ONE I MET YESTERDAY
• THE ROAD TO NO ORGASMS IS PAVED WITH FAKE ORGASMS
• AN OLD BOOK, A NEW FRIEND, A NEW BOOK AND A POSSIBLE MISTAKE (this one is about me and my book, Desires of the Soul)

And those are only a handful of the posts he has in his BLOG ARCHIVES. I highly recommend you go and check some of them out. And if you're really brave--and have literally hours with nothing better to do--you can read through the comments as well. Sometimes they're just as funny as the post itself.

For those who are interested in Remy's specific thoughts on the books he and his wife read (they now read together at night, which has brought them closer together both in and out of the bedroom), he has a REVIEW PAGE.

What Remy is doing is nothing short of amazing for those of us in the romance world, whether we're readers or writers. I, for one, am extremely thankful to have found him and gained his (and Lexie's) friendship. I predict it won't be long before he goes completely viral. His readership grows every week. Pretty soon me and the rest of the BBL will have to share him with the rest of the world. But for right now, we're enjoying the hell out of our little group. I guarantee if you read his stuff, you'll be wanting BBL membership in no time. So come on over and join the party. We'd love to have you. :)

Romance Man...

Able to read an entire book without turning the page (I have an e-reader). 

Can easily identify cheesy romance cliches, such as  "they hate each other so much that they end up ripping each other's clothes off."

Understands the phrase "throbbing love muscle."

Manly enough to admit he reads romance novels and has an anonymous blog to prove it.