Summer Lovin’

A few years ago, I was given an assignment to cover a romance novel writing convention in Thornton.

The whole scenario had a “stranger in a strange land” quality to it: me in the waning half of my feminist rage phase and them with their mom jeans and ironic lack of ardor waiting for a knight in shining minivan to sweep them out of their Birkenstocks and socks.

The Radisson was overflowing with 30- to 50-something women—all of them aspiring romance writers. They attended lectures with titles like “Talking Dirty: Sexifying Your Descriptions” and “Role Playing: Developing Your Lead Characters.” They took notes, asked serious questions about salacious things and didn’t even laugh when brainstorming synonyms for various body parts. They took turns meeting with publishers and agents in hopes of becoming the future darlings of the romantic genre.

They came, they saw, they dreamt the Harlequin dream.

It was less depressing than I’d expected, and it surely wasn’t the despondent housewives of Adams County I had prepared myself to encounter.

Still, at its soul, the convention was likely a congregation of women who lacked the passion in their lives that they invented in their imaginations. No duke had ever sauntered up to them and slowly undressed them using nothing but an unsheathed sword. No professional hockey player had ever romanced them—shyly and tenderly, yet with masculine fervor. In reality, their lives were filled with kids and laundry, the good old 9 to 5, and once-a-year flowers for their anniversary.

Still, these dreamers were not letting life overtake their happily ever after. On my more sardonic days I tend to mock romance, but you gotta respect that sort of chutzpah.
True, romance is often the fantasy we wish was real. But what if, instead of wishing for the unattainable, we looked for romance in the everyday or we worked to actually create it in our lives?

Summer is the perfect time for romance, for flings and for lust (this is not just a personal request but more of a call to action). It has a lot to do with people wearing less clothing, but more so, it’s the joie de vivre that summer inspires. In Colorado, as we all know, summertime is pretty fantastic…filled with celebration, from luscious farmers’ markets ripe with a bounty of produce and brilliant bouquets of blossoms to a music festival that climaxes with exuberant ovation from tens of thousands of starstruck fans. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

It’s the time to rediscover romance—whether it’s the sweaty passion found in the pages of a novel or the zeal of enjoying everyday pleasures: juicy peaches, flip-flops and the hurts-so-good feeling of sun-kissed skin.

You’ll find in Yellow Scene’s Summer Scene our own little romance novel dedicated to the fairer season in Colorado. Written like a guilty beach read, we offer you 99 reasons we lust for the hot days and cool nights of summer and hope that it finds you in the midst of a rousing affair with life.