The Fun Part

You know what's fun about this blog? No one reads it. So I can basically say anything I want and don't have to watch my language or be politically correct. This blog is the other side of me that no one sees when I'm Anne Gallagher.

A friend and I once had a discussion on why I wanted to be two people, why I wanted to promote my Regencies as Anne Gallagher and change my name on my women's fiction to Robynne Rand. I told her it had to do with marketing and promotion -- that readers of my sweet historicals would be appalled when I used the f-bomb in my contemporaries. And it's true. People look at me a certain way. They expect me to be nice and likable, and usually I am.

But there's also a grittier side to me that a lot of people don't know about. The Robynne Rand side. The side that's been homeless, and hope-less, and addicted, and rehabilitated. The side that's had more share of heart ache and heart break than any 40 women should ever bear. The side that's had to fight for equal rights in the workplace, fight off sexual harassment, fight against red tape and bureaucracy just to put food on the table. One that's been kicked so hard, so far down, that it's almost a miracle I've survived to be who I have become.

And this is the side I want to write about in my women's fiction. I want to show there are two sides to every coin. Sure, as Anne, I'm sweet and nice. But I'm really kind of flat. As a character, that is. But as Robynne, there are uncovered facets to me that have yet to be discovered.

And I'd like to do that through my writing. It might be a bumpy ride, but it's going to be fun. Because once it stops being fun, I just won't do it anymore.