Thursday Talk-Time with Wayne Jordan

This Thursday we spend some time with Wayne Jordan (yes, a male in The Pink Heart Society!) Wayne shares his insights into romance with us. Over to you, Wayne!


I have a confession to make. I hate the color pink. So why am I a member of a group called the Pink Heart Society? Call it a temporary lapse in judgment or the fact that I love romance fiction more that I hate the color pink.

I’ve been called “An Oddity”, but I prefer to call myself “A Rarity. I’m a rare breed of individual who not only reads romance, but writes in the genre. But that’s not what's rare. I’m a man - a 44 year old man who loves and adores category (series) romance.

So what makes an academic male with a B. A. in Literature and Linguistics and a M. A. in Applied Linguistics desert the “proper” literature that my academic colleagues tell me I should be reading? In my early journey into academia, I was told that I needed to turn my back on the “trash” I continued to devour.

As you can see, I’ve refused. After all these years, I’m still addicted to the world of romance fiction. Call me a romance “ho”, and I’ll smile say “Thank you” and go back to reading the latest Silhouette Romantic Suspense (aka Intimate Moments). Just ask my friends of the eharlequin.com boards.

I grew up on romance. I remember as a young teenager being transported to exotic islands and countries I could only dream of visiting. Series romance made this possible. Since I live in a British colony, Mills and Boons were the order of the day. In my fiction world, I was transported to Greece by Anne Mather, to Holland by Betty Neels, to Australia and to Italy by Violet Winspear. I learn about other countries, their cultures and their people. And I learn about love and relationships.

I read about strong Alpha male heroes and I wanted to be like them. In my erotic dreams, I’d say something a bit mean to my heroine, she’d slap me in the face and we’d end up in a passionate kiss, before leaping into bed for some heart-pounding, pulse-racing love making. She disappears and a few years later, I’d discover I was the father of Wayne Jr. Oh, how proud I was of those stories I weaved in that horny teenage brain of mine.

Today, I write contemporary and category romance for the Kimani Press, the African American division of Harlequin Enterprises. Those same stories I created provided the foundation for the stories I now write. It’s those beloved authors who inspired me to write, along with the black romance authors who struggled to be published in the mid-eighties and have made my way forward a easier one. Authors like Brenda Jackson, Kayla Perrin, Donna Hill, Rochelle Alers, Beverly Jenkins, Felicia Mason and all those great women whose footsteps I’m not worthy to walk in, but who continue to be gracious to young upstarts like myself.

As with all good things, change is necessary and the world of category continues to change with the time. I am a part of that change.

So, I’m off now, to dream of a feisty modern heroine who slaps me in my face, and who tells me as I pull her to me for that passionate kiss. “A kiss? You must be kidding. I’m not that desperate. Maybe in Chapter Five when you decided to act like a real man instead of a jerk!”

And they lived happily every after…


Wayne received 'the call' 2 days before Christmas in 2003, and lives on the beautiful island of Barbados.

He'd love you to visit his website and blog.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, Wayne.