Debut of Men Who Read Romance: Enter Rock Star James Fox

YOU GUYS!!! I am so flipping excited to finally be able to debut this new ALBTALBS feature, after you know, talking about it for more than a year. I found our reading unicorn! 😉 Our first awesome guest is James Fox. He also writes. And more than that – what I care about – it being all about me 😉 is that he is the newest addition to the ALBTALBS review crew! (See?) So James Fox has been saving my bacon all week. He gets about 50 gold stars.

Without further ado… James.

Hi Everyone I’m James

I’m a Farmer living in Oregon. I have a wonderful Wife, and two great kids.
I have loved reading ever since I picked up my first copy of Calvin and Hobbes.
I would spend hours hidden in the crawlway beneath the stairs of our house reading by flashlight.

1. What’s the first romance that you ever read?
It Had To Be You By Susan Elizabeth Phillips

2. How did you get started reading romance?
When I was in middle school, my Grandpa would babysit me a lot. He was addicted to General Hospital, but wouldn’t let me watch it. Instead he told me to go grab a book off the shelf. There were only two kinds of books in my Grandparents house. It was either Louis L’Amour or Romance Novels. One day I was tired of reading about cowboys, so I picked up It Had To Be You. I remember that it had a lot to do with football, which I liked. It also had a great female lead character named Phoebe. In my head she always sounded like Madeline Kahn.

3. Who is your favorite author and what is your favorite romance novel?
Water For Elephants By Sara Gruen would be my favorite romance novel.
My favorite author is Joseph Heller who wrote Catch-22.

4. What would you like to see more of in romances? (What are your most and least favorite sub-genres?)
Miss Havisham from Great Expectations needs a reincarnation! What I’ve been reading has lacked that sort of punch.
I enjoy romantic suspense the most, but I hate it when the suspense swallows up the romantic storyline.
My current least favorite sub-genre is Vampires, with a permanent pass awarded to the Swedish novel Let The Right One In.
That book was a paranormal romance with young characters done perfectly.

5. What is something you hate (or dislike strongly) in romances?
I dislike it when a characters’ issues are magically solved by the end of the story.
Especially when a characters’ career makes a sudden U-turn. I think authors work too hard at a total happy ending.

6. Do you browse the romance section at bookstores? If you saw another guy there, would you offer recommendations, or ask for any?
This is a secret I’m not supposed to tell you. At the back of every book store there is a hidden room. Inside it’s wall to wall tough guys smoking cigars reading Nicholas Sparks aloud to each other. We haul out our new bodice rippers in hollowed out Harley Davidson coffee table books.
That way the ladies will never suspect us.

7. How involved are you in the romance community?
I follow a bunch of authors on twitter, and chime in on Goodreads.

8. Do your friends/family know you read romance novels?
It amuses my Wife who will point out to any visitor what I’m reading. She’ll point at a romance novel laying around, and then back away like its a hand grenade dipped in hot sauce.

9. What other genres do you enjoy reading, if any, and what are some of your hobbies aside from reading?
I enjoy thrillers, scary stories, and the occasional historical fiction.
Outside of that I enjoy hiking the trails here in Oregon with my kids. I try to run a marathon once a while, and I try to write novels.

Heh. He has a sense of humor, too. So! Let’s give Mr. Fox a warm welcome. And do you have any questions for him? I’m going to say – grill him! 😀 Anything is fair game!

11 thoughts on “Debut of Men Who Read Romance: Enter Rock Star James Fox

  1. Rowena

    This is awesome! I’m trying to get my friend at work to read a romance novel and he promised that he’ll try it out but it’s been months and nothing. I’m going to forward this to him.

    Reply
  2. TrishJ

    I have tried and tried to get hubby to read a romance book. He says he doesn’t like the angst and all the talky feely stuff. Sigh. Welcome. Glad to have you here Mr. Fox.

    Reply
  3. Colleen Isolde (@Irishdragon7)

    Welcome!!! That is awesome that you read romance novels in full view of your family and guests. I take it from your comment that your wife does not share your reading interests? When you are reading, do you find yourself identifying with the heroes in the stories or do you find them to be written too over the top? BTW, loved your answer about the hidden room. Hilarious! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  4. James Fox

    Hi Colleen

    My Wife is locked into police procedurals.
    She’ll show me three different pieces of evidence implicating me in chocolate theft. I finally gave up and left a bag of empty wrappers and a note that said ‘Husbands Suck’.

    I have read some stories where the hero was over the top, but that never pulls me out of the story. I just read it as what the Heroine is seeing.

    Reply
  5. Limecello Post author

    HAH Thanks so much for visiting with us and answering my questions, James. Even though you’re subtly mocking me, methinks. >.>
    Love your sense of humor. 😀

    And – your wife even refuses to read romantic suspense novels? I actually am not in love with police procedurals – too much ACJ in my background, so I don’t even like those on TV but had period where I ran through a bunch of British ones.

    Thank you again for coming on board! <3

    Reply
  6. James Fox

    No mockery intended.
    My Wife really wanted to study forensics at one point. She had to leave school after she got pregnant. I met Her after that and we got married. A few years ago I adopted our daughter, and have been happy ever since. I keep my eye out for a good romantic suspense to stick on her nightstand.

    Reply
  7. Mary Preston

    I don’t like to be disappointed by endings either. Everything too quickly resolved for the absolute HEA.

    Great to meet you here today James!!

    Reply
  8. Pingback: James Fox Book Launch! | A Little Bit Tart, A Little Bit Sweet

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