In a couple of days, I'm going to be attending a conference. Not a writing conference, but an academic conference, hosted by the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance.
I'm not an academic, and never completed my Ph.D., but I still retain interest in scholarly work, and have managed to keep fairly up-to-date on current scholarship on topics such as fandom and genre fiction.
I do this reading out of general interest, but it's also applicable to my writing. Hearing about aspects of fiction from a scholarly--mostly readerly--point of view gives me ideas for new approaches to my own fiction, and helps me to think about what makes fiction valuable over the long term. Since I frequently blog on aspects of the romance genre, academic reading can give me a framework for commentary or critique.
I'm hoping that, in attending this conference, I will meet more of my colleagues in the love of romance fiction, and be enriched by the interaction.
Posted by Victoria Janssen
Filed as: Conferences, Romance
