I really hope everyone is enjoying Comfortably Numb. It was a challenging endeavor for me to step a bit out of my comfort zone and write a slightly different kind of novel.
I've been reading more traditional romance recently, although I struggle to find books in that genre which really speak to me. Not that this is surprising. These books are, to a large degree, targeted at women readers. Understandably so. But I am amazed at how few books I've found which feature the kind of male protagonist I favor: good men who are striving to better themselves in the face of adversity. Far more common in this genre are growling asshole alpha males who find their feet cluttered with formerly strong female characters who have lost their minds in the presence of said male.
Another trend which I find vexing is how the sensuality in these tales is treated. Most of the books I've read in this genre are told from a dual point of view, usually in first person. But when things get steamy, it is always from the woman's point of view. Again, not surprising considering the audience. But these books seem to imply that the apex female fantasy is a man who pleasures her completely, exhaustively, while she does, as near as makes no difference, nothing to reciprocate.
Comfortably Numb was my response to these conventions. An attempt, however ham-fisted, to demonstrate that a romance novel can exist in which both protagonists are lost souls in need of rescuing, both are more broken than they know, and both can only be saved by the other. Furthermore, an examination which is not one perfect character saving the other, or one claiming the other. But rather two people who find in the other a salvation which they have given up on thinking existed.
I very much hope you enjoy it. I am unsure if I will venture into this space again. It was a challenging exercise, but one that I ultimately found quite fulfilling.
Please let me know what you thought of it and if you'd like to see more of this type of novel from me in the future.