Roni Loren Interview

I was thrilled to interview Roni about her writing career, from its inception to the present. Check it out below to learn more about her writing process and inspiration!

Why romance? What drew you to love stories as your creative medium? 

I wasn’t a romance reader growing up. I think mainly because I picked up the same kinds of books my mom was reading, and she was more of a horror and suspense reader. However, I was always drawn to romantic movies and TV shows. I grew up in the 90s, which many consider the heyday of great romcoms and also some very angsty teen shows with love stories at their center. I loved knowing that, no matter what the characters went through, a happy ending was guaranteed. So, when I first got the urge to write in my early teens, the story ideas that came to me were love stories.

What did your path to becoming a romance author look like, and what were some of the detours or turning points? 

The opening line of my author bio states, “Roni wrote her first romance novel at age fifteen when she discovered writing about boys was way easier than actually talking to them.” That’s the truth.  My first attempt at a novel was actually thinly veiled fan fiction about my favorite boy band (but fanfic wasn’t a well-known thing at the time—because I’m old and the internet wasn’t around then—so I didn’t know what to call it.) But that’s when I first decided I wanted to be a writer.

By the time I started college, I was trying to be more “practical”, so I double-majored in Psychology and English, but two majors ended up being too much. I dropped the English and went all in on Psychology (because I loved that too!) and eventually earned a Master’s degree in social work. During those years, I stopped writing fiction because life just became too busy. It wasn’t until I was a new mom and staying home with my son many years later that the writing bug came back. While my son was napping, I started writing again and got serious about pursuing publication.

I learned everything I could—reading books about craft, attending workshops and conferences, starting a blog for writers called Fiction Groupie, and finding friends in the writing community online. The book that landed me an agent and a book deal was my third try at a novel (not counting the high school attempt!) After that, I went on to publish more than 25 romance novels and novellas.

What made you want to become a writer?

I was always a reader, so I think it was a natural progression to want to tell stories in my own way.

How do your past experiences—whether personal, professional, or emotional—shape the kinds of characters you’re drawn to write? 

My path to writing was winding, but I’m glad I took a circuitous path. My psychology degree and experience in that field informed my writing in a way that I couldn’t have predicted. Themes of mental health pop up over and over again in my books. I try to write stories that show that everyone, no matter their challenges, deserves a happy ending. (I mean, unless they’re a serial killer or something. ) Also, I think writers are like magpies. We pick up little bits of inspiration everywhere. You have to live your life and keep your eyes/ears/heart open because you never know what will inspire a story.

How do you approach writing moments that make readers' hearts race? 

There are technical aspects to this, of course, but there’s a pretty easy test. If my heart isn’t racing while I’m writing it, then it won’t make the readers’ hearts race, so I try to pay attention to how I’m feeling. I’m an intuitive writer (I don’t outline), so a lot of times, I’m discovering the details of the scene as I’m writing it, so it’s exciting for me to watch it unfold as well. I love it when a scene or a character surprises me.

The romance community often talks about tropes - and you explore fake dating, enemies to lovers, opposites attract, and found family. What drew you to this trope, and how did you make it uniquely yours? 

Tropes are part of so many stories, not just romance, but I love that they provide a little comfortable structure but still leave infinite room for creativity. Some tropes I purposely set up. For instance, I know ahead of time if it’s going to be a grumpy/sunshine type of couple or a friends-to-lovers story, but other things show up naturally. I write found family over and over again, and it is almost always not on purpose. I’m just drawn to those kinds of stories. The key to making it uniquely yours is usually in characterization. If you really dig down and create nuanced characters (I put them on the imaginary therapy couch so I can find out all their secrets), then you could write a hundred enemies-to-lovers stories and none of them would be the same because no two people will fall in love the same way.

What kind of research do you do for your novels, if any? 

It depends on the story. I like doing research, so there’s usually some element of it. For my book Yes & I Love You, I read way too many books about improv acting and watched improv videos. That was fun. For my The Ones Who Got Away series, I read a lot about school violence. Not as fun but important for the stories I was writing. The process can work in reverse, too. I love reading non-fiction, so sometimes I find myself deep-diving into a topic just because I’m interested, and then it ends up inspiring something for a future book.