Raw. Real. Romance … and Giving Back.
Oneonta’s Barbara Doyle is now a full-time writer. “As of January 1, I committed to writing full time,” she said. “It’s great; I can travel and write anywhere I want.”
Ms. Doyle has published 15 books under the name B. Celeste. “It feels great, this is the one thing since I was a kid that I said I wanted to do,” Ms. Doyle said. “I’ve always loved writing and reading. I’m not cut out to be a teacher or a nurse. I feel I am meant to do something more.”
Ms. Doyle’s style of writing is the romance genre. “I write contemporary romance in fiction. That’s my niche,” she said. “I’ve always gravitated toward that. But this is more real-life romance. I keep it real.”
Raw. Real. Romance. That is Ms. Doyle’s tagline. “My writing isn’t about insta-love, like you see in Disney movies. Nothing bad happens in those books,” she said. “That annoys me, that’s not real life. I just started writing about more real situations. I get my inspiration from life, I like to watch people and listen to music,” she said. “My current book I am working on deals with anxiety and relationship problems,“ she said. “There are things I am processing this year and this helps me build these problems into a character and work things out.”
Over an eight-week period, three female romance writers posted online if there would be any women interested in putting together a charity anthology.
“These women wanted to do something for women and all proceeds would go toward their reproductive rights,” Ms. Doyle said. “They got a tremendous response. Over 500 women from 34 different states signed up to donate their time and talent to the cause to Dissent.”
“It’s important for women to be able to get the services they need. For instance, one of our designees is Planned Parenthood. Abortion is usually the main topic, but people forget that they offer health care to women, cancer screenings and many more services that women may not be able to access easily,” she said.
The other designees that will benefit from the proceeds are National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice and Center for Reproductive Rights.
Dissent is a collection of never before seen stories from over 150 authors, all in the romance genre. The stories could be about anything the author wanted to submit.
“The subject didn’t have to be about Roe v Wade or anything associated with that; in general, this is a romance collection,” Ms. Doyle said.
“There are three paperback volumes because there are so many stories. It’s being sold on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Apple iBooks.”
This collection published on September 6.
“It just debuted on the New York Times bestsellers list at number 88 and it’s only been out a few days,” Ms. Doyle said.
The group also hosted an online auction from September 8 to 11. “We had an online auction with over 140 items up for bid, “she said. “We exceeded our goal. Those proceeds will also go to the organizations.”
“Being involved with this project makes me feel like I am making a difference,” she said. “It’s hard to feel that one voice alone can help. It’s nice to see that all of these women can come together and make a real difference.”
Find out more about this collection at Romancedissents.com.
Dissent: A Charity Romance Anthology
Benefiting Reproductive Rights
