Why do we write romance?

Today I found my beloved hamster Ruby dead from old age. She went peacefully in her sleep it seems, which is good, but I'll miss her, small and furry though she was. Small in stature, big on friendship, she was my writing buddy and would keep me company in the conservatory every night while I wrote and she helped by crawling over the keyboard, over me. I hope she'll be waiting at the Rainbow Bridge with all the other pets who've passed over. I'm not an overly sentimental person, but when I lose a pet I always go read the rainbow bridge story, have a good bawl and it's kind of comforting.

So, how does this get us to why we write romance? Well, for me it's the happy ever after. We may drag our characters through all kinds of trauma and angst, but one thing romance proper guarantees is the reward of a happy ending. In romance the story (usually) ends on a high or a rising note. Whatever's in the future, we stop the story at a happy point and leave the reader all fuzzy inside. The last memory of our characters is one of them together, looking to a future. Okay, in a couple of my stories that happy ever after was in the next world, but the important thing is that the characters get one. Life happens with all its ups and downs, but in our stories the characters survive the bumps, not always without cost, and get their kiss under the moon, or walk into their sunset hand in hand. As an author I used to love writing angst, but as I've got older I more and more appreciate the escapism of getting a couple through all that to a place of hope. It doesn't have to end with laughter all the time, as long as it ends with hope.

In my head, Ruby the hamster's story ends with her enjoying a happy middle age, cheek-pouches full of her favourite food, rattling at her cage bars to be let out. Sitting on my shoulder while I type away. I'm a romance author, so that's how I'll remember her. And that's why I like the story of the Rainbow Bridge. It's a story of hope.