Writing

Tex-Lit: Because Size Does Matter!

Hopefully you've noticed that up in the top right hand corner of this website. If not, well, you're seeing it now.

So what, you ask, does that mean?

Let me break it down for you.

Tex-Lit is a term a good friend and I came up with, a bit of a play on the term "chick lit." Considering I write what I like to call romantic comedy with a chick lit voice (or women's fiction with a humorous tone), and that my stories are based primarily in Texas (or at least feature heroines originally from Texas), Tex-Lit just fit.

Because size does matter. If you don't get the obvious double entendre, your head isn't far enough in the gutter. ;-) Beyond that, though, I'm also playing on the idea that everything's bigger in Texas (not always true, to which I can attest), along with the fact that my heroines are also larger women. Call them plus-size, full-figured, curvy, voluptuous, big, large, thick or whatever positive word you want, but to me and my heroines (and their heroes) size does matter.

It might matter in a negative way--for example the heroine of my WPF thesis novel has self esteem issues regarding her size--or it might matter in a positive way. Most importantly, though, it matters to me. Until the past few years there were few to no plus-sized heroines in romance, and if there was a curvier woman she usually played the part of the funny sidekick. She was never the leading lady, though. She never got her own story or her own hero, and that's a gross misrepresentation of society. The average woman in America is a size 14. Not a size 4, not even a size 8, but a size 14. That's technically plus-sized (hell, Lane Bryant even sells some items in a size 12). It's about more than clothing size, though, it's also about the fact that plus-sized women are sexy, smart, funny and doing great things every day. We deserve happy endings, too.

That being said, don't let the fact that I write about plus-sized women turn you away. For pretty much every woman--no matter what size she is--the struggle with weight/size/beauty is the common thread we all share. I have friends (and family members!) who run the gamut from a size 0 well into the upper 20s, and the one thing every single one of us bitches about at one point or another is our weight, how we look, and how we wish we could wear that cute outfit we saw on the mannequin in the mall. Beyond that, though, there are things we all have to face in one way or another--the crappy job, the awful (or perfect, even) boyfriend, a ticking biological clock, pressure from family and society to get married and raise a family, starting a career, making a career change, moving, graduating, death, love, taxes and sex (not to mention those pesky OBGYN visits).

So kick back, relax, read an excerpt if you want and just keep an open mind because Big Girls Need Love Too.

Interested in reading more about why I write full-figured women's fiction and romance? Read my thesis essay on Body Image In Chick Lit.