I had a vivid dream involving my first "True Love" the other night. When I woke up I actually couldn't remember too much about the dream, but the first thing on my mind was him and I had a happy feeling in my heart. Mind you, the boy in question was a real mess, hardly hero material, and the relationship ended badly after about six weeks, but it had a profound effect on me. I've never completely forgotten him, though I haven't spoken to him in more than half my lifetime.
   I wonder if these lost loves are one of the sources of our romance fiction. Are we rewriting our pasts to make everything come out happily ever after? Is this why reunion stories are so popular?
   When I'm working on edits and I don't feel like my hero and heroine are connecting, I'm going to try to remember those intense relationships of my teens, and see if I can inject some of that youthful ardor. Maybe I can capture that time when I didn't have as complicated a life as I do now, and romance really could take center stage in my psyche.
   I'll never forget those boys, though I'm not sure it was because any of them were so great - after all, we broke up for good reasons. But something about those relationships formed my feelings about love and happily ever afters, and that's what I want to salvage for my fiction.