by Sandra Antonelli and Juliet Madison

While proponents of the genre often talk about the breadth and depth of the stories within, one thing remains true: the heroine is young. Now, young is a relative term (I remember when 30 was old), but there definitely seems to be an age line of 38 that no heroine can cross and still expect a happy-ever-after.

But Sandra Antonelli and Juliet Madison pushed the boundaries. Both have written (and published with Escape) stories with heroines that cross the age divide. Granted, Juliet’s Kelly starts and ends at 25, but the bulk of her story happens on her 50th birthday. Sandra’s heroine, Lesley, is forty-something, and A Basic Renovation also features a secondary romance of her 92-year-old grandfather.

I asked these two authors about breaking the age barrier. They asked each other:

Older Heroines in Romantic Fiction – joint interview
By Sandra Antonelli and…