The First Kiss is very important in a romance novel—actually, all kisses are important to a Romance Author. They’re important in real life too, aren’t they?
A kiss has been called many things through the years. In years past, people called a kiss a buss, i.e., buss her on the cheek.
Whether you call it kiss, smack, buss, or kissy kissy—defined by Urban Dictionary as, “A cute way to say it would be nice to kiss you because I want to”—kisses are a lot more popular today than they were centuries ago.
Hard To Believe
Most of the world never heard of kissing until the beginning of European exploration of the rest of the world. Explorers tried to kiss the indigenous people of the countries they entered. According to many journals, native people either endured it or ran in terror.
As late as the 19th century, the Chinese thought kissing was perverted. Some even thought it expressed cannibalistic tendencies. According to one journal, when a nonkissing African tribe first saw two Europeans kissing intimately, they laughed hysterically.
Of course, there were some exceptions. The Kama Sutra had an entire chapter on The Kiss.
Subject of Songs
The Kiss figures prominently in popular songs: This Kiss, Kiss on My List, Shut Up and Kiss Me, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, Kiss an Angel Good Morning, Kiss and Say Goodbye, Shoop Shoop Song aka It’s In His Kiss, I Wanna Kiss You All Over, Sealed With a Kiss, and Kiss From a Rose just to name a few.
The Things We Kiss
Dice and lottery tickets for luck. The Blarney Stone for eloquence. The Pop’s ring as a sign of obedience and respect. The Pope kisses the ground when he arrives in a new country. People kiss their dogs and cats.
Parents kiss a child’s boo boo to make it better. We kiss those we love—best friends, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, parents, grandparents, husbands, wives, and lovers.
The First Kiss in Romance Novels
In my latest romance, Brianna’s Season for Miracles, written for the Love, Christmas 2: Movies You Love Holiday Collection, Brianna wants to kiss the hero, but she resists. She has a really good reason for her reluctance which you’ll learn when you read my story.
So sprinkle a little Christmas magic into your life with 26 brand new, never-before-released romances and order your copy today!
VISIT JOAN ONLINE & FOLLOW HER
Amazon Author Page * BookBub Author Page * Facebook Fan Page * Twitter * YouTube * Joan’s Website * Be the first to know about New Books & Giveaways, sign up for Joan’s Mailing List.
Join the Authors' Billboard Newsletter mailing list and get a newsletter filled with new releases and books on sale every Friday.
Start out your subscription with a free book!
Joan Reeves—Keeping Romance Alive…One Sexy Book at a Time—is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author of Contemporary Romance. From Romantic Comedy to Romantic Thriller, all of her books have the same premise: “It’s never too late to live happily ever after.” Joan lives her happily-ever-after with her hero, her husband, in the Lone Star State. They divide their time between a book-cluttered home in Houston and a quiet house in the Texas Hill Country where they sit on the porch, stare at the big night sky, and listen to the coyotes howl. Sign up for Joan’s Mailing List and be the first to know about new books and giveaways.
Lol, I had to laugh about the indigenous people running in terror 🙂
Great post, Joan!
Thanks, Jacquie. Interesting subject. I didn’t include the theories of how kissing came about. Everything from momma bird feedling her babies to Romans kissing a woman to see whether she’d been getting into the wine which was forbidden for women to drink.
Love this post, made me remember my first kiss! 🙂
Hope it was a good one! *g*
Love this post, Joan! I remembered my first REAL kiss and funny, but the guy and I are FB pals, both happily married and with grandkids! Best wishes with that awesome story! xoxo
Thanks, Sue. If I wasn’t still very good friends with my ex-husband, I’d probably find that funny. *g* Thanks for the good luck wish. The countdown clock is ticking away!