Now I am going to leave you to decide on that.
Today the BBC's freeview text service and this evening, Robert Dex, in The Independent online have revealed that Tom Gamble is on the shortlist for the Romantic Novelist Association Novel of the Year Award for his book titled 'Amizir'.
He is joined on the shortlist by Sarah Duncan, Nottinghamshire author Elizabeth Chadwick, Jojo Moyes, Kate Furnivell and Rebecca Dean.
It's unusual to see a man in the shortlist admittedly, but still welcome.
For many years male writers submitted short stories to women's weekly magazines with a female pseudonym, but now they appear under their own name and are as equally successful as their female counterparts.
There is a Mills and Boon author- of medical style romances- who has written under a female pseudonym for years, but is known to be a man. He has obviously been convincing.
No one queries a female writer creating a male character in love. We're writers, we have to produce believable characters with emotions and reactions that we-and the reader-can recognise and have sympathy with whether they are male or female, young or old.
The reader wants a good story, they aren't going to refuse to read it because it was written by a man, or are they?
Having read the blurb on Amazon (other suppliers are available-as they say on tv) it sounds like it might be a good read- you can read an excerpt using Amazon's look inside option.
So I wish all the contenders luck and look forward to the announcement of the winner in early March.
So, what's your view on the issue?
Carol Bevitt's blog on her writing and inspirations, along with occasional literature related news...