Real World vs Romance World

I basically live in two worlds, well three if you count cyber world. The two main worlds I live in are “real world” and “romance world”. I have not trouble distinguishing between these two worlds. It’s not like I’m worried, as George Costanza once did in a hilarious Seinfeld episode, that my two worlds will collide and I will cease to exist. Romance world is a complete fantasy world fueled by the wonderful imagination of some very talented authors. Real world is where I exist and spend most of my time. This is where things are, well, real. I visit romance world when I have time, when there’s nothing I want to watch on TV or when real world gets me down and I need that Calgon time. I completely understand that the people, the heroes, the heroines, the secondary characters, are not real. They are fictional people who do not exist except in romance world. But sometimes I can’t help but wonder if some other romance readers understand this. There is an authors’ site with a message board I lurk on sometimes. These visitors and posters seem to be a very warm and caring group of fans, one of the reasons I visit there. Every so often they do weird me out though. When they begin discussing characters from said authors’ books, it seems as if someof them are discussing real live people. This always causes me to scratch my head and break in with the post “you do know this isn’t a real person don’t you?” I love discussing books I’ve enjoyed and characters I liked/disliked too but I am always fully cognizant of the fact that I am discussing fiction, albeit fiction I love to read and discuss. Sometimes, if a book is very good, a character will stand out and grab me. But that character will never gain hold because they are a fantasy. And fantasy doesn’t begin to be real life.