World Building

When i write a story i try to write "what i know". But when i've set a story in a city or country that i don't know much about, or have created from scratch!, then it requires some research and building.
For my Princess story i have created an island in the North Sea, close to England. I've researched the surrounding countries's history to get a sense of where they came from, how their culture and buildings etc were formed. I've searched about the sea, trade with these countries... It is endless.

With my Secrets and Lies story, i built a whole new fantasy world. I'd written and drawn maps, worked out seasons etc, researched herbs. But i've now decided to ground this story somewhere real, so have relied on history again. Doing research to find a good historical time to work in with my story. I've researched a place - the Hebrides. Now i have to do more extensive research of this place - seasons, climate, names, people etc.

My writer friend Nicole MacDonald created a world Gar'nyse for her BirthRight Trilogy. The things she's researched is incredible and she created names using a fantasy name generator. Her creatures are created from myths and her own ideas.

Kaily Hart has written a wonderful article about world building, Check it out Here!

How do you create your world for writing? And it doesn't have to be fantasy or historical as Kaily tells us.
Do you keep copious notes about your story? Your world?

Career

I have often heard Romance Writing as a career being scoffed at. Read about it. Other writers or other genres generally don't think much of romance authors touting us as substandard.

But we know differently right?!

What do you say to people when they ask you what you do, or want to do as a career?

Kaily Hart has an interesting post along this line on her blog.

Romance Writing is HARD. Important, it teaches about people and life. And is very very popular.

Various studies - i don't have the ability to attach a document to a blog but i have the figures that show romance writing is the top fiction genre read worldwide.

Why would we be scoffed at and smirked at then for saying we are aspiring if not authors or romance?

Why do you think this happens?