Although I spend my days on books filled with scholar-ese, fiction is my first love, especially fantasy. I like books and stories that show the intersection of reality with fantasy (think Charles deLint or Neil Gaiman), and I cannot resist writing in a romance or two.
My first novel is one of those in perennial revisions, but I think I'm stopping now. It's unpublishable. Too much romance for the fantasy publishers and too much fantasy for the romance publishers. And about 20, 000 words too long.
My goal is to finish the novel that formed part of my master's thesis when I was a grad student at Emerson College (MA in publishing & writing). It's worthy, but somewhat intimidating.