Romance writers

IN 1978, BILL GROSE, editor-in-chief at Dell, decided to make a star of a young author from San Francisco. Grose was a thumper of novelizations from popular film and television, a fan of media tie-ins, a man with his finger in the air to feel the direction of the wind.  Read more

I grew up devouring young adult romance, loving writers like Meg Cabot and Sarah Dessen, but lost touch with romance novels as teachers encouraged me to read things they deemed more appropriate and "more challenging." (A sentiment echoed by other adults in my life.) By my early 20s, I'd fully bought into the idea that only "literary" works merited attention - a gatekeeper phrase that's difficul  Read more

It started with a happily ever after.

In 1972, Avon Books published "The Flame and the Flower," by Kathleen Woodiwiss - a hefty historical romance that traded chastity for steamy sex scenes. It arrived in the thick of the sexual revolution, and readers loved it: It was an instant bestseller that's credited with birthing the modern romance genre.  Read more

In my latest romance novel, How to Catch a Queen, my heroine finally achieves her lifelong dream of becoming a queen following an arranged marriage-only to find herself in a country where the voices of women aren't respected, and queens are powerless.  Read more

If it hadn't been for the pandemic and the near impossibility of visiting Vivian Stephens in person, I'm not sure I would have been so attuned to her voice. It is gay and mellifluous; she always sounded delighted to hear from me, a reaction most reporters are not accustomed to.  Read more