39 - Wednesday, February 15, 1989 ~ North Shore News

NEWS photo Hell Lucente

ROMANTIC-AT-HEART Nerth Vancouver romance writer Grace Green
(foreground) displays a copy of her first novel published, Black Lace.
Friend and fellow romance writer Anne Dore (background) is hoping to
joia Green on book store shelves with favorable responses from
publishers on ber manuscripts.

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Writers ‘sweat biocod’
to create romance novels

THEIR FINGERS | stroke
word processor keys firmly.
inflamed imagery and sup-
ple plot twists issue forth,
engorged with fecund spirit,
spilling out from forbidden,
secret places.

By MICHAEL BECKER
News Reporter

Romance writers are often
dismissed by literary elitists as
lesser authors toiling in the name
of base passions. But securing suc-
cess within the enduring genre of

the romance novel is serious
business for two local fiction
writers.

North Vancouver’s Grace

Green, a former teacher with an
M.A. from Aberdeen University in
Scotland, is a published romance
writer and believes the snobs are
unfair.

“ICs a real struggle to produce
these books. We sweat blood.
Most who put down romance
novels haven’t read them and they
certainly haven’t tried to write a
book,’’ she said.

Her first effort, Black Lace, was

published by New York. based Del}
Publishing Co. in 1987. A second
novel, Tender Betrayal, has been
sold to romance publishers Mills
and Boon in England and will be
released in Britain in October.

Black Lace was Greei’s filth at-
tempt at a book deal after having
written two complete and two par-
tial manuscripts.

‘Shad sent the others out. | got
rejection letters, but my rejection
letters were improving,’ she said.

Encouraged, the mother of four
and grandmother of two took the
Black Lace manuscript :2 Mary
Novik, a local agent for romance
writers. Novik liked what she read,
but suggested that Green make her
heroine more contemporary.

“Twas basing them on the old
Harlequins. The older heroine is
usually a secretary, nurse or teach-
er. The heroines we write about
now are stronger in terms of a job
and they’re not so wimpy,’’ Green
said.

The heroes brought alive in the
pages of the romance novels she
read in earlier days were strong
and intimidating. Said Green:
“The British heroes are still ar-
sogant. The American heroes are
more like real men, more like men

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real women wouldn't mind marry-
ing. But they’re not wimps.”’

Green estimates only one of
every 1,000 unsolicited romance
novel manuscripts received by
publishing companies and delegat-
ed to ‘the slush pile’? ever make it
to the book stage.

Green's friend and fellow North
Vancouver romance writer Anne
Dore, also represented by Novik, is
out to beat the staggering odds
against being one of the few even-
tually published.

The 38-year-old mother of
nine-year-old twins has been writ-
ing for four years. ‘‘l hadn’t been
a romance reader, so | had to start
from scratch. I was rather snob-
bish about romarce, but once |
began to study it, [ began to
respect it. It’s escape anc it fulfills
a need in society. It’s light and
easy to read,”’ she said.

Dore writes four to six hours on
week days and also dedicates one
weekend day to writing. Several of
her manuscripts are currently being
considered by publishers.

Said Green: ‘‘You need 2 little
bit of talent and a lot of seif-
discipline. Perseverance is a very,
very big part of it.”

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