European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 13, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Romantic times issues reflecting a Romance novel Market that is a $750 million a year Enterprise. A Field of dreams dominated by women by David Langford the associated press fantasy is the stuff of romantic novels an the women putting their fantasies to the pen fit no particular Are homemakers who sit Down to their laptops on the Kitchen table after packing the kids off to school and let their dreams unfold. Many Are not. Some women write from their Fertile imaginations some from personal experience some from sheer de termination. A few Are even men like Tom Huff who writes under the pen name Jennifer Wilde. Judith Mcnaught whose last six novels have been on the new York times Best seller list has a degree in business administration and finance and was a comptroller for a Large trucking company when she decided to retire and Start writing. Even when i was married i was not a House wife says Mcnaught. I had a housekeeper a Gar Dener and a Secretary who handled everything for me social and she got a $10,000 Advance from harlequin for her first novel which is about double what most first time novelists can expect to get from the Toronto based publisher today. Mcnaught does t discuss what she commands now except to say any author on the new York times list would expect to get the same kind of and Vance As the others regardless of yes there were hunks in clinches on the covers of her Early novels but by 1986 she had enough clout to request a More elegant cover Flowers and such that had More dignity to that was incredibly innovative then she says. It had t been done before. I m really proud of what i do for the Romance genre. I write for women who Are tired overworked and burdened with responsibilities novels that have Happy Mcnaught turns out one novel a year and spends a lot of time travelling. I m blessed with friends that Are ready to go any where in the world at a drop of the hat she says. Mayo Loiseau Gray a California girl had been an actress since age 15 on to the stage and in the mov ies. She and her then husband Richard wrote and produced their own shows and toured them around the country to universities and town Halls until around 1970, when they decided to move to the is land of Grenada and build a hotel. Thus the inspiration for her 1978 novel the Sav age season the Story of Grenada and the coming marxist revolution and an illicit affair Between a Black doctor and a married White woman. While we were building the hotel she recalls we would go to the sugar Mill nightclub where we would drink Brandy and water and dance until 4 30 in the morning. I knew All the younger Black Guys who were pretty revolutionary in their thinking and i began to hear a lot about what they wanted to do. met this doctor. We played Tennis together ii since her Book is built on personal experiences she says it is not a typical Romance novel. She has Kathryn Falk publisher of romantic times. Another in the works about a British spy also drawn from her own life. Diana Stainforth born into an aristocratic British family who attended an upper class boarding school went to the continent at age 16 and spent years bouncing from Job to Job. She studied for a year in Spain gave South Africa a shot and eventually wound up As a disc jockey in Italy. I came Back to live in England when i was in my late 2ch and i realized that unless i Cou a think of something to do i was going to live a life like other continued on Page 6 fee a of 13, a i ii Page 5
