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Romance Author Roundtable
9.
AOTW: What do you love about your fans? Tell us about a memorable encounter with one of your readers while on tour, or via your website or email.
Brenda Novak: I don't think any other genre has more enthusiastic fans than we do. I read somewhere that romance readers devour more books per month than those of any other genre, and after attending some of the romance conferences I've attended and meeting many of them firsthand, I believe it's true. My most memorable encounter with a fan was a letter I received via my P.O. Box. A woman wrote to thank me for using my talents and said that my book Baby Business, which deals with a child suffering from cancer, really helped her get through her own daughter's chemotherapy. I was touched that she was able to feel and take solace from some of the "heart" I put into that book.
Barbara Samuel: I love absolutely everything about readers and have had some terrific experiences with them over the years --- including a reader who drove over a hundred miles with my entire backlist in a bag to be signed. She brought cookies and all those books and I felt as loved as a sister. Another is a woman in England who is --- bless her --- quite vocal in supporting my books and has offered to put me up in her 16th century holiday let the next time I visit her country. She's terrific.
But my favorite reader story of all time is the email I had from an African American woman about In the Midnight Rain, which has quite a number of African American characters. She said she was reading the book and had to keep flipping back to the author photo in the back to be sure I wasn't black. A very high compliment indeed, and humbling. I admit I had grateful tears in my eyes. You work so hard to get things right and are not always sure you have. To get some feedback like that meant a lot to me.
Leslie Carroll: I get all excited when I learn that a total stranger bought, read, and enjoyed one of my books. I was in a London theatre last November, sitting in the balcony, watching Sean Bean play Macbeth. At the interval, I got into a discussion with the women seated on either side of me. I mentioned that I was an author who had left an autographed copy of my first novel, Miss Match, at the stage door as a gift for the star, because the book's hero, Walker ("Bear") Hart, looks like Sean. At which point, the woman on my right, a Virginia Beach native who was studying for her doctorate in Medieval Literature at Canterbury, said to me "I've read your book!" I was stunned. There I was sitting in England, 3000 miles or so from my hometown of New York, next to a southern American woman who had read my novel. I mean, it's not like I'm Nora Roberts or Catherine Coulter, who have written so many books and have such a vast following, and where such a revelation might be expected. And right before I arrived at the theatre, I visited a couple of West End bookstores where I learned that Miss Match had been selling well from the time it debuted in March 2002. It totally made my day. P.S.: I never heard from Sean.
Gaelen Foley: One of my most rewarding experiences as a writer came out after the release of Lord of Ice. In this book, Damien Knight is a war-hero who's having trouble readjusting to life as an English gentleman after five years on the front lines of the Peninsular War. In other words, he's suffering terribly from post-traumatic stress syndrome, but of course they didn't know what that was back then.
Well, a reader wrote to me who was in the middle of divorcing a Gulf War vet who had been suffering from PTS since the Gulf and had never submitted to treatment. Unfortunately, 9/11 brought it all back for him, and their already tenuous relationship fell apart at that point. Now, I won't pretend to understand how fiction helps the human soul. I only know that it does. My reader said that she was so glad she had read Lord of Ice. Because it was a romance, she knew that everything would be all right in the end, and somehow that helped her keep going, even though her own situation might not have the "happy ending" with this particular man.
By the way, I am very glad to say that the vet got himself into treatment and is doing better.
Candace Camp: I love how much they read! And how willing they are to let me know that they enjoy my stories. A writer is basically sitting there everyday all by herself struggling to get the right words and thoughts on paper, and it means so much to hear that one's work is appreciated. The reader who touched my heart the most was a woman who wrote me to say that she first bought one of my books while she was sitting at the pharmacy waiting for her son's prescriptions to be filled; her sixteen-year-old son had leukemia. She had never read romances before. She idly picked up one of my books from the stand and started reading it and got so interested that she bought it. Then she went to a book store and bought more. She read them through the weeks while she was sitting in the hospital with her son, and they helped her get through that terrible time. I cried when I read her letter; I was so touched, so happy, and so sad for her all at the same time. (I am happy to say that I got another letter from her a year later, and she wrote to say that her son's leukemia had gone into remission.)
Julia Quinn: The diversity. I'm always stunned by the sheer variety of women who read my books. Young and old, white-and blue-collar, urban and rural --- I hear from everybody. It's difficult to pinpoint a single memorable encounter, but I will say I am always touched when a reader takes the time to write to me to tell me that one of my books was an escape that helped to get her through a rough time.
Dorothy Garlock: I don't like the word "fan," it reminds me of an arena full of shouting football fans --- just one of my little quirks.
The husband of one of my readers in South Dakota called and ask if he brought his wife to Clear Lake, a distance of about 350 miles, would I, as a surprise for on their 25th wedding anniversary, go to dinner with them. At that time she had lost 32 of my books in a house fire. He had manage to replace them all and wanted to bring them for me to autograph. They came, brought me a lovely gift and we went to dinner. They were lovely people and we had a lovely time. They still keep in touch.
Christina Skye: I love the urban police officer (male) who reads my books to affirm that there is really some shred of hope left in the world. I love the family of four generations of women who pass my books from one to the next, then argue over them relentlessly and lovingly. I love the readers who use my stories to get them through hard times, pain or hopeless situations. I love all the readers who write to ask for directions to visit Draycott Abbey, the hauntingly beautiful location of one of my long-running series. They are always surprised to learn that they won't find the roses and the moat and the gray granite walls on any map. Not any physical map, at least. These people light up my day.
Teresa Medeiros: I love my readers' enthusiasm. It's as if I've told a joke and they really get it. One of my favorite fan letters came after Breath of Magic was published when a young girl wrote to ask, "Are you a witch? And if so, are you high priestess of your own coven?" A fan from Germany recently sent my new kitty a toy, which turned out to be her favorite. I just received a touching e-mail from a high school girl who considers herself "overweight" and found Gwendolyn in The Bride and the Beast to be a tremendous role model and inspiration.
Judith McNaught: Rather than trying to pick the most memorable encounter, I'll relate my first memorable encounter. At a book signing in 1989, a thin, well-dressed woman in her mid-60's approached me, carrying a copy of A Kingdom of Dreams which she'd obviously already read. As I started to autograph it, she asked me if I found it easy to write a book. I told her I found it very, very difficult. She asked me if I ever wondered if all my hard work really mattered very much to readers. I told her I thought my own expectations, and my readers' expectations, were becoming incredibly, impossibly high. I told her there were many times when I wished I could just let a page or a scene be "good enough" instead of trying so hard to make every one the best possible.
She replied by telling me that her husband had died suddenly the year before, not long after she'd discovered and read all my prior books. Her husband's death was followed a few months later by the death of her only son in a car accident, and that was followed a few weeks later by the discovery that she needed some sort of delicate surgery to correct an otherwise fatal condition. She said her doctor told her that her state of mind and her will to live were going to have more effect than anything else on whether she actually survived the surgery and made a full recovery. She said she couldn't think of any reason to want to recover and go on living, but she agreed to have the surgery because her adult daughter insisted she must.
The morning before her surgery was scheduled, she went to the mall with her daughter to buy a bed jacket, because her daughter hoped a pretty one would cheer her up. She said she didn't think anything could cheer her up or make her want to live another day --- until she passed the Waldenbooks store and saw that my new book had just come out. She bought AKOD, but instead of reading it when she got home, she made herself wait until late the next afternoon, after she'd checked into the hospital. She said she deliberately allowed herself only enough time to read the first three chapters before they gave her a sleeping pill. She did all that, she told me, "because I knew that in three chapters you'd have me so wrapped up in the story that I wouldn't be able to stand the thought of dying and not being able to finish it. I was right. You didn't let me down. After three chapters, I couldn't wait to get the surgery over with and get back to my room so I could wake up and go on reading." She told me that the next evening, her daughter's worried family was shocked when they found her sitting up in bed, laughing and reading, and they were a little annoyed when she brushed off all their loyal concerns and sent them home so she could go on reading.
At first, I was very touched by that story, but within minutes I was also really alarmed. What a responsibility! What if I'd screwed up? What if those first three chapters had only been "good enough?" instead of my very best possible work? I've come to realize that I put so much pressure on myself that it's amazing I can write at all. And yet, that's the way I am.
Carly Phillips: I love how open my fans are. I love hearing from them. My most memorable was an email from a woman who told me she was having spinal surgery and loved my books. I sent her an upcoming release and told her to get well soon. She was so happy. I love the ones from older women with sons who can relate to Raina's matchmaking in The Bachelor, The Playboy and upcoming, The Heartbreaker. And I love how my fans have the faith that I'll answer them back ... and I do even if it takes awhile. If they take the time to write me, they deserve for me to take the time to write them back.
Jo Beverley: I love the fact that my fans love my books! After all they --- the books --- are a bit like precious children; we want everyone to see how wonderful they are. Beyond that I can't generalize because I have such a range, including some men.
Some delight me with insightful questions and by sending me additional research to enhance my knowledge. I have some academics who like my books. Others give me great pleasure by talking about my characters as if they are real. They express personal emotion about what happened, and speculate about their lives in the future. Then there are the many who touch me simply by telling me of the joy and pleasure I have given them, for that in the end is why I write the books. I have received such pleasure myself from fiction that I have always wanted to return that gift. I don't want to upset, unsettle or challenge my readers --- that is for other forms of fiction. I want to take them on an adventurous and delightful ride and return them safely home.
One of the most touching events recently was when soon after 9/11 a reader e-mailed me to ask if she could use some words from one of my books on a quilt she was making. She had been working on something different for a show, but after the terrible events she felt she had to do something that related to that. She remembered my character, Nicholar Delaney's words upon the news of the terrible losses at the Battle of Waterloo.
"To all the fallen, may they be young forever in heaven.
To all the wounded, may they have strength and heal.
To all the bereaved, may they find joy again.
And please God...may there one day be an end to war."
Of course, I was deeply honored. The quilt can be seen here. http://www.geocities.com/spenycjo/goldendoor.html
Kerrelyn Sparks: I love their enthusiasm! It's catching, and inspires me to keep going on the tough days. I'm always flattered when readers seek me out through my website (www.kerrelynsparks.com) or at a book signing. At the RWAź conference each year, there's a giant book signing event with over 400 participating romance authors. The proceeds go to fund literacy programs. This is always a big honor for me, and it's such a thrill when a reader seeks me out amidst that many authors.
Rachel Gibson: What I love most about my fans is that they "get it." They know that my books will not bring about world peace or cure cancer. I'm not out to teach a moral lesson. Readers don't have to wade through allegorical references to figure out the meaning of a swamp or rain or a white whale. My books are pure entertainment. That's all.
My most memorable and satisfying encounters with readers are those who write to tell me that my books helped them get through bad patches in their lives. That for a few hours while they sat in the hospital with a sick parent or child, they read one of my books and were able to laugh a little.
Shirlee Busbee: Because we live in a remote part of the U.S., I do a lot of catalog buying over the phone. One day I was calling in an order, I don't remember which company or what the object was, but after I'd given my name to the young woman taking the order, there was this little silence. Then she asked, "Uh, any relation to the writer, Shirlee Busbee?" I was startled but admitted, that yes, I was the writer. When she found that out, you'd have thought she had just won the lottery. The shrieks and omigods! She'd read all my books and loved my writing. She was so thrilled, so excited and so overcome that it was actually Shirlee Busbee, the writer, on the phone that for a few minutes, I felt like Julia Roberts. Great feeling.
Mary Lynn Baxter: Their enthusiasm, loyalty and the time they take to write or e-mail me with their comments.
On a tour in Birmingham, I met a lady who was a bookseller and fan. Now, years later she's still a fan as well as one of my dearest friends. She also proofs my book before it goes to New York.
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