Eliza Knight, left, is a history buff who has written nine romance novels. Robin Kaye, right, writes “family-based” stories.
Written By Jeffrey Roth, Photos by: Walter Calahan
Valentine’s Day is all about romance, and Carroll County has no shortage of writers about love and its attendant emotions.
All of them: Robin Kaye, Kathy Love, Eliza Knight, (from the Mt. Airy area); Stacey Coverstone, from Westminster, and Reggie Greenberg, an aspiring novelist from the Eldersburg area; say they believe in the reality of romantic love.
“Ghosts don’t have sex, do they?” Annabelle Ronaldi wasn’t 100 percent sure of the answer. Floating between sleep and wakefulness after a night of way too much champagne, she figured she’d either had mind-blowing sex with the ghost of her dead boyfriend, Chip, or his double. She crossed her fingers for the latter.” From Robin Kaye’s novel, Too Hot Too Handle (Sourcebooks, Casablanca, 2009). Reprinted with the author’s permission.
Robin Kaye is the author of a series of humorous contemporary books that feature “domestic gods;” Kathy Love has written a number of comedic contemporary and supernatural romance novels about vampires, werewolves and demons; Eliza Knight is the author of historical and historical romance fiction featuring swashbuckling heroes; Stacy Coverstone has written cowboy historical romance, as well as contemporary cowboy romance novels, and Reggie Greenberg has written – and is attempting to find a publisher – for a romantic-thriller-suspense novel.
“I’ve written all of my life, but never thought about writing as work,” said Kaye, who described her spouse as a domestic god. “After I moved here in 2000, out of boredom, I began writing fan fiction.” [Fan fiction is derivative prose written by fans of an original work]
A member of a Jane Austen fan fiction board, Kaye became friends with an Oxford professor and an Austen expert, who suggested that she attempt to get her work published. That advice led to her first novel, Romeo, Romeo, in 2008.
Kaye, originally from Brooklyn, starts creating a work of fiction with a scene peopled with characters. When she first began writing, she was “a seats of the pants” writer, but now, pressured by publishing deadlines, she spends more time outlining her “family-based” stories, which feature protagonists from dysfunctional family backgrounds.
The heroes of Kaye’s books are not the typical alpha males found in most romance novels. Instead, her heroes are raised by single mothers and think of a vacuum cleaner as a “power tool.” Heroines of her novels often come from a history of damaged relationships with men.
“Romance needs to help readers escape from their everyday lives and give them something to laugh at,” Kaye said. “The experience can be a thrilling roller coaster ride. And they always have a happy ending.”
“Tessa raced through the busy Paris streets, dodging pedestrians and horses. As thick skirts tangled in her legs, she grappled with her gown and petticoats, lifting them away from her ankles. The cool evening air whipped up her skirts, anyone watching could catch a glimpse of her stocking clad legs. But she didn’t care a fig about propriety right now.” From Eliza Knight’s novel, Her Captain Dares All (Wild Rose Press, 2009) Reprinted with the author’s and publisher’s permission.
Knight said she has always written. In her earliest work, she continued the Holocaust stories of the Julia Jarmond books and the Diary of Anne Frank. In high school, she began to create her own stories.
“I loved history,” said Knight, (Eliza Knight is her nom de plume, but she also writes under her maiden name, Michelle Brandon) “When I started writing, my grandparents lived in France, and we’d go there during the summers. We’d go sightseeing and visit all the castles and learn about the kings and queens.”
In 2006, she joined the Romance Writers of America. Within two years, she had published her first book. Since then she has written eight books: historical, erotic time-travel and historical romances.
Historical romance has evolved from the “bodice-rippers” that featured forcible rape and ended in happy marriages, to stories featuring consensual premarital sex that also ends with happy marriages. The heroine in historical romances are no longer required to be virginal and passive; instead, they are independent, courageous, sexual beings, she said.
“In the past, women did not shave their legs and people bathed rarely, but that is not romantic, so you throw that out,” Knight said. “You use the romantic setting, the atmosphere and the history and throw out the unromantic elements.”
“Are you sure you feel up to this?” Jo finished draining the fettuccine and glanced over at her friends. Maggie leaned against the kitchen counter, waiting for an answer to her question. Erika sat a the small bistro-style table, concern drawing her finely arched brows together. Clearly she was waiting, too.” From Kathy Love’s novel, Demon Can’t Help It. Reprinted with the author’s permission.
By a quirk of fate, Kathy Love does not need a pseudonym – it is her legal name, through marriage. Working on her 16th book, Love’s first novel was published in 2002. At first, she wrote small-town contemporary books.
“Then I sold my first vampire book and that pulled me out of contemporaries,” said Love, who is originally from Rumford, Me. “I have been in the paranormal genre ever since.”
A title of one of her paranormal books, Fangs for the Memories, speaks to the tone of her novels – they contain hearty bits of fang-in-cheek humor, she said. Although she is currently writing about demons, she first wrote about alien abduction.
“I probably have a different take on love, right now,” said Love. “I’m divorced and out in the dating scene. It is hell out there É it’s awful, so I am a little dubious right now. I think I should stick to my world right now.”
Whether idealized or not, Love said her characters seek true romance. The characters want monogamous relationships. A recurrent theme in her books is the heroine from a small town attempting to escape the conventional expectations of those around her.
“When Brannigan tipped his cowboy hat back, Jordan caught the full effect of his sparkling green eyes. Grinning, his gaze roamed over her curves – starting at her legs,lingering on her chest, and finally moving back to her face. He was checking her out, and not hiding the fact!” From Stacey Coverstone’s novel, Lucky in Love (Campagne Books, 2010) Reprinted with the author’s permission.
Coverstone, who works in the art department at McDaniel College, is originally from a small Illinois town, but she has lived in Guam, Kentucky, and Virginia. a She moved to Maryland 16 years ago. After completing her master’s degree at McDaniel, Coverstone’s husband gave her a gift, a trip to a cowgirl camp, in New Mexico.
“We spent the week doing things cowboys and cowgirls do,” said Coverstone, who also writes paranormals. “We learned how to rope and ride and went on a cattle drive and competed in barrel races. That really inspired me to write my first novel.”
After her children were grown, she finally had time to write.
“I have been an avid reader all my life, but I never read romances,” Coverstone said. “I actually fell into romance because of the style in which I was writing.”
Her first novel was published in 2006.
Coverstone said she enjoys a story with relationships: not gushy or mushy, but realistic adult romances. Although a romance is the major focus of her plots, she enjoys adding action, adventure, mystery and comedy. The publisher of some of her novels keeps requesting more Western romances because “women love those cowboys.”
Currently, the author of seven books, Coverstone is working on three more Western romances that are due to come out soon. Happily married for 30 years, she says she knows the difference between the literary romantic ideal and reality.
“I am a romantic at heart,”Coverstone said. “My heroines are independent, feisty, self-assured women. They do not need men, they allow them into their lives.”
“His voice resonated deep, mellow, playful… He enfolded both his hands around my one. A black coral and silver ring on his right hand flashed in the afternoon sun. I brushed a loose curl from my face. My legs felt like jello…I held out the keys. He leaned in, lingering as he slid the fob from my fingers. My heart fluttered like humming bird wings.” From Reggie Greenberg’s upcoming novel, Sticks and Stones. Reprinted with the author’s permission.
Greenberg, a part-time substitute Spanish tutor, has lived in the area for 25 years. In 2009, she decided to participate in that year’s National Novel Writing Month challenge to write a novel in 30 days. Initially, she thought she was writing a thriller, but was told by her husband that the plot was more suited to a romance.
A published non-fiction writer – she has had articles published in the Washington Post, sold some poetry, and had written a number of articles for the Maryland Pet Profiles. Greenberg said it was an intimidating task to write 50,000 words, let alone 70,000-plus.
As do many writers, her strategy is to set aside her novel and let it cool down, while she works on another project. Later, she intends to come back to it, reread, rewrite, edit and then submit it to potential publishers.
The themes that permeate her novel are forgiveness, redemption and learning to trust others. It is through the crucible of the life and death situation presented by the plot that the two learn about themselves and about each other. By working together and learning to trust each other, they become whole, she said.
What Is a Romance Novel?
Works about love, passion, lust and romance have been part of the storyteller’s repertoire since before recorded history.
Some of those early tales survived orally until the invention of writing, about 6,000 years ago, around 4000 BCE, in Sumeria, (modern-day Iraq), and perhaps, 2,000 years earlier in China. While the debate as to the origins of writing continues, there is no doubt that romantic love has been a universal subject of writers, musicians and artists.
Although the oldest extant work in western literature, the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” does not fit the modern genre requirements of a romance, it does contain romantic elements. Ancient literature abounds with both tragic tales of star-crossed lovers and comedic takes on love gone awry, said Professor Pamela Regis, a literary historian at McDaniel College, who teaches courtship fiction.
Regis is the author of two books: Describing Early America, her dissertation at Johns Hopkins University, which focuses on early American non-fiction, and A Natural History of the Romance Novel, which asserts the legitimacy and significance of romance genre in literary history. She has also written a number of articles about the work of Jane Austen; reviewed books for the Washington Post; interviewed romance authors for the Smithsonian Institution, and has been a featured speaker at several Romance Writers of America and other literary conventions.
“A romance novel is a work of prose fiction that tells the story of the courtship and betrothal of one or more protagonists,” said Regis. “Love plots are ubiquitous É they are everywhere. It is a subplot in adventure fiction, in science fiction, in mysteries É many books have love interests in them, but love is not primary in the plot.”
The first, pure romance novel, Regis argues, is a 1740 epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson, entitled Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded. To be a romance novel, the major focus of the plot must be on the love story; all other premises, such as mystery or adventure, are secondary elements. -J.B. Roth
For more information on:
Stacey Coverstone: www.staceycoverstone.com
Reggie Greenberg: www.yica.blogspot.com
Robin Kaye: www.robinkayewrites.com
Eliza Knight: www.elizaknight.com
Kathy Love: www.readkathylove.com
Pamela Regis: www2.mcdaniel.edu/English/faculty/pregis/naturalhistory.htm
Romance Writers of America: www.rwa.org
Maryland Chapter of RWA: www.marylandromancewriters.org
