Showing posts with label Laura London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laura London. Show all posts

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Male Authors of Romance/Romantic Fiction (2)

I saw an item about Jason Pinter whose novel The Mark will be published by Mira in July 2007. The article points out that
Mira, of course, has been publishing thrillers for years and has a number of male authors on its lists. Still, Harlequin remains overwhelmingly a company by and for women. Its challenge is to reach male readers—but with books that also appeal to its core audience. That’s where Pinter comes in. "The female character (in The Mark) is great," says Marbury. "Most men fall short on female characters."
In my previous post on this topic I didn't list any male romance authors and although I gave some links I thought perhaps I should rectify my omission.

According to Juliet Flesch
The number of men writing romance varies a little from time to time and appears to be generally higher in America than in the United Kingdom or Australia [...]. Publishers interviewed by Rosemary Guiley, the author of Love Lines: a Romance Reader’s Guide to Printed Pleasures, reported that from 5 to 40 per cent of their romance writers were men.
In The Romance Fiction of Mills & Boon, 1909-1990s, jay Dixon identified only two men who achieved success with Mills & Boon in the last years of the twentieth century: Victoria Gordon and Madeleine Ker. In fact, there is at least one more: Roger Sanderson, who writes as Gill Sanderson. (2004: 74)
So that's three:
  • Gordon Aalborg, who writes as Victoria Gordon
  • Roger Sanderson, who writes as Gill Sanderson
  • Marius Gabriel, who writes as Madeleine Ker
There's also
  • Vince Brach, writing as Fran Vincent
  • R. Barri Flowers, who writes as Devon Vaughn Archer
  • Tom E. Huff, who wrote as Edwina Marlow, Jennifer Wilde, Katherine St. Claire and Beatrice Parker
  • Wayne Jordan
  • Harold Lowry, who writes as Leigh Greenwood (and who served as President of the Romance Writers of America for 2 years). In a 2001 interview he said that 'The official number is approximately 1 percent of the RWA membership is male. There may be more published, but I doubt it. Yes, I do expect the number to increase over time. Contrary to popular opinion, men are romantic. We just have more cultural obstacles to overcome'.
  • Peter O'Donnell, whose historical romances were written under the name Madeleine Brent
  • David Wind, writing as Monica Barrie and Jenifer Dalton
Some of these male authors and a few others are listed here. Three male authors of popular romantic novels are:
There have also been a number of collaborations in which a male and a female author have worked together:
  • Frank and Wendy Brennan, who wrote as Emma Darcy until Frank's death, after which Wendy continued writing alone (you can read an interview with them here)
  • Tom and Sharon Curtis, who wrote as Laura London (you can read an interviews with them here)
  • Bob Mayer and Jenny Crusie, whose joint website is here.
I'm sure there are many other male authors of romances, and if you know of any of them please do leave a comment.

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  • Flesch, Juliet, 2004. From Australia with Love: A History of Modern Australian Popular Romance Novels (Fremantle: Curtin University Books).