Passion for romance: Utahn aims to nab writers' prize
By Julie Checkoway - The Salt Lake Tribune
Rae Anne Thayne is trying to not "go all Hollywood on you," but she does say things you might expect to hear from an Academy Award nominee.
Like "I'm just glad to be nominated." And, if prodded a bit, juicy details about the outfit she'll wear to the gala awards ceremony at today's national conference of the Romance Writers of America: "long black and glittery, with a bag to match." She picked it up a couple of years ago at her local Dillard's department store.
Filled with pride and hope, just like an Oscar hopeful, the 42-year-old Smithfield-based writer and mother of three is in San Francisco this weekend because she's a finalist for the coveted Rita award. "High Risk Affair," her latest of 31 published novels, is one of eight suspense/adventure titles chosen in the final round of a national competition judged by her romance-writing peers.
The book concerns a young boy who turns up missing in the middle of the night, Thayne said. She describes the book as 60 percent romance, 40 percent suspense.
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the steamiest, she rates her content a 2. The main characters "barely even kiss," Thayne said, although the book cover suggerts a steaminess factor closer to 10. A bare-chested man and red-haired woman are glimpsed voyeuristically through the cross-hairs of a camera lens at night.
Thayne began writing romance fiction while on maternity
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leave from her job as a newspaper editor at the Logan Herald Journal. She published her first book in 1995. She claims she didn't know anything about being a novelist then, and jokes she still doesn't know anything about it now.
Mary Martinez, a romance writer from Magna and one of the 50 members of the Utah Romance Writers Association, said Thayne is "fulfilling our dream" of what all of the 50 members hope to achieve. Martinez, who has published two books with small publishers, said the whole group is proud of Thayne's achievement.
At the downtown San Francisco Marriott, Judy Scott, a spokeswoman for the Romance Writers of America, peered out from her temporary office into the hotel's bustling hallways on July 31.
The conference is the largest the organization, with a membership of nearly 9,000, has ever hosted. Some 2,500 writers and would-be writers are mixing it up over three days of activities that include tonight's awards show.
Scott pointed out that many readers don't understand how popular romance novels are in this country. The RWA Web site claims that romance novels account for $1.4 billion in book sales each year, the largest share of the consumer book market.
Some 51 million people each year read novels in the genre that has grown beyond the easy fall-in-love-with-Fabio formula and morphed into a range of subgenres. This weekend's conference features workshops on everything from "Ghost, Ghouls, Vampires and Things That Go Bump in the Night" (paranormal romance) to "Writing for the Historical Market" (so-called "Regency" novels).
Regardless of genre-crossing, the essence of the romance novel is "a relationship that is mutually sustainable and that has a happy ending," Scott said.
That leaves wide room for interpretation and creativity, Thayne said. The writer, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said her characters don't just sleep around. They are "always committed to each other, even if they may have sex out of wedlock." She admitted that might raise some eyebrows at her ward, but family, friends and community have expressed support for her writing.
Tonight, if and when her name is called as the 2008 winner of the Rita Award, RaeAnne Thayne will walk down a red carpet to a dais. Her image will appear above her on a megatron.
Up there, and back home in Utah, she may well indeed raise some eyebrows. Proud ones. Raised high.
