Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Vivian Stephens Helped Turn Romance Writing Into a Billion-Dollar Industry. Then She Got Pushed Out - Texas Monthly

Panzer was tootling around in the Catosphere when he decided to make a stop at the Texas Monthly site. With a little digging in the posts, our inquisitive kitty boy discovered one about Vivian Stephens. Panzer told you a few weeks ago about the Romance Writers of America naming a new award after her.

It's a really interesting story.
The post by Mimi Swartz reads as a history of Vivian Stephens life, both in and out of the Romance Writers of America group. In 1980 Vivian Stephens was the founder of the Romance Writers of America (RWA). It was interesting to her when in May of this year she got an email from the group asking to name an award after her. The interesting part of naming the award the 'Vivian' was that she had been largely ignored and forgotten by the group over the years. According to the Texas Monthly post, in the years since RWA was founded romance novels have gone from the 'bodice ripper' days to the 'independent, working woman' days. With that emergence romance writers have gone from the "have to have a regular, day job to support my writing" days to the romance writers ''making $100,000 (or more) per year'. Included in this post are links to information about the turmoil the RWA has been going through since last year and links to books about romance writing and its history.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... $100,000 a year?"

Note: This is a hugely humongous post. Bring a thermos of iced tea, a thermos of lemonade, a dozen muffins, your lunch and your dinner for today's reading selection. If you plan to read Panzer's previous post, you'll need a sleeping bag for a nap in between.

To read the post tootle over to Vivian Stephens
To read Panzer's earlier post about the Vivian Award, tootle over to RWA Award

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