LaVyrle Spencer

LaVyrle Spencer (born July 17, 1943) is an American best-selling author of contemporary and historical romance novels. She has successfully published a number of books, with several of them made into movies. Twelve of her books have been New York Times bestsellers, and Spencer was inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame in 1988. She retired from writing in 1997.

Biography

Personal life

Spencer was born on July 17, 1943, in Browerville, Minnesota, where she was raised. Shortly after her high school graduation Spencer married her high school sweetheart Dan Spencer. The couple had three daughters. They lived in a Victorian house in Stillwater, Minnesota until selling their family home in 2011. They now live in North Oaks, Minnesota.

Writing career

First novel Although she showed a flair for writing during high school, Spencer didn't begin her first novel until she was in her thirties, working as a teacher's aide at Osseo Junior High School, she had read "The Flame and The Flower" by the bestselling author Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, which gave her the idea to become a novelist. She decided to try transferring to paper a recurring dream she was having about a story based on her grandmother's lifestyle on a Minnesota farm. She awoke at 4:00 a.m. one morning, and quickly began writing down her story in a three-ring notebook. This story became her first novel, The Fulfillment.

She sent her manuscript to best-selling novelist Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, who read it and promptly mailed it to her own editor at Avon. The editor purchased the novel, which was published in 1979. The Fulfillment was very different from the historical romance "bodice-rippers" which were popular at the time. Unlike the other novels, Spencer's debut work did not include any grand adventures, and featured a "nice man" instead of a more overbearing hero.

Other works Spencer's second novel, Hummingbird, was rejected by her editor at Avon and also by another editor at Jove, although Jove later published the novel in 1983. Both publishing companies faulted the book for having too much humor and for being too narrow in scope, as the bulk of the book was set within a single house. Spencer opined that "drama happens within, in the emotional impact on the characters," and refused to dramatically rewrite the book.

Writing style Spencer is known for creating realistic characters and stories that focus on families rather than only the relationship between a man and woman. These "ordinary" men and women are warm and vulnerable and are always portrayed sympathetically. The second, Family Blessings, starred Lynda Carter, and was directed by Deborah Raffin and Nina Foch. The network also bought the rights to first look at 11 other Spencer novels, as well as pre–cable broadcast rights to the theatrical film of her novel Morning Glory.