LaVyrle Spencer

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LaVyrle Spencer

Born 1944
Browerville, Minnesota United States
Pen name LaVyrle Spencer
Occupation Novelist
Nationality American
Writing period 1979 -1997
Genres Romance, Historical

LaVyrle Spencer (born 1944 in Browerville, Minnesota) is a 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.

Contents

[edit] Family

LaVyrle Spencer was born and raised in Browerville, Minnesota. Shortly after her high school graduation Spencer married her high-school sweetheart Dan Spencer. The two had two daughters, Amy and Beth (who died in 1990), and are grandparents. They live in a Victorian house in Stillwater, Minnesota, where Spencer enjoys gardening, cooking, playing bass guitar and electric piano, and photography.

[edit] 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. Spencer 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.

Bestselling author Kathleen Woodiwiss read Spencer's manuscript 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.[1]

[edit] Career

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.[1]

Avon likewise rejected Spencer's third book, The Endearment, about a mail-order bride and her husband, who, unlike most heroes, was a virgin. Avon was leery of this book because it made the hero, not the heroine, the protagonist. The Endearment was later published by Pocket Books.[1]

In these early years Spencer also wrote four category romances. She later stopped writing these shorter novels because she was disappointed with the short shelf life, generally only one month, allotted to the category romance.[1]

Spencer's novels were highly successful, consistently selling over 1.5 million copies in paperback and over 400,000 copies in hardcover. In 1997, she released her twenty-third and last novel, Then Came Heaven. She told Publishers Weekly that she had always intended to write until she reached a set financial goal, at which point she would retire in order to travel and spend time with her family. After meeting that goal, she retired.[2]

[edit] 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.[1] Her heroines tend to be a mix of fire and warmth, strength, savvy and soft–heartedness who must overcome some sort of adversity, such as pregnancy, divorce, a lengthy separation, the loss of a loved one, and then undergo a catharsis. The stories center on themes of abiding love, family ties and strength in difficult times.

In the 1980s and 1990s Spencer wrote 12 New York Times Bestsellers. Her books have been sold to book clubs worldwide, and have been published around the world. Condensed versions of many of her novels have appeared in Reader's Digest and Good Housekeeping magazine.

[edit] Television

Spencer has also made the leap from page to screen. Her first novel, The Fulfillment, was developed as a CBS-TV movie starring Cheryl Ladd and Morning Glory, which Spencer wrote in 1989, was released as a major motion picture under the same title, starring Deborah Raffin and Christopher Reeve. Spencer and her husband appear as extras in the film.

In a television deal that Variety called “precedent–setting,”[3] CBS– TV produced two of Spencer's books for television movies, with an option on a third. Home Song, the first book produced by CBS–TV, starring Lee Horsley, Polly Draper, and Deborah Raffin, aired in April 1996.[4] The second, Family Blessings, starred Lynda Carter, and was directed by Deborah Raffin and Nina Foch.[5] 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.[3]

[edit] Recognition

Spencer has won five Romance Writers of America RITA Awards, the highest award presented to romance novelists. Four of her wins came in the category Best Single-Title Contemporary Romance, and were for the novels, The Endearment (1983), Hummingbird (1984), The Gamble (1988), and Morning Glory (1990). She also won a RITA Award in 1985 for her contemporary romance Twice Loved. Because she won three RITAs in a single category, Spencer was inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame in 1988, becoming one of only nine women (as of July 2007) to have been so honored.[6]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Novels

  • The Fulfillment (1979)
  • The Endearment (1982)
  • Forsaking All Others (1982)
  • Hummingbird (1983)
  • A Promise to Cherish (1983)
  • The Hellion (1984)
  • Sweet Memories (1984)
  • Twice Loved (1984)
  • Separate Beds (1985)
  • Spring Fancy (1985)
  • A Heart Speaks (1986)
  • The Gamble (1987)
  • Years (1987)
  • Vows (1988)
  • Morning Glory (1989)
  • Bitter Sweet (1990)
  • Forgiving (1991)
  • Bygones (1992)
  • November of the Heart (1993)
  • Family Blessings (1994)
  • Home Song (1995)
  • That Camden Summer (1996)
  • Then Came Heaven (1997)
  • Small Town Girl (1997)

[edit] Collections

  • The Hellion / Separate Beds / Hummingbird (1991)
  • Bittersweet / Morning Glory / Vows (1991)
  • Gamble / Endearment / Forgiving (1992)
  • Years / Twice Loved / Spring Fancy (1993)
  • Morning Glory / Vows/ the Gamble (1994)
  • Bygones / Separate Beds / Bitter Sweet (1994)
  • Hummingbird / Twice Loved / Vows (1994)
  • Separate Beds / Forsaking All Others / Promise to Cherish (1995)
  • The Endearment / Bitter Sweet / Forgiving (1995)
  • Bygones / November of the Heart / Family Blessings (1996)
  • For the Heart: Sweet Memories / a Matter of Circumstance / Afterglow (1997)
  • Home Song / That Camden Summer / Small Town Girl (1999)

[edit] Omnibus in Collaboration

  • Sweet Memories / One Tough Texan (1999) (with Jan Freed)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Thurston, Carol (1987). The Romance Revolution. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 178-179. ISBN 0-252-014421-1. 
  2. ^ Quinn, Judy (September 29, 1997), “PW: Putnam's Hail and Farewell”, Publishers Weekly, <http://www.ashgroveaudiobook.com/grove/info_authors_spencer.html>. Retrieved on 2 July 2007 
  3. ^ a b Archerd, Army (May 17, 1994), “Lucas' birthday party brings out 'Star' starsl”, Variety, <http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117862486.html?categoryid=2&cs=1>. Retrieved on 2 July 2007 
  4. ^ Scott, Tony (March 20, 1996), “CBS Wednesday Movie Lavyrle Spencer's Home Song”, Variety, <http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117905067.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&query=lavyrle+spencer>. Retrieved on 2 July 2007 
  5. ^ Kronke, David (February 1, 1999), “Lavyrle Spencer's Family Blessings”, Variety, <http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117490620.html?categoryid=32&cs=1&query=lavyrle+spencer>. Retrieved on 2 July 2007 
  6. ^ RWA Hall of Fame. Romance Writers of America (2007). Retrieved on 2007-07-02.

[edit] External links