Madison romance writer courts publishing success

MADISON - "Steamy military romance served with a side of danger."

Lynn Raye Harris touts her manuscripts with this tagline on her Web site, along with photos that would make many blush. The aspiring Madison romance writer hopes to be published soon in a field that gets little respect. Winning a contest sponsored by Harlequin books helps her chances.

"I've learned to deal with the attitude that romance is simple," she said. "But it's surprising how hard it can be."

Harris began seriously focusing on writing when she moved to North Alabama two years ago. She and her husband lived in Decatur with her parents, Michael and B.J. Wascom, until they found a home in Madison.

When her husband goes to work at Boeing (he is retired from the Air Force), Harris starts her work day at her home computer. The introverted writer, who admits she'd rather spend her days alone writing than trying to entertain people, is at her computer from about 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. working on her novels or updating her blog.

"There are days when your only contact with a person is your spouse, but I do have an online community of people also in their PJs at home," she said. "I was one of those kids in school who didn't say much. I learned how to talk to people from my husband."

While you wouldn't know it from her description of herself, Harris is easy to talk to and personable. She loves good wine (she and her husband have an impressive collection of wine corks in a bowl in the kitchen), coffee in the mornings, and strong, warrior-type men in her novels. She and her husband's home is elegant and comfortable, though her office is typically scattered with papers.

While the stereotype for romance novelists is that of bored housewives pining away for excitement, Harris is married and earned a master's degree in humanities with a concentration in literature. She has read enough Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway to know she does not want to write depressing stories like theirs. She prefers the happy endings of romance novels....