LIFESTYLES

Romance novels can mean riches

TORONTO (CP) — The students in Scott Hunt
Robertson's course want to learn how to write steamy
paperbacks they think will make them very, very rich.

The veteran scriptwriter from Alabama — a woman
with a man's name — greets her students with a flirty wink
and a promise they'll “learn to write it fast, make your mint
and go to Spain.”

Her romance writing course attracts everyone from @
retired nurse who wants to be famous to a younger woman
who wrote her first book at the age of eight.

“We have more fun than the law allows,” warns
Robertson, a jolly, effusive woman of about 50 dressed in
pink and white and adorned with a strand of pearls.

She tells students who attend her four-week sessions
held year-round that she is a personal acquaintance of the
president of Harlequin Books, the mecca to which all
aspiring romance novelists bow

The course is one of the most popular offered through
the Network for Learning, an organization that offers
moderately priced short courses on everything from car

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mechanics to ballet. Robertson's course costs $4, plus $10
for supplies — pink handouts outlining how to formulate
character and develop conflict, lists of 36 basie plots, dizzying array of romance lines — each with its own set of
romance publishers and their addresses. criteria — that have developed to satisfy haagure readers’

“My classes are full of yuppies,” Robertson said in an demands for such i ients as sex, and history.
interview. “They are young men and women who want to
write formula fiction.”

She says most of those who take the course — from
lawyers, doctors and teachers to bus drivers and architects
— are serious fans of the romance genre.

At one session the course attracted 32 people — three
men, the rest women of all ages. In the first class they
identified themselves by first name only and confessed why
they want to write the novels scorned by most literary
critics as sexy pap for the mindless, mostly female, masses.

‘TOO EXOTIC’

Those are pretty stiff odds, but Orr says she thinks it is
actually getting easier to get a book published because of the

KNOW SPECIALTY,

Robertson tells her students they must know the
specialty of each line, which fit into three basic types: sweet,
spicy or steamy. Never send a steamy, bodice-ripping saga
of sweeping love to the Harlequin Presents line because its
books lie somewhere between sweet and spicy — short,
modern stories in which any sexual action must be “above
the waist.”

On the other hand, some lines require that the heroine
be raped by page 30.

Robertson says writers can make between $12,000 and
$50,000 per book, depending on how many countries it is
published in and the author's reputation.

142 |

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aire i ae LH
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5 4
ty! Hi if oH One woman said she “wants to produce those fantastic
8 ¥ ierk i heroes they have in Harlequin.” Another has been writing
since she was a child and finally decided she wants to get
published. A third woman has submitted five books to
Harlequin but had them refused for being ‘too exotic’ and
wants to know what she is doing wrong.

Two of the three men blame their presence on women
who dragged them along.

Robertson cheerfully acknowledges that would-be
novelists shouldn't worry about creating original plots, since
all romance novels are “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy
gets girl.”

What's more important is to invent “two good
characters,” she advises, because “if you come out with a
terrific man and a terrific woman, just change their names
and use them for book no. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.”

Develop a well-paced conflict between the two, she
says, and any writer is on the way to the bank. However,
modern romance novels are considerably more titillating
than their predecessors, she warns, and no longer can the
conflict be “Will he or won't he get her into his bed?” since
that happens as a matter of course.

Thornier conflicts than the old sex question — such as,
will she move to Atlanta to be with him and give up her
advertising job in Ne ‘ork, or will his first wife ruin their

— now keep readers turning the pages.

Courses such 4s Robertson's have appeared in several
communities as the popularity of romance novels continues
to burgeon. Kingpin publisher Harlequin recently bought
out its major campetitor, Silhouette Books, and now
controls about 80 per cent of the market. The company, a
subsidiary of Torstar Corp., has a North American
readership estimated at more than 20 million.

Catherine Orr of Harlequin's Toronto headquarters
says the company receives about 1,000 unsolicited
manuscripts a month. Perhaps one will be chosen to join the
list of about 56 titles the romance empire publishes each
month in North America.

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“If you can write at all, and if you learn the formula —
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“It just
perspiration.”

takes persistence,

professionalism and

Robertson doesn't keep in touch with all her former
students, so she doesn’t know how many of them get books
published. She says she knows of at least one student from
the past year who has had a tentative offer.

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passing
permanent lifestyle and. something that demands
intervention.

Foot soakers
latest fad

TORONTO (CP) — There's
a new type of BYOB party —
Bring Your Own Bucket.

They're called foot-soaking
soirees. While social scien-
tists have yet to determine
their significance in the
scheme of things, they're an
obvious attraction to people
who spend their days in
tight-fitting shoes.

In Fullerton, Calif.,
Control training centre mum pepe to tube © van

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and adopt anti-social, violent behavior.
The centre helps parents define, set up and enforce
household rules that put them in charge of their children.
But Levine says rock music isn't the root of a

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with your bucket and towel
and look over and see ano-
ther woman with a bucket
and towel and you know
you're going to the same par-
ty.” says Karen Collet, 34,
who works for the provincial
government.

The foot-soaker takes a
simple approach: massage
with oils, bathe in soapy
water, dry, apply some apri-
cot scrub, put them back in
the bucket, pull them out,
dry and apply some cream.

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“People have been arguing that since Frank
Sinatra's days,” he says. “Rock music is a reflection of
where we are, not a cause.”

Besides, says Toronto psychologist Doug Smith, it's
almost impossible to steer teenagers aways from what
they want.

“One of the norms of adolescence is to do the
opposite of what they're told,” says Smith, a family and
teen counsellor.

Smith thinks a better approach for parents is to learn
more about teenage culture to ensure the family ties are
tight as children become adolescents.

After all, he says, many of today’s parents of teenage
children were the flower children of the 1960s.

“Of course, being a parent means being caught in a
‘do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do’ situation,” says Blumer. “But, if
your child suddenly turns to punk music, and your family
life is otherwise normal, | think you have to look at it as a
phase or a stage. Suicide or violence is several degrees
farther.”

In her new book, Living With Your Teenager
(McGraw-Hill Ryerson; $22.95), family counsellor Mar-
lene Brusko says loud music around the house doesn't
necessarily signal the end of the world. Rather than yell
to “shut that damn thing off.” Brusko says you should
negotiate times when music can be played at an
agreed-upon volume.

“If that doesn't work, then loud music is not the
issue,” she writes. “Perhaps you are in an ongoing power
struggle.”

It is this larger problem that many families try to
disregard. In some cases, teen behavior is used as a
scapegoat for general family troubles, when in fact the
problems run much deeper.

“I think many times people are reluctant to get
help,” says Blumer. “People wait too long because there's
a stigma attached to getting help.”

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Advice offered

CALGARY (CP) — Sooner
or later just about every new
parent who places a birth
notice in the paper is going to
get a call from a portrait
photographer. What should
they be looking for?

The Professional Photo
graphers of Canada organi
zation says they should inter.
view several photographers
before settling on someone to
take a family portrait.

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The organization has a
code of ethies and standards
of proficiency for its mem
bers and a rigid fee struc-
ture. Among other things,
parents should make sure
there are no hidden costs in a
photo session.

People should also make
sure they do not have to pay
twice if equipment in the first
session doesn't work prop
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Skin glue
replaces sutures

MONTREAL (CP) Nas
ty practical jokers may occa
sionally try to stick some
thing to you with all-too
efficient glue, but at the
Royal Victoria Hospital, a
new adhesive is having a
profound impact on treat
ment

Histoacryl glue, a blue
colored sealant, is being used

to bond skin that has been
cut. It's even replacing stit
ches in some cases.

The hospital says a one
year study by emergency
room physicians found that
the glue has a number of
advantages, including the
fact it requires no anesthetic
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