Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
| Kathleen Erin Hogg Woodiwiss | |
|---|---|
Woodiwiss in 1977
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| Born | Kathleen Erin Hogg June 3, 1939 Alexandria, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | July 6, 2007 (aged 68) Princeton, Minnesota |
| Pen name | Kathleen E. Woodiwiss or Kathleen Woodiwiss |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1972 - 2007 |
| Genre | Romance |
| Spouse | Ross Eugene Woodiwis (1956-1996) |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | |
| www |
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Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, née Kathleen Erin Hogg (June 3, 1939 – July 6, 2007), was a United States writer, pioneered the historical romance genre with the 1972 publication of her novel The Flame and the Flower.
She was born Kathleen Erin Hogg in Alexandria, Louisiana, the youngest of eight children of Charles Wingrove Hogg, a disabled World War I veteran, and his wife, Gladys (Coker). As a child, she relished creating her own stories, and by age six was telling herself stories at night to help fall asleep. Her father died suddenly when Woodiwiss was only twelve, leaving her to be raised by her mother and older sisters. Woodiwiss would later remark that, "every single one of us had minds of our own even then; I was no exception. I suppose that carried over into my creations of heroines who weren't weak-willed."
At the age of sixteen, she met U.S. Air Force Second Lieutenant Ross Eugene Woodiwiss at a dance. They married the following year, on July 20, 1956. She attended school locally and graduated in 1957. Her husband's military career led them to live in Japan, where she worked part-time as a fashion model for an American-owned modeling agency. After three and a half years in Japan, the family moved to Topeka, Kansas and then settled in Minnesota. During these years, she attempted to write a novel several times, but each time stopped in frustration at the slow pace of writing in longhand. After buying her husband an electric typewriter as a Christmas present, she appropriated the machine to begin her novel in earnest.
Her debut novel, The Flame and the Flower, was rejected by agents and hardcover publishers as being too long at 600 pages. Rather than follow the advice of the rejection letters and rewrite the novel, Woodiwiss instead submitted it to paperback publishers. The first publisher on her list, Avon, quickly purchased the novel. Editor Nancy Coffey provided a $1500 advance and arranged for an initial 500,000 print run.The Flame and the Flower was revolutionary, featuring an epic historical romance with a strong heroine and actual sex scenes. This novel, published in 1972, sold over 2.3 million copies in its first four years of publication and is credited with spawning the modern romance genre, becoming the first romance novel "to [follow] the principals into the bedroom." The success of this novel prompted a new style of writing romance, concentrating primarily on historical fiction tracking the monogamous relationships between helpless heroines and the heroes who rescued them, even if they had been the ones to place them in danger. The romance novels which followed in her example featured longer plots, more controversial situations and characters, and more intimate and steamy sex scenes.
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