Although women write most of the books, using their emotional expertise to focus on the heroines' internal struggles, men create the covers, their voyeuristic skills sharply honed to ponder the heroines' physical form. Noted for her keen sense of place and attention to historical detail, she maintains a large research library in her studio and may spend days or even weeks preparing for the actual two-week painting process. Although Gignilliat left New York two years ago for her native Georgia, she says she has to turn down work these days. Gignilliat attributes her success in the romance field not only to her eye for detail and historical accuracy but to a genuine appreciation of the subject matter. As new racy titles appeared like Ecstasy and Desire , some publishers even began printing consumer labels on book covers warning the prospective reader about the explicit sexual content.
Lately romance is in the air again.
With the fear of AIDS and the new sentiment that free love leads only to emotional bankruptcy, the romance industry is responding with books that are closer in spirit to the genre's beginning than to the steamy books of its recent past. The Gignilliat painting featured with this article was Hearts of Fire by Christina Savage.