Nobody ridicules Tom Clancy, but everybody ridicules us,'' says romance writer Barbara Keiler, who has written more than 60 books under the name of Judith Arnold. Because it's a woman's genre it doesn't get much respect. Suddenly, much has changed. The steamy covers, which female editors say were forced on them by male marketing executives, are largely a thing of the past. Walk down the plentifully stocked romance aisle at Waldenbooks, and you see subdued floral designs.
Sales continue to climb.
Basically, we're supporting the publishing industry,'' says Keiler. Slammed by feminists in the 1980s as purveyors of escapist, addictive, patriarchist pap, romance writers are writing more about contemporary issues, and apologizing less for how they do so. At the end of Susan Elizabeth Phillips's Hot Shot , the freshly married heroine takes over a business, and broadcasts her intention of turning the executive dining room into a day care center. In Barbara Delinsky's Shades of Grace , a daughter wrestles with her mother's debilitating Alzheimer's disease. My editor said, 'I don't want to publish a book about chemotherapy,' and I told her, It's not about chemotherapy - it's a love story,' '' says Keiler.