cMse Up

. . . And They Lived

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1

T HE DE TRO

1

Second comes the
background. Authors
who write historical
romances want their
' stories to be realistic,
which means doing
research on the period
and setting. Mrs.
Greenberg admits to get-
ting "lost in the
research; it's fascinating.
You could spend all day
looking up one piece of
research, which also is a
good way of procrastinat-
ing on the writing."

38

Joan Shapiro

Then comes the writ-
ing itself. It takes most
authors anywhere from
one to two years to com-
plete a book.
Next comes the edit-
ing. Mrs. Greenberg says
editors have never
altered the essence of
one of her stories, but
they do call for changes.
Anyone who thinks his
words are sacred, who
insists Ridge's brother,
Brumley, should be "tall,
dark and swarthy" when
the editors
want him
"tall, dark
and haunt-
ingly pale,"
needs to look
for another
career.
The author
himself will
likely make
many revi-
sions, too,
Mrs. Green-
berg says.
"You're al-
ways re-pol-
ishing."
Publishers
later send
the author
copies of the
book to
review sev-
eral times,
"so that by
the time
you're done
with it
you're kind
of sick of it.
You have the
thing practi-
cally memo-
rized."
Mrs. Green-
berg tries to
her
keep
writing on a
crs schedule —
c usually from
2 11 a.m. to 1
a p.m., then a
for
break
lunch, and
back to work

from 2 to 5 p.m.
Something she will never
do is wait for inspiration.
"Writing is a discipline,"
she says. "You work
whether you like what's
coming out or not.
"I never worry that I'll
run out of ideas — that's
not a problem. What
does concern me is that,
when I really like my
last book, do I have it in
me to do it again? You
worry whether you will
be able to match your
own skill."
With Forever After set
to be translated and pub-
lished in Italy and
Norway, Mrs. Greenberg
has just finished her
next project, Something
Borrowed, Something
Blue, which she wrote
with Karen Katz. The
novel tells the story of
four women about to be
married and the secret
each has in her past.
aturally, Joan
Shapiro's charac-
ters have quiv-
ering lips, enjoy sen-
suous, passion-filled
kisses and find •
themselves caught in
embraces which fill
the empty spaces in
their souls which have
plagued them for an
eternity.
They also are middle-
aged; they work in
banks; and they have
never, ever set foot on a
cloudy moor where the
moon hovers like a heavy
heart.
"These are not the
kinds of books where
there's a young ward
who works for some man
who treats her like dirt,
then, all of a sudden, on
the last page of the book,
he says, 'But I loved you
all along,' " says Ms.
Shapiro, of Franklin.
Romance is, of course,
vital. But her stories
also must be realistic,

N

she says.
Ms. Shapiro is a
Detroit native who as a
college student was cer-
tain "the worst part of
every class was writing
the paper." Today, she is
a romance writer "and
proud of it, even though
it means getting those
raised eyebrows that say,
`Oh, you mean you write
Harlequins?' "
Her first book, Hello,
Love, was published this
year by Zebra. Her sec-
ond book, Daniel, will
come out this summer.
It all happened by
chance.
She was in her hus-
band's pharmacy one day

