Thank You, Vivian Stephens For Romance Genre
You may have seen this on LinkedIn which is where I saw it when Shirley Hailstock posted it.
I’ve reposted it to Facebook, but I wanted to share it here too.
WHO IS VIVIAN STEPHENS
If you’re not a romance author, you may not know who this remarkable lady is.
Ms. Stephens has been an Editor at Publishing houses, an Agent, and an Author, but one of the most significant contributions she made was to the Romance Genre as a whole when she co-founded Romance Writers of America.
Here’s a little about her, but I hope you’ll go to her GoFundMe page and read more about her and be moved to make a donation to help her with her medical and living expenses.
The Romance genre would not be the literary powerhouse it is today without Vivian Stephens. As an Editor for Dell Publishing, she started the Candlelight Ecstasy Romance line of books which soared immediately.
Women were hungry for stories that spoke to them, and women who read the books wanted to write them. Many of those early romance writers are now household names who wrote for Ms. Stephens.
Those early romance authors were mostly ordinary women without any experience in the business. Ms. Stephens saw the need for an organization to teach them important aspects of the business of writing.
She, along with Parris Afton Bonds, Rita Gallagher, and Rita Clay Estrada, met in Houston, Texas in 1980, and founded Romance Writers of America, an organization with the goal of promoting the genre and supporting the authors, all of whom at one time were women.
SHOWING APPRECIATION
Now, Ms. Stephens is in her 80s and in need of our help. If you have a few dollars to give, please click the GoFundMe link to help this amazing woman.
Joan Reeves aka SlingWords: The Word Slinging Adventures of Joan Reeves
Source: https://slingwords.blogspot.com/2025/03/thank-you-vivian-stephens-for-romance.html
