The Rileys raised two sons over the course of their solid, almost 50-year marriage, she said. No one strayed or betrayed, and yet out of her imagination pop all manner of cads and two-timers.
Riley's 15th title is due out next year, said Diane Blair, marketing director at Genesis Press, a small publisher in Mississippi that focuses on African American fiction. "Mildred does well," said Blair, adding that Riley's books sell in the 20,000-copy range.
Romance fiction geared to specialized audiences reflects a broader trend in all forms of entertainment, said Kelley, whose Houston-based organization numbers 10,000 authors. Whether watching television or reading romance novels, "people like to have characters they can identify with," she said. She noted that another segment her group is tracking is "Rubenesque romance -- for people who are not young and thin."
As her books circulate electronically and through the Genesis-sponsored Indigo Book Club, Riley is benefiting from another quality of romance readers, said Pamela Regis, a professor of English at McDaniel College in Maryland. Regis, author of "A Natural History of the Romance Novel," explained that "romance readers are loyal. They really do care about who wrote a book, and then they'll read the next one" -- even at a time when budgets are tight.
Riley, who writes an average of two books per year, said her characters simply present themselves, giving her little choice but to tell their stories.
She swears she had no idea that the Iraqi war widow who appeared in her head was going to discover that her husband secretly had banked sperm before he deployed, allowing her to bear his child. And she was as surprised as anyone when she found herself writing about the scion of a blueblood Navy family from Newport, R.I., who falls madly in love with Mercita, who is half Mexican and half African American.
"These characters come to me with lives of their own," she said. "They talk to me, and tell me: 'This is what I want you to say.' "
--
ejmehren@gmail.com
Mehren writes for The Times.
