>
Print
E-Mail
tool name
close
tool goes here
Wednesday, Sep. 23, 2009
The lust empire: Fort Worth's Candace Havens brings the magic back to romance writing
The lust empire: Fort Worth's Candace Havens brings the magic back to romance writing.
By Joanna Cattanach
Dirty thoughts pass through Candace Havens’ mind. Witches who lust after Bono-type rock stars. Sheiks that make you shiver. Sisters whose love lives are as brutal as the demons they slay. And sex. Lots of it!
Just consider the following passage from her 2008 novel, Like a Charm:
"Oh, I’ve had dates, but I never met a guy who made me feel like you do. Someone who makes me burn inside. And I do burn, Caleb, but only for you."
I’m not sure what it was I said, but the next thing I knew he’d scooped me out of the chair and kissed me hard. "You’re going to kill me, woman," he said as he put me down on the ground.
I smiled. "What a way to go."
He laughed, "I don’t have the willpower to say no to you again, Kira. If you want me, I’m yours."
And two pages later, Kira was definitely Caleb’s.
Twice!
Not your grandma’s romance novel
As a romance novelist with a paranormal flair, Havens bewitches her readers with steamy sex scenes and vampy flame-throwing female characters that cast spells and kick demon ass, all in four-inch Pradas. Her output has been equally fiery: She has published six novels since 2005, with another due in 2010.
"I create lives for people I see," she says. Like Austin waitress Aspen, who found her way into Havens’ latest page-turner, Dragons Prefer Blondes. Or Zane in Charmed and Ready, a hot humanitarian rock star in need of witch Bronwyn’s protection. Think Mick Jagger meets Bono meets Chris Martin. "He’s one of my favorite characters ever," Havens says.
Though what she writes was once considered fluff in the writers’ world, even trashy by harsher critics, Havens is part of a growing number of romance writers who are changing the genre one steamy cover at a time.
Romance writers and their readers aren’t just bored housewives anymore. They’re women like Julia Quinn, a Harvard graduate who dropped out of Yale medical school to write romance novels, and Sandra Brown, a former model and weathercaster on WFAA-TV who now lives in Arlington. Both are New York Times bestselling authors.
And they’re women like Havens, a college-educated Fort Worth mom who has a full-time job as an entertainment columnist and writes books on the side.
Yes, they all still write breast-heaving, tongue-sliding scenes that set your loins on fire, but the women they write about and for aren’t faint characters in need of saving by a Lord Dashing in tight breeches. There are plots, suspense, intrigue, magic, humor — and romance. Not just sex.
"I’m not comfortable with [pure erotica]," says Havens, who’s working on a contemporary romance novel for Harlequin Blaze series Take Me if You Dare (set for publication in February 2010). "I write like I talk."
And her fans love reading her books.
"They’re hilarious, and they are addictive," says Liz Rivera of Frisco.
She has "heroes that are saving the world but still have boyfriend problems," said Denise Barker, also of Frisco, who recently attended a Havens book-signing at Legacy Books in Plano. "Candace is good for a laugh."
That’s the reaction Havens is going for.
"In most romance novels, the romance is at least 50 percent of the story. The stuff that I write, the romance is probably more 30 percent. It has to be sort of organic to the story — I hate that word, organic — the relationship has to naturally come together. You cannot force people together in a book," said Havens, who doesn’t draw a distinction between her storytelling, preparation and techniques as a romance writer and that of any other genre.
"I write strong female women," with strong personalities, she says. "I won’t write weepy women."
Romancing the word
Havens, 46, a full-figured woman with long hair and crystal-blue eyes, grew up in the Houston area and trained as a dancer. In college, she had big dreams of Broadway and owning a dance studio, but a back injury her freshman year changed those plans.
Her father suggested that she major in journalism, and Havens remembers asking him, "Can you actually get paid for that?" Havens graduated from the University of North Texas in 1984 with a journalism degree and married her college sweetheart.
But her first job as a bank teller was hardly the glam writer life she wanted. "I was so miserable," Havens says.
After the first of her two sons was born, she quit the banking business and found her dream job.
Havens currently works as a nationally syndicated columnist for FYI Television in Grand Prairie. And North Texas radio listeners can hear her weekly on 96.3 KSCS (yes, she’s that Candy Havens), where she tells you what to watch on TV and what not to waste your money on at the movies.
But even as an entertainment reporter/full-time super mom, Havens never gave up her passion for books.
"My dad and I have shared a love for books my whole life. He introduced me to Janet Evanovich," Havens says. She started writing six years ago with the help and support of a writer neighbor and a harsh but loving enclave of writers in Euless. She met her agent at the Writers’ League of Texas conference in Austin.
"I had a one-to-one meeting with her and she asked for the manuscript of Charmed and Dangerous. About a month later, she said, 'If you make some revisions, I’ll be your agent.’ "
Within 24 hours of turning in the final version of the novel to her agent, it went to auction — a rarity these days in the publishing industry. "By 1 p.m. that afternoon, we had multiple offers," Havens said. One week later, she signed a two-book contract with Berkley Publishing Group.
"Nothing beats that call when you sell your first book," Havens says. "It didn’t feel real until I held that book in my hands."
'Not all bonbons’
It’s easy to imagine what a romance writer’s lair would look like: lots of leather mixed with lace, silk pillows with pictures of bare-chested Fabio and half-naked chicks bent over the arms of buff bandits, and, of course, shaggy carpet.
Hardly, laughs Havens.
Her home office sits on a slab of concrete. Havens hasn’t found time to replace the carpet: "We’re thinking of painting the concrete."
The family’s two dogs — Scoobie and Gizmo — serve as her office mates. And now and again, when she’s doing a phone interview with a celebrity, one of her dogs will yack on the floor. Very unromantic.
"In the early days, I had to bribe my kids," Havens says. She would promise them anything for two hours of writing peace, but she told them, if you’re bleeding, you can interrupt. "I had to sort of train them."
So how does Havens handle the demands of work and writing and still manage to be there for her family?
"No matter what’s going on in my book life, my kids always come first," she says. "There are times when it’s tough and you have to make difficult decisions. "When I started, my youngest was about 12," Havens says. She says the boys sometimes got embarrassed when their friends found out what their mom did for a living.
Her husband, Steve, and her now college-age sons don’t read her manuscripts. Well, her husband did once when Havens was nominated for two RITA awards, the Oscars of the romance world.
But after reading the first half of Charmed and Dangerous, a fight scene caught his attention, "Is that the day you were mad at me?" he asked his wife. "You scare the hell out of me."
"It’s not all bonbons and jet-setting," says Havens, who will often hand-write her chapters between movie premieres and celebrity interviews. It’s hard work, she says. "I’m at my computer sometimes 18 hours a day."
Yet, even with six books on the shelves and award nominations, Havens still doesn’t like criticism: "It hurts my feelings when I see and read reviews, but I just think they’re stupid."
And, no, she doesn’t put her books in front of other titles in stores — her friends do it for her. As for the question of whether she’s changing the face of romance writing, with more playful storytelling and more thoughtful themes, Havens remains modest. She says she’s going to continue branching out (she’s presently working on a novel for young adults) and focusing on writing about "things that are important to me."
"I’m just grateful my books are in the bookstore," she says, though she does also confess to one other ambition.
"I want to get on a plane and see somebody reading my book."
Oct. 11: Buns & Roses Romance Tea for Literacy, 2-5 p.m., Doubletree Hotel, Richardson. Candace Havens will emcee the event benefiting Richardson literacy programs.
Info: bunsandroses.org
Nov. 16: Writers’ Guild of Texas, 7-8:30 p.m., Richardson Public Library (basement conference room), 900 Civic Center Drive, Richardson. Havens’ topic: Revision Hell and How to Get Through It
Info: writersguildoftexas.org
Be the first to comment on this story click the 'Add Comment' Tab!
DFW.com is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impractical for our staff to monitor each and every posting.
Since DFW.com does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not DFW.com.
If you find a comment offensive, clicking the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators; we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.
