The other day I saw a Facebook post about Shanna, a historical romance novel by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, the housewife who started the romance revolution with the 1972 publication of her first novel, The Flame and The Flower.
That first book sold over 2.3 million copies in the first 4 years of publication. It's still selling. I don't know if her genre-busting early books have ever been out of print.
(I'll confess that I didn't care much for the book which is the Forced Marriage trope, a polite way of saying sexual assault.)
As soon as I closed Facebook, I went to the armoire in my office and pulled my copy of Shanna from the shelf of paperback books in there. Yes, it was on my keeper shelf along with several other vintage novels.
When Shanna was published, it sold over 3 million copies and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for a full year.
I remember the first time I read this book probably a decade or more after it was published in 1977. It was filled with lush descriptions of characters, setting, and the sexuality and passion of the characters.
We're talking thrusting loins and heaving bosoms and bodice ripping—by the villain, never by the hero in Woodiwiss's novels.
I started reading it again. Yes, it's dated, and I had to smile at the flowery analogies used far too often. However, it's still a page turner.
Eventually, over the years before I was published, I read all of Ms. Woodiwiss's early books. Life and writing got in the way, and I became enmeshed in the contemporary romance world so I never got to her later books. I plan to correct that oversight this year.
TAKEAWAY TRUTH
A keeper shelf is a place of delight and comfort. Reading an old book is like visiting with an old friend.
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