Writer Dons Sparkling Pseudonyms

To romance enthusiasts, Jacqueline Diamond, Jacqueline Jade and Jacqueline Topaz are the creators of fast-thinking heroines who always end up with Mr. Right.

But while her characters may find themselves swept away to France or caught up in the glitz of Hollywood, the life of a successful romance writer consists of hard work, not glamour, says Jackie Hyman, 37, of La Habra, who is behind those glittering noms de plume. Hyman calls herself “a serious working woman” and considers her audience just as seriously.

“I have a lot of respect for women who read romances,” she said. “I think they’re a lot smarter than they’re given credit for. Critics sometimes criticize them saying that women who read romances will have unrealistic expectations in their relationships. My thought is, ‘How stupid do they think women are?’ Men who read suspense novels aren’t accused of thinking that the KGB is after them.”

This diligence in her writing and readers has resulted in 12 published romances in the past four years, the Romance Writers of America’s 1985 Bronze Medallion Award for best Regency novel and nomination for this year’s Golden Medallion for best contemporary short romance novel.

“I’m very business-oriented about my writing, and I think most successful writers are,” Hyman said. “When you sell your first book or two you have these wonderful dreams. You’re going to make all this money, and everything’s going to be just wonderful. Then you get to the hard realities of advances, royalties and rights. It’s hard to keep your head in the clouds.”

Hyman originally decided to use a pen name because she felt her real name didn’t sound “romantic enough. So I started off using Jacqueline Diamond--Diamond is my middle name.”

However, Hyman said she didn’t plan on having to change her name several times to satisfy romance publishers who wanted “an exclusive name. I decided that if I stick with precious stones at least people might guess that it’s the same writer. So now I’m Jacqueline Jade, too. I hope that will be it.”

Former AP Writer

A former editor and staff writer in the Associated Press Los Angeles bureau, Hyman still free-lances for AP. It was in 1981, while she was still a staff writer there, that she first dipped a toe in the romance genre.

“I used to dislike romances because they were so macho and prejudiced,” she said. “Then I saw ‘Pride and Prejudice’ on Masterpiece Theatre and really enjoyed it. I wished there had been a whole line of books by Jane Austen to read.”

Then she discovered a line of novels called Regencies based on Austen’s writing style and set in Regency, England, Hyman said. Proceeding to read more than 100 of them, she soon discovered that she “wasn’t finishing a lot of them because they weren’t very good. So I said the fatal words, ‘I can do better than this’ and sat down and wrote one.”

She wrote her first Regency novel, “Lady in Disguise,” in two weeks. “Then I wrote the second one (‘Song for a Lady’) in three weeks,” she said, “but I have not done that since.”

Although Hyman sold her first two novels within a year to Walker & Co. in New York, she points out that romance writing is a time-consuming profession. “Yes, I did write some books in a couple of weeks but that’s unusual,” she said. “It probably takes me about two months total time to write a book, but it’s not like you can churn out a book every two months and get $5,000 for it.”

A member of the Orange County chapter of Romance Writers of America, Hyman has been a finalist for the past two years in the organization’s national romance writer competition. Last year, in the Regency novel category, she received the Bronze Medallion for “The Forgetful Lady,” published in 1984 by Walker & Co.

This year, “Swept Away,” published in 1985 in the Second Chance at Romance paperback series from the Berkley Publishing Group, was one of six finalists for the Golden Medallion in the best contemporary short romance category. Although not the winner, Hyman received a certificate of recognition last weekend at the annual Romance Writers of America convention in Minneapolis.

Unusual Situations

“Swept Away” contains what Hyman calls one of her trademarks--unusual situations. “Having dusted Tom Clinton’s penthouse, ‘cleaning woman’ Paula Ward is donning a slinky gown in his lavish bathroom when the devastating millionaire unexpectedly arrives home, catching her half-clad,” the book back teases.

“I find ‘Swept Away’ very funny,” Hyman said. “Everybody loves the idea of having a cleaning lady be the heroine.”

Hyman’s Regency novel, “A Lady of Letters,” originally published by Walker & Co., was released in paperback last month by Warner Books and her Second Chance at Romance novel, “Golden Girl,” was released in May as well. She also is presently revising two other romance novels for publication.

Writing romances is “as intricate as Kabuki,” Hyman said. “It’s a formula, but it’s not an easy formula. The couple has to meet in Chapter 1. They have to be together throughout the book, but there has to be a legitimate conflict keeping them from resolving their romantic differences until the end.

There are a lot of do’s and don’ts in romance writing, Hyman added. “You have to have a basically upbeat outlook. The characters have to have some depth, but they don’t have a lot of dark corners. And the hero always has to be pursuing the heroine.

“It used to be that heroines were orphans, but they like heroines having relatives or close friends now,” she said. “Still, those characters have to stay very minor and in the background.”

However, romances also have grown up, she admitted. “The heroine doesn’t have to be a virgin anymore. She can have had a previous love affair, but she can’t have been promiscuous.”

Despite the tight formatting of romance novels, Hyman tries to give each book her own personal style. “I try to find a way that I can enjoy writing one, and that way the reader can enjoy reading it. I am known for being very lively and offbeat and having very spunky heroines. I also use a lot of light dialogue and repartee.

“I also use my personal experiences to a certain extent. For example, I choose an occupation for a character that I’ve had some experience with or know someone in that profession.”

She added with a laugh: “But I don’t run around having wild romances.”

Her characters are not usually drawn from herself or her friends, Hyman said. “Obviously, there have to be parts of me in the characters or I couldn’t write them. But they are different from me. They’re much simpler. They don’t have the dark thoughts or the fears or the conflicts or ambitions.”

The short amount of time she has to write a romance demands that she use the locality she lives in for background material, Hyman remarked. “Most of my novels are set in Orange County or Los Angeles. Romance novels don’t pay enough for you to spend weeks and months researching travel to a foreign place in order to get more authentic detail.”

BA in Sociology

Interested in the women’s movement since her undergraduate years at Brandeis University where she received a BA in sociology in 1971, Hyman says that concern is reflected in her novels. “For example, in ‘Deeper Than Desire,’ (The Berkley Publishing Group, 1984) Jennifer Ellis, a lawyer, is estranged from her husband because he doesn’t give her career equal weight with his own. The basic conflict is that her being a lawyer is just fine so long as she’ll drop everything for his career. . . . I took a feminist theme but took it lightly so I wouldn’t sound like I’m preaching.

“I guess people don’t expect romance writers to be feminists. They expect them to be unliberated. But I’m against stereotyping. I wouldn’t stereotype one of my characters so I certainly don’t like people to be stereotyped.”

Married to real estate broker Kurt Wilson since 1978, Hyman said that her husband is not a romance reader but does take her career very seriously. “He thinks it’s great that I can make a living writing romances. He’s been very supportive. When I decided to give up the security of working for AP to free-lance, he said, ‘If that’s what you need to do, then do it.’ ”

The average advance for a romance novel ranges from $5,000 to $6,000, according to Hyman. “People hear about the authors who get $5-million advances. That’s very rare. . . . In those cases where those big advances are not earned back, it’s the little guys who subsidize it.”

“It’s not an easy way to make money,” she added. “I make enough money on the romances to make my basic expenses but not to save anything or make major purchases.”

Hyman writes three or four romance novels a year, she said. “Romance houses expect volume from their writers. The editors have to put out four or six titles a month in each of the lines. So an author who can sell you one book a year is nice but not going to help your day-to-day needs.”

When not writing, Hyman likes reading “a wide variety of books and magazines” including her favorite authors Paul Theroux, Chaim Potok, Gore Vidal, Mary Renault and Stephen King. “I read romances when I want some light escapism,” she added. “I also like some literary novels so long as they’re not completely depressing.”

Children’s Fantasy Completed

Fantasy writing, not romance, is her “first love,” Hyman said. At the moment she has a children’s fantasy completed as well as a suspense novel that she’s revising. Also, her short story “The 9 to 5 Wizard” was published in the November, 1985, edition of Amazing Science Fiction Stories.

Despite her other writing interests, Hyman confesses that she still likes writing romances. “I find it a challenge. It’s like journalism--you’re writing to order. You write a certain length, you write a certain style, and you do your best at it.”

However, she finds romance writers still don’t get the professional respect the occupation deserves. She cited as an example a reporter’s coverage of last year’s Romance Writers of America’s annual convention. “The whole angle was how this has become a cottage industry and all these dumb little housewives are now sitting home cranking out these cute little romance novels and raking in the money. It’s a cheap shot and degrading to women who really are professionals.

“Even though there are certain restrictions on the characters and the plot, that doesn’t mean you don’t try to make them as believable and sympathetic and as three-dimensional as you can within those confines. My books don’t pretend to be deep, serious explorations of the meaning of life, but they’re meant to entertain. And you have to be good to entertain.”