” ‘Tis a matter of some delicacy.” Shanna presented her back to him as if embarrassed and paused before continuing. To propose marriage to a man about to hang? Upon my word, I cannot see the logic in it.”

Even now, decades later, she takes me away, to another time and place. Here’s a snippet of the opening of Shanna, the book that started it all for me and so many others. Although the book was not an immediate blockbuster, her next one, The Wolf and the Dove, hit #2 on the New York Times list, and a phenomenon was born. She told me the initial print run target was about 30,000 but the actual number was a great deal higher–600,000. According to Kathleen, there were few expectations attached to her first book.

(I still have that letter in a special place, tucked into a signed copy of The Flame and the Flower.) Later, I’d get the occasional e-mail from her, letting me know she’d read my latest and giving me glimpses of her journey from Minnesota homemaker to blockbuster author, the likes of which publishing hadn’t seen since Grace Metalious or Jacqueline Susann. I gave her a copy of one of my books, which she read and later told me she enjoyed it a lot. It featured the original painting from the book cover and was done in the same lush color scheme. My favorite room in her home? The Shanna master bath. To meet her, you’d never know she’d taken the publishing world by storm.

You’d never know, to meet her, how vast her influence was on our industry. I was privileged to know her, having met her when she opened her amazing antebellum home to a group of writers who had come to Alexandria, Louisiana for a workshop. Millions of readers were saddened by Kathleen’s passing. Woodiwiss. For me, it was Shanna, which held me mesmerized behind my college math and poly sci textbooks and was a revelation to the budding writer in me. Ask almost any avid romance reader which book got her hooked on the genre, and she’ll likely name a title by Kathleen E.

Shana by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss