THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9602290596
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BILL RUEHLMANN
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
When CBS-TV's ``High Society'' ran an episode on a male romance writer recently, they cast Tom Arnold in a Van Dyke. He was hip. He was a happening guy.
He was a sleazeball.
Harold A. Lowry, who grew up in Chesapeake and now resides in Charlotte, N.C., can testify with authority it's not that way in life.
``Other than being a man in a woman's field,'' reported the 54-year-old author of 15 romance novels, ``I'm very boring. No drugs, no divorces, no unscheduled pregnancies. Nothing interesting.''
As ``Leigh Greenwood,'' he is best known for his Seven Brothers series. ``Seven Brothers Who Won the West - and the Women Who Tamed Their Hearts,'' reads the cover copy. Just out is No. 6, Violet (Leisure Books, 441 pp., $5.99):
Broken and bitter, Jefferson Randolph could never forget all he had lost in the War Between the States - or forgive those he had fought. Long after most of his six brothers had found wedded bliss, the former Rebel soldier kept himself buried in work, only dreaming of one day marrying a true daughter of the South. Then a run-in with a Yankee schoolteacher taught him that he had a lot to learn about passion.
``I get more calls for appearances on TV because I'm an exception,'' Lowry said.
``Talk shows, `48 Hours,' `Entertainment Tonight.' They're expecting steamy stuff, but these television people don't read romance.
``There's more sex in any mainstream novel than in a romance. Romance novels are about middle-class, monogamous relationships. They're about as square as you can get.''
Before he was a romance writer, Lowry was a math and music teacher as well as an organist and choir director for the Episcopalian congregation of which he is still a member, Christ Church in Charlotte. He has been married to his one and only wife, Anne, for 24 years. They have three children, ranging in age from 15 to 22.
Fabio he is not. The impeccably attired Lowry, whose soft-spoken Southern accent wraps itself around careful diction, looks more like the popular conception of Sherlock Holmes' solid and stolid sidekick, Dr. Watson. High forehead, full mustache, stave-straight 6-foot military bearing.
``Romance is about getting married and staying married,'' Lowry said.
``It's hopeful. It's a positive literature.''
Violet Goodwin was too refined and genteel for an ornery bachelor like Jeff. Yet before he knew it, his disdain for Violet was blossoming into desire. But Jeff feared that love alone wasn't enough to help him put his past behind him - or to convince a proper lady that she could find happiness as the newest bride in the rowdy Randolph clan.
Lowry was in Hampton Roads recently for the ``Romance Between the Covers'' convocation of writers and readers at Virginia Beach Central Library. There were many women present, few men.
Lowry, who got into the business in 1983 after his wife threw a book by Georgette Heyer at him, didn't mind.
``Everybody dumps on romance,'' he said. ``Television, movies, the news media, furniture companies, even bookstore managers and distributors. Romance is not cool; it's definitely not politically correct.
``If a man reads romance, people question his masculinity. A fan from Australia said she told a friend of hers that Leigh Greenwood is a man. The first thing the woman said was, `Is he gay?' ''
Lowry loves the work, to which he devotes himself full-time.
He has received regional and national service awards for his work with the Romance Writers of America. His detractors, particularly those among the literary establishment who regard these publications as ``silly books for silly women,'' need to acknowledge a few interesting facts, to wit:
Forbes magazine reports the romance genre has become an $800 million-a-year industry. There are 25 million romance readers in North America, 50 million worldwide. The average romance reader spends $1,200 annually on these books.
Further, 48 percent of all paperbacks sold are romances, accounting for 160 new titles each month.
Real men may not eat quiche, but those few who write romances, like Harold A. Lowry, can afford New York strip. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Harold A. Lowry
KEYWORDS: BILL RUEHLMANN IS A MASS COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSOR AT VIRGINIA
WESLEYAN COLLEGE.
by CNB