Smithfield romance writer RaeAnne Thayne’s career flourishes
February 16th, 2013 Posted in Arts and Life, Business‘I fell in love with creating worlds of my own. It is so different from journalism. I’m the one in control, that’s how it works.’
SMITHFIELD — “I have a sign in my office. It says ‘I may not change the world, but I can change somebody’s afternoon,’” local bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne told the Hard News Café. “My objective is to make somebody’s day a little better.”
Thayne, mother of three, is preparing for her most recent romance novel, Currant Creek Valley, to be released in March.
Her writing didn’t always encompass fictional characters and heart-felt stories. Thayne’s professional writing experience began at Utah State University’s student newspaper, the Utah Statesman, which grew into a news editing job for her at the local daily, The Herald Journal.
“I had always wanted to be a romance author,” Thayne said. “In college I was an editor for the Statesman and on our down time we’d make up pseudonyms for me for when I would write books. I’ve been a huge reader all my life and I had always wanted to write a book.”
It was in 1990 when Thayne had her first, but very limited opportunity to write a story, while on a six-week maternity leave with her first-born “It was my chance to write a book. I had six weeks, and sometimes she slept. I wrote a couple of things that were really horrible and will never see the light of day.”
Five years later, Bantam Dell books bought Thayne’s first two completed stories to be a part of its ‘Loveswept’ line. In 1997, having written five books that would be published, Thayne decided to dedicate her life to creative writing, and made it her full-time job.
“I fell in love with creating worlds of my own. It is so different from journalism. I’m the one in control, that’s how it works. I’m the boss,” Thayne said.
A three-time RITA nominee for Romance Writers of America, winner of the 2012 Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence, and of the 2010 RT Reviewers’ for best Silhouette Special Edition, Thayne’s success as a romance novelist has flourished. She is currently working on her 44th novel. Harlequin, the top women’s fiction publisher in the world, is responsible for publishing and distributing 39 of Thayne’s books, in over 15 languages, in countries all over the world.
“Ideally, it takes four to five months to write a story,” Thayne said. But her latest series has been on strict deadline, keeping her on a three-month deadline for each story. “It is always exhausting. It’s like any other job. Sometimes it is hard to force yourself to be creative when you have other life things going on. But this is what I always dreamed of doing.”
The most wonderful thing about her job? “The response I get from my readers,” Thayne said. “I get emails from my readers all the time, that have experienced a loss. It is so wonderful to know that my stories can help them.”
Currant Creek Valley, the fourth book in her Hope’s Crossing series, is to be released on March 26.
Thayne says the entire heart of the series is summarized in this quote: “We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly embracing each other.”
NW
Tags: Currant Creek Valley, RaeAnne Thayne, romance author, Smithfield
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