Are All Romance Writers Female?

Whether your passion for romance lies in the historical, regency, the previously beloved gothic, or today’s favorites like romantic suspense or romantic fantasy (romantasy), it’s common to assume that women predominantly pen these genres. Let’s examine this assumption to see if it holds for this Valentine’s Day.

Surprisingly, there’s a notable male influence in the world of romance writers.

Iain Blair as Emma Blair

Scottish native Iain Blair, initially a playwright and thriller author, found his calling in romantic fiction after a switch in 1982 when his publisher suggested that one of his submitted novels, Where No Man Cries, would sell better if the author was a woman. Consequently, he adopted the pseudonym Emma Blair.

He once joked about his name change: “The publishers decided on a sex change, and so that was that. Emma I became, and Emma I stayed.” His wife, Jane Blanchard, has said of the Emma Blair pen name: “Emma was not the quiet, retiring type but a 6ft 3in Glaswegian called Iain Blair who enjoyed a pint and a smoke.”

Ken Casper as K.N. Casper

Ken Casper was born and raised in New York City. After graduating from Fordham University with a degree in Russian, he joined the Air Force, was stationed in the Far East, served in Vietnam, lived five years in Germany, and now resides on a horse farm in San Angelo, Texas.

Ken had short stories published in a popular men’s magazine and was working on a mystery when his critique partners, three romance writers, suggested he try their genre. He voiced his doubts (“Me? Write romance? Are you kidding?”), but he decided to give it a try anyway.

His first-chapter romance submission won an honorable mention at the Southwest Writers’ Workshop contest in 1993. In 1995, he entered the same story in the Golden Triangle Writers’ Guild and took first place in mystery and romance. The romance entry later became his first sale to Harlequin Super-romance. A Man Called Jesse was published in October ’98. He has since published over a dozen romance novels.

L. Ron Hubbard as Barry Randolph

Yes, the same L. Ron Hubbard, known for his adventure, mystery, suspense, western, fantasy, and science-fiction stories published in the 1930s and ’40s, and his international best-selling novels Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth, explored the romance genre.

His foray into romance began as president of the New York Chapter of the American Fiction Guild. Observing that many romance “confession” stories were penned by unmarried women over forty, L. Ron Hubbard quipped one day while sitting around with a group of those ladies, “You get pretty high rates in the confession-story genre—I ought to write some of those.” They laughed. But Ron indeed had the last laugh with romance stories like “Tinhorn’s Daughter,” published in Western Romances, and “When Gilhooly Was in Flower,” published in Romantic Range under the pen name of Barry Randolph.

As he would later reminisce on romance writing, it is “almost as adventurous as getting married. Because when you’re getting married, you’re doing something you don’t know anything about.”

Tom E. Huff as Jennifer Wilde

Tom E. Huff carved a unique niche in the historical romance genre under the pseudonym Jennifer Wilde. He wrote and published 21 Wilde novels, known for their historical accuracy. One of his most famous works, Love’s Tender Fury, diverged from traditional romance by blending historical events with passionate tales of love and adventure.

He earned a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times in 1987–1988. His flair for dramatic storytelling and commercial success in the genre demonstrated that the art of romance writing transcends gender boundaries.

Single, he lived with his mother in Fort Worth, Texas, where he was buried after he died suddenly of massive heart failure on January 16, 1990.

Peter O’Donnell writing as Madeleine Brent

Creator of Modesty Blaise (an action heroine/undercover trouble-shooter), British writer of mysteries and comic strips, Peter O’Donnell, ventured into romance under the female alias Madeleine Brent in 1969. What began as an experimental chapter became a highly successful series of nine romance novels.

Madeleine Brent’s real identity was one of the best-kept secrets of publishing. His American publisher never learned that Madeleine Brent was a pen name for more than twenty years, and correspondence invariably went to “Dear Madeleine.” To give his signature a more female touch, Peter O’Donnell had his wife sign the answering letters. The name was not even revealed when O’Donnell won the Romantic Novelist of the Year award in 1978.

Nicholas Sparks

While not a pseudonym case, Nicholas Sparks’s journey from unpublished author to bestselling romance novelist is inspiring.

In 1985, Nicholas Sparks penned his first (never published) novel, The Passing, while home for the summer between his first and second years at Notre Dame. He wrote another unpublished book in 1989, The Royal Murders.

After college, Sparks sought work with publishers and tried to attend law school but was rejected. He then spent the next three years trying out other careers.

In 1993, Sparks moved to Washington, D.C. There he wrote a novel in his spare time, The Notebook, which was finally published in 1996. An instant bestseller, The Notebook sparked a slew of successful romance novels and film adaptations, cementing his place as a significant figure in modern romantic fiction.

Bill Spence aka Jessica Blair

Bill Spence was born in Middlesbrough, England, in 1923. He trained as a teacher but never followed the profession as he served in the RAF (Royal Air Force) as a bomb aimer, doing thirty-six operational flights in the Lancasters of 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron Bomber Command. His Jessica Blair novels began as a study in whaling post-WWII, with the first published in 1992 after his publisher, Piatkus, suggested the female pseudonym Jessica Blair for better marketability.

Bill Spence was nominated for the Romantic Novel of the Year 2014. He retired from writing in 2020 with an astonishing 28 Jessica Blair novels published. He passed away in 2024 at the age of 101.

This Valentine’s Day, as you pick up your next romantic read, remember that the world of romance writing is as diverse as the stories it tells. Happy reading!

P.S. A great Valentine’s Day gift for book lovers—download On Blazing Wings for free. This military love story and romantic fantasy book will take you back to the Russian-Finnish war with a strong female character and an unexpected hero.