LaVyrle Spencer was born on July 17, 1943. She is an American author who writes contemporary and historical romance novels. She has published many books, and some of them were made into movies. Twelve of her books were listed as New York Times bestsellers. In 1988, she was added to the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. She stopped writing in 1997.

Biography

Spencer was born on July 17, 1943, in Browerville, Minnesota, where she grew up. After graduating from high school, she married Dan Spencer, her high school sweetheart. The couple had three daughters and lived in a Victorian house in Stillwater, Minnesota, until they sold their home in 2011. They now live in North Oaks, Minnesota.

Although she enjoyed writing in high school, Spencer did not begin her first novel until her thirties. At that time, she worked as a teacher’s aide at Osseo Junior High School. She had read The Flame and The Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, a well-known author, which inspired her to write. She decided to write about a recurring dream she had about a story based on her grandmother’s life on a Minnesota farm. One morning, she woke up at 4:00 a.m. and started writing her story in a three-ring notebook. This story became her first novel, The Fulfillment.

She sent her manuscript to Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, who read it and then sent it to her editor at Avon. The editor bought the novel, and it was published in 1979. The Fulfillment was different from the popular historical romance novels of the time, which often included dramatic adventures and strong male heroes. Spencer’s novel instead focused on a kind and gentle man.

Spencer’s second novel, Hummingbird, was rejected by her editor at Avon and another editor at Jove. However, Jove later published the book in 1983. Both companies said the book had too much humor and was too narrow, as most of the story took place in one house. Spencer believed that emotional moments within characters were important and refused to make major changes to the book.

Avon also rejected Spencer’s third book, The Endearment, which told the story of a mail-order bride and her husband, who was a virgin. Avon was hesitant because the hero, not the heroine, was the main character. The Endearment was later published by Pocket Books.

In these early years, Spencer also wrote four category romances. She later stopped writing these shorter novels because they were only available for sale for about one month.

Spencer’s novels were very successful, selling over 1.5 million copies in paperback and over 400,000 copies in hardcover. In 1997, she released her twenty-third and final novel, Then Came Heaven. She told Publishers Weekly that she had always planned to write until she reached a financial goal, after which she would retire to travel and spend time with her family. After achieving this goal, she retired.

Spencer is known for creating realistic characters and stories that focus on families rather than just the relationship between a man and a woman. Her characters are ordinary people who are warm, vulnerable, and always shown in a kind light. Her heroines are strong, smart, and caring, and they often face challenges such as pregnancy, divorce, long separations, or the loss of a loved one. Her stories often explore themes of love, family, and strength during difficult times.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Spencer wrote twelve New York Times Bestsellers. Her books have been sold to book clubs worldwide and published in many countries. Short versions of her novels have appeared in Reader’s Digest and Good Housekeeping.

Spencer has won five Romance Writers of America RITA Awards, the highest honor given to romance novelists. Four of her awards were for Best Single-Title Historical Romance, for the novels The Endearment (1983), Hummingbird (1984), Twice Loved (1985), and The Gamble (1988). She also won a RITA Award in 1990 for Best Romance of 1989 for her novel Morning Glory. Because she won three RITAs in the same category, Spencer was inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame in 1988. At that time, she was one of only twelve women (as of September 2009) to receive this honor.

Spencer also had her work adapted for television. Her first novel, The Fulfillment, became a CBS TV movie starring Cheryl Ladd. Morning Glory, which Spencer wrote in 1989, was released as a major motion picture with the same title, starring Deborah Raffin and Christopher Reeve. Spencer and her husband appeared as extras in the film.

In a television deal that Variety called “precedent-setting,” CBS TV produced two of Spencer’s books as television movies and had the option to produce a third. Home Song, the first book produced by CBS TV, starred Lee Horsley, Polly Draper, and Deborah Raffin, and aired in April 1996. The second, Family Blessings, starred Lynda Carter and was directed by Deborah Raffin and Nina Foch. The network also purchased the rights to review 11 other Spencer novels and had pre-cable broadcast rights to the theatrical film of her novel Morning Glory.