Posted by Lyn on 09 Jun 2009 | Tagged as: Chit Chat
Harlequin Romance Author Betty Neels, My Example
Have you ever read a Betty Neels’ Harlequin Romance? I challenge anyone to read a Betty Neels Harlequin Romance and not find it entertaining and uplifting. One of my favorite books of hers is Waiting for Deborah, a book in which she stretched her writing in many new ways.
http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Deborah-Betty-Readers-Choice/dp/0373512570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244502508&sr=1-1
Other titles that demonstrate Betty’s kind of romance: A Good Wife, An Innocent Bride, Heaven is Gentle and Discovering Daisy. Drop by www.eharlequin.com and enter her name in the Search window and you’ll find that her romances are still selling out!
The funny part is that Betty Neels never set out to be a novelist. A retired nurse, Betty overheard someone in her local library bemoan the lack of good romance novels. So she wrote one, her first Harlequin romance Sister Peters in Amsterdam in 1969.
An Innocent Bride
Betty wrote charming stories about heroines who were honest and quietly self-assured without being showy. Betty’s heroes are always the Strong Silent Type, masterful men usually with ties to Holland. Betty herself was married to a Dutch doctor if my memory serves me.
In June of 2001, Betty passed away in her nineties after writing for Harlequin continuously from 1969– penning a total of 134 Harlequin Romances. Harlequin and the world lost a good solid novelist.
Fortunately her romances remain. I hope that at the end of my career, I will leave the legacy that Betty Neels did–good stories about real people that lift readers’ spirits in a genuine way.