Jacqueline Marten

From Biography: www.jacquelinemarten.com

When put to task on writing an Author Biography for romance author Jacqueline Marten, it's hard to distill such an immense career. She was always ahead of her era and in a writing career spanning more than 60 years, she has never written a conventional “bodice-ripper” about a wimpy chick giving her all for the dimwitted affections of some roaring roughneck.

“My sons used to ask me why, in my books, I always seemed to make the women dominant,” Marten said. “I explained they weren’t dominant at all. They were just loved by very tender, compassionate men.”

“I believe in happily-ever-after,” Marten reveals.

“But I have never confused it with easily-ever after. You have to sustain an ongoing relationship, in spite of the kids being bratty or the husband coming home crabby or your gaining 20 pounds.”

Author Biography - Early Days

A native of New York City, Jacqueline holds a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College and a master’s from the University of Michigan, both in journalism. She began her career as a freelance writer in the 1940s on a fluke. After graduating from Michigan, Jacqueline asked the McFadden magazine chain in New York for an editorial position and wound up writing “true confession” stories instead for 5 cents a word.

“I went for an interview for what I thought was a (regular, full-time) job with ‘Radio Mirror,’ but it turned out the interviewer was looking for freelance writers.

“She asked me to send synopses and, rather than admit that wasn’t what I had in mind, I said ‘yes.’”

Jacqueline took a temporary job doing research and, in her spare time, wrote two synopses of stories.

“I worked very long and hard on one, and spent only about five minutes on the other,” she says with a smile.

“You guessed it — they bought the one I had only spent five minutes on. It was called With My Blessing and earned me a grand sum of $150.00 — for a whopping four cents a word! In 1945 that was a large sum,” Jacqueline smiles with the blue twinkle of that 22-year old gazing at her first check. “I had a professor,” she continues, “who told me ‘Money is criticism.’”

According to the best-seller, “that check was very constructive criticism!”

From there Jacqueline had the opportunity to study with Maltese Falcon author Dashiell Hammett, who, as she describes him, “was the Thin Man, himself.” another of his famous mystery characters. The class was intimate, fourteen students at one round table. “We had to write a mystery story for the class,” she recalls. “Well, I had them laughing hysterically — which luckily was my intention. ‘Jacqueline,’ he said, still laughing, ‘you are indeed going to be a writer, a fine one, but certainly not of mysteries.

Author Biography - Confession magazines

“They say only 10,000 people earned their living by writing in the 1940s,” she says. “I was one of them. It was the only career I could have at the time and still bring up my children.” Mrs. Marten wrote for virtually all of the 14 confession magazines published during the next quarter-century, covering a wide variety of subjects.

“Confessions were a moral form of literature,” she says. “It didn’t really matter what the subject was — even lynching — as long as the story contained a romance and a confession.”

Within five years she had become a continuous contributing writer for sixteen magazines turning out these contemporary morality tales, one of which was published as exemplary in Richard Summers’ Craft of the Short Story, rubbing pages with 0. Henry, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. She even became the printed voice of radio soap star Papa David whose show Life Can Be Beautiful was a staple.

“I wrote the column under his name,” Jacqueline remembers, running her fingers through her fine silver hair. “I also did the roundup of all 37 soaps each week for a year! I was so shell-shocked, I never could bring myself to listen or watch a soap again.” That included radio and television soaps adapted from her stories.

As the 1960s drew to a close, the number of confession magazines dropped from 14 to six, and their content began to change. As pornography started coming in, the magazines “got junky,” so Jacqueline turned to writing historical gothic romance novels as her new source of income.

Author Biography - Historical Romance Novels

“Historical accuracy is a must” says Jacqueline, who spends up to a year on research before she begins writing. “It takes me about three months to write a book and two to shorten and polish it. At home, I write on a typewriter. That’s my journalistic training! I also do a lot of writing in longhand in hotel rooms.

The author says her writing has always been influenced by Jane Austen. She’s a lifetime member of the Jane Austen Society of England and a charter member of the Jane Austen Society of North America.

“There’s a large audience for romantic novels, and they’re not all women,” says Jacqueline. “A lot of research goes into them; they’re factual, and they encourage people to learn about history.”

As with any author, Jacqueline includes personal experiences in her stories. Gina, for example, the heroine of Promise Me Forever, is in her early 20s but tells people she’s 17 when she hitchhikes. When Jacqueline was Gina’s age, she did a lot of hitchhiking — “something I wouldn’t encourage anyone to do today” — and claimed to be 17 because she believed men would not cause problems for a juvenile.

In 1975, Jacqueline’s first book Let the Crags Comb Out Her Dainty Hair, was published. Next came Visions of the Damned, published in 1979 by Playboy Press; Visions is credited as the pioneering romance that begot the time travel genre. As a result of Visions’ success and its follow up Nightmare in Red, (Playboy Paperback, 1981); Dream Walker, (Pocket Books) and Promise Me Forever (Pocket Books, 1981). Promise Me Forever was published after nearly eight years of research, writing and rewriting. At that time four out of her five published novels dealt with reincarnation, where a modern hero and heroine solve problems they encountered in a previous life.

“Publishers are scared of books on reincarnation, because they’re actually two books in one,” says Mrs. Marten. “They have two plots, two sets of characters, and they keep going back and forth from one to the other.”

But if they’re done well, they make highly entertaining reading and they are obviously done well, because they’re very popular.

By 1981, Jacqueline was considered to be a one-genre author.

“I decided that was challenge enough to change genres.” So she produced five historicals just to show she could, including the best selling English Rose, Irish Rose and French Rose series. Her plots have been drawn from actual events, self-help columns, and even friendly eavesdropping.

Winner of the Career Achievement award in 1986-87 from Romantic Times, Jacqueline Marten’s panoply of titles have been translated into many languages, including Chinese. She has sold millions of books.

“When I was a pretty young thing with a bow in my hair, tough, cigar-chomping editors wanted to know what a little girl like me knew about writing and romance. Now that I’m older young people want to know what an old broad like me knows about romance! She assures us the best is yet to come.” Besides, she just may have to write ‘that mystery’ novel — just to show Dashiell Hammett she can.

ON BECOMING A WRITER (www.jacquelinemarten.com)

On becoming a writer: About six months after I came home to New York from the University of Michigan with a brand new M.A. in journalism tucked under my belt, I concluded (unhappily) that the newspaper world was not for me. A short period of panic followed. Then I accidentally tumbled into another occupation—freelance confession writing. This career kept me busy and contented for several fancy-free years, then through marriage and the production of four sons.

One day when I thought they had reached the age of reason, I assembled the family for an announcement. “The writing is now full-time. I am no longer a cook or housewife.”

My five men were not surprised. Slanderous remarks abounded. For example, “Do you ever remember Muggs’ cooking” or “Ma, running one piece of Kleenex over the furniture is not housework.”

I gave these and other opinions the disdain they merited, trying to decide what kind of books I would write. Becoming a writer of romances didn’t occur to me at the time.

One afternoon(still uncertain) I encountered a young woman at the buffet table during a Bar-Mitzvah “I understand you are a writer!” she said somewhat abruptly.

“Yes,” I answered with great originality. Please God, don’t let her tell me she intends to write the great American novel as soon as she has the time. It would be so crude to hit her over the head with the bowl of chopped liver.

“I’m an editor.” she announced, “Why don’t you write a book for me?”

I gulped then warily asked, “What kind of books do you edit?

“Romance,” she replied.

I was astounded to hear the word romance…yes, romance! And they would pay me, too!

We signed the contract for my first one in less than a month. And I have been writing romances ever since, delighting in the research and making sure that for every hero there is a gutsy, independent woman.

I have written my books through five knee surgeries (skiing is definitely not worth it), through moving to Virginia, through becoming a grandmother, and just about every experience—good or bad.

During most of my writing career, I’ve experienced more than just the joy of the characters I create. There were also interesting surprises and delightful bonuses. With “Dream Walker”, (which won Romantic Time’s 1987 time-travel award) I was approached by the CIA to find out if some of my fiction had a source in truth! Or when I learned that “Nightmare in Red” (originally published by Playboy in ‘81 and reprinted as Bryarly) has helped a number of victims cope with the horror of their own rape. This is work I love since I get to lead the life I want, always with my husband’s pride and support. One of my greatest thrills came at an autographing I did for the benefit of the local battered women’s shelter. The sign on my table read “Feminist Romance Writer.”

Well, the excitement has certainly continued with “Moonshine and Glory”, written for the Denise Little Presents line. This is a spin-off from my Pocket “Foliage” trilogy. I hope you experience the same joy and excitement with “Moonshine and Glory”*.