Author Spotlight: Robyn Carr - A Woman's Woman

December 6, 2011


      Bestselling author, Robyn Carr, says that one of her readers gave her the greatest compliment by calling her a “woman’s woman”, a writer who understands women’s concerns. Whether she is writing about single or married life, happy or unhappy marriages, Carr seems to be able to articulate the heart of the matter with warmth and humor.
    As a young woman, she set her sights on becoming a nurse, not a writer. According to Carr, she “was an average high school student with greater interest in cheerleading and boys than academics.” She attended college to attain her nursing degree but marriage and children derailed that path and set her on a new one. She married her high school sweetheart, Jim, just a few short weeks before he entered the Officer’s Training School in the Air Force. Due to the need to move from base to base with her husband, Carr was unable to work in nursing and spent a great deal of time alone while he was away. To ease the burden of loneliness and worry, she began to find solace in books. During prescribed bed rest for a difficult pregnancy, she began to read voraciously and discovered a great love for romance books.
     Later, when she began to write herself, it was in the genre of the books she enjoyed so much - Historical Romance. Despite no formal training, in 1980, at the age of 27, she published Chelynne. She continued writing historical and contemporary romances (along with a suspense novel, a non-fiction book on writing, and, as yet, unsold screenplays) for the next 25 years.
     In 2007, her Virgin River series started to hit the bookshelves. This series of contemporary romances is set in the fiction small town (pop. 600) of Virgin River in Humboldt County, California. Virgin River is populated with “retired marines and the independent women they love.” Virgin River has a loyal fan base that created a virtual “Jack’s Bar” based upon the social hub in the book series. (It’s located at www.RobynCarr.com)
     Carr is a firm believer in the power of positive relationships which is a cornerstone of her personal brand of women’s fiction and a reflection on her own take on real life. Perhaps these are some of the many reasons why she continues to be a force in today’s popular romantic fiction.