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Novel ideas about romanceBy LISA DANIELS Assistant Family EditorBaltimore -7 Thesnallygaster has returned. This time the reports are that the half-man/ half-alligator that Frederick countians reportedly saw in the late ’80s, now lurks somewhere in the middle of a just-released novel.But never fear, the snallygaster doesn’t leap from the pages of “Camelot Jones,” the historical romance where his reincarnation takes place. He just happened to leap from the mind of the author who included in her book the legendary monster she heard about while astudent at Middletown Junior High School.“When I was in Frederick, there was a big hoopla about snaliygasters. A farmer would call in , and say ‘I saw one,’ and then someone would write something in the paper about it. 1 found that so amusing,” she said. “Frederick has grown up a lot since then.”So has Mayo Cochran Lucas, the daughter of retired Frederick Muni-■ eipal Airport head Paul Cochran and now 36-year-old author of two historical romances published by Avon Books.Although she puts together her books on the personal computer in the basement of her Baltimore rowhouse, some of her ideas still stem from her teen years inFreder-ick, when she attended Middletownjunior and Linganore high schools.“You use every scrap of life, no matter where you are,” said she, a spunky, short-haired blonde who grew up an Air Force brat and also lived in Alaska, California and Texas. “It all gets put through the mill.”Mrs. Lucas began writing romance novels seven years ago because she couldn’t get any sleep.“It was either a psychiatrist or a typewriter,” said Mrs. Lucas, as she chatted matter-of-factiy in her home while her large white cat, Sammy Claws, lounged nearby. “I would lay down to sleep at night and characters would come, and I would write them down and string them together.”She realized that she felt better after she wrote down what she imagined. When she finally created an entire cast she thought she’d try to mesh it all together. On Feb. 12, 1982, she plunked down at a typewriter, ready to write a book.“By that night I had several sleepless nights and characters,” said Mrs. Lucas.The result was “Matters of the Heart,” a historical romance taking place in the Midwest during the 19th century. The book, one of the Avon Ribbon romance collection, is “doing well,” Mrs. Lucas said, and started her romance writing career. She’s already got ideas for 24 more books, “and more are arriving every day.” Both of her published works take place between the 1840s and 1890s, a period of history that fascinates her“because I’m a child of the TV western.“To me, it’s the romance of the West, the cowboys, the long dresses and the social ritual,” said the author. “The good and the bad guys were bigger than life.”Her latest book* “Camelot Jones,” also of a similar vintage, traces the lives of a beautiful country woman and a wealthy society man. Like many romance novels, the book deals with a turbulent relationship as it swells into one o! passion.Although the book has received accolades by the romance review “Romantic Times, which called it “riveting,” the book was the product“I went crazy,” she said, shaking her bead. “They said it didn’t have enough sex.“The editors want sex right away,” explained Mrs. Lucas. “The whole point of the romance book is sexual tension. I’m not a squeamish or prude one, (for God’s sake, I’m a Scorpio), but if you have sex too soon, you’ve destroyed that sexual intensity. One romance writer told me ‘Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait.’ ”Mrs. Lqcas would have liked to have waited for a different “Camelot Jones” book cover teaser, which reads “Theirs was an unforgettable journey into the deepest passions of the heart... under starlit skies,passions soared, lifting their hearts to new heights of ecstacy, sweeping them high on the winds of love.”“I think someone chained in a damp basement is made to write those,” said Mrs. Lucas, rolling her eyes. “You work hard to avoid cliches, and then you turn over my book and find ‘pulses fluttering,’ ” she said. “I think, ‘Oh my God, all this work!’ ”Romance writing can be good, Mrs. Lucas insists.“We are all trying to live down romance writing as being second-class writing in the literary world. I view all writing as entertainment. We are all entertainers; I don’t view myself as an artist. To me, good writing is good writing. I think you bring a certain amount of art into your work, but I am still an entertainer.”Writing each of her novels took at least a year, as many as 12 to 18 hours in a stretch at times, said Mrs. Lucas. Now that the books are out,, she’s spending almost as much timemarketing them, scheduling appearances at mall bookstores and arranging newspaper Interviews.“When you are a nobody, you call bookstores and say, ‘I've published a book, can I come in for a signing?’ ” She's even developed her own selling strategies, including taking donuts and hot coffee to the distributors of her books.“That isn’t writing,” she said. “That’s business.”But she didn’t used to he so outgoing. Mrs. Lucas used to be afraid of open and public places, and lived until the mid-’SOs as an agoraphobic who ventured out only a handful of times in a decade “2 saw the world as a frightening place,” she said. “It scared the bejabbers out of me.”“When my son was born, I said, ‘Thank God and Greyhound,’ now I can stay in the house,” said Mrs. Lucas. “I was June Cleaver. I made all my bread, husband's clothes, my clothes. I did every hobby known to man.”A veteran of two published novels, Mayo Cochran Lucas’s works are the result of sleepless nights and hours in front of the computer terminal in her Baltimore home.(Staff photo by Lisa Daniels)But a Romance Writers of America meeting finally lured her out of the house for good. Now she’s always’ with people, whether working with, them at her daytime job as a com-* puter operator, or autographing their books at a store.“I wrote myself into the world,”4 she said.Someday, Mrs. Lucas hopes to write herself onto the New York Times bestseller list with a contemporary novel, or a romance.Until then, she said she’s content to reach back into her history to' unearth snaliygasters and other lord.“I love getting older. X have gotten happier, smarter, more of a handle on my life,” she said. “I’ve done what I’ve always wanted to do aU my life. Be a published author. No more June Cleaver.” *Mayo Lucas will be signing copies of her book “Camelot Jones'’ at the Waldenbooks store at the Frederick Towne Mall Saturday, June 10, front lto3 p.m.of several editorial battles. After the“One romance writer told me, ‘Make them laugh, make themcry, make them wait.’ ”editors’ initial review of the book, they wanted her to make 256
Newspaper Details
The Frederick News Post
Frederick, Maryland, US
Fri, Jun 09, 1989
Page 29
Full Page
Clipped by
Kevin S.
CA 18 Jan 2022
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