Okay, you know it’s bad when the title is a question. I have to say, I chose this topic thinking I’d be able to find--if not one definitive answer--at least some lively discussion on the topic.
Google, Ask.com, and RomanceWiki failed me. Romantic Times had a nice list of top picks in the genres over the years, but no dates listed. Grrrr.
So, my next step was to dig in my brain and try to remember the first paranormal romance I read. It was sometime in the mid-nineties while I was working at local college library. Then it hit me: Amanda Ashley. I checked out her website and found the cover that I’m pretty certain was the book. It was “Embrace the Night”, a vampire story, and it was published in 1995.
Amanda had a nice article on her website where she mentioned being inspired by Nancy Gideon’s Pinnacle Vampires published in 1994 and by Lori Herter who published the vampire romance, Obsession in 1991.
1991?? There weren’t any paranormal romances before this? I find that hard to believe, but maybe it’s true. To clarify--I’m defining romance as the standard girl meets boy, conflict, and then a “happy ever after.” Otherwise Anne Rice and Bram Stroker might try to take the title (not on my watch).
I wonder if there were any time-travel romances before 1991. I consider time-travel paranormal, simply because it involves ideas beyond the laws of modern science. Did any of those 80’s writers tackle that plot line? I'm pulling up a blank on that question.
Anyone else out there have a clue as to when the first paranormal romance novel hit the bookshelves? Now that I've looked and not found the answer--I'm really curious.
Google, Ask.com, and RomanceWiki failed me. Romantic Times had a nice list of top picks in the genres over the years, but no dates listed. Grrrr.
So, my next step was to dig in my brain and try to remember the first paranormal romance I read. It was sometime in the mid-nineties while I was working at local college library. Then it hit me: Amanda Ashley. I checked out her website and found the cover that I’m pretty certain was the book. It was “Embrace the Night”, a vampire story, and it was published in 1995.
Amanda had a nice article on her website where she mentioned being inspired by Nancy Gideon’s Pinnacle Vampires published in 1994 and by Lori Herter who published the vampire romance, Obsession in 1991.
1991?? There weren’t any paranormal romances before this? I find that hard to believe, but maybe it’s true. To clarify--I’m defining romance as the standard girl meets boy, conflict, and then a “happy ever after.” Otherwise Anne Rice and Bram Stroker might try to take the title (not on my watch).
I wonder if there were any time-travel romances before 1991. I consider time-travel paranormal, simply because it involves ideas beyond the laws of modern science. Did any of those 80’s writers tackle that plot line? I'm pulling up a blank on that question.
Anyone else out there have a clue as to when the first paranormal romance novel hit the bookshelves? Now that I've looked and not found the answer--I'm really curious.
UPDATE! Rhonda Stapelton pointed me to her Northeast Ohio RWA chapter page and the entry on Ms. Shiplett. June Lund Shiplett published "Journey to Yesterday" in 1979! Wow, that's what I wanted to find :) She was also a charter member of RWA. Romance writers are such a creative bunch.
13 comments:
And "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" by Josephine Leslie in 1945 is not a romance and not paranormal. And the grand daddy of all would be Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1897. Ask any female if they are hot romance books.
In a way paranormal romance has been around a long time. After all Frankenstein was about a monster who was looking for love. so you could say that was a tragic romance.
Hunchback of Notre Dame? Would that be considered paranormal?
Jund Lund Shiplett had the first time travel published (she's in my local RWA chapter).
www.neorwa.com - you can find her info. :D
I guess it depends on wat you consider "paranormal romance". There were a lot of gothics published over the years starting in...well, 1794 with the Castle of Otranto!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction#The_first_gothic_romances
If you're talking about the first official "genre romance" that had paranormal elements, some say it was the futuristics published in the 80's. I have an *extensive* list of those somewhere if anyone is interested! It's really long but I'm willing to post it to the blog.
Jody W.
anonymous, sj, and carolan - Those are all great stories (though I haven't read Leslie's book), but I was thinking more in our romance genre as defined by the happy ending. But I totally agree there are elements of romance in many, many published paranormal works going back centuries.
Rhonda - thanks for the link. I'm going to try and edit the post with her book cover (we'll see if I'm successful!)
Writer & cat: I'll have to check out that list. Should have gone over there last night when I was writing this :)
~Margo
Constance O'Day-Flannery had time travel romances in the 1980's.
Timeless Passion is my fave.
Rock on--glad to help out! :D
Jude Devereaux. Didn't she write, A Knight In Shining Armour? What year was that written in? That was a time travel. If it wasn't the late 80's it was definately the early '90's.
In 1996 Olga Bicos came out with Wrapped in Wishes, a very cool time travel with aspects of a "walk in" situation. Really super cool concept.
Johanna Lindsey wrote a few time travels in the 90's.
Hmmmm...I'll have to put my thinking cap on to come up with some others.
-Kat
jill-thanks for the name. I love those thick '80 romances. I wish I had time to track them all down and read them :)
mk-you know, I was thinking I had read a Devereax time travel--it must have been that book--the title rings a bell!
Thanks for the leads of some great reads. I have so much respect for the romance genre and I think all these "firsts" should be recorded somewhere :)
Knight in Shining Armor - Pocket Books, 1989. I still have it, although after several readings the heroine started to annoy me. LOL Great book, though.
Jayne Ann Krentz wrote Gift Of Gold (1988) and Gift of Gold (1989), contemporaries with psychic talents (psychometry) and she wrote many other books with characters who had paranormal senses under her own name as well as under Jayne Castle (Amaryllis, Zinnia, Orchid, etc). Nora Roberts also had paranormal books in the early 90's with her Night Tales Series.
I'm pretty sure Dark Shadows (1966-1971), the tv-series bred quite a lot... there's both witches, vampires and time travel, and it was rather popular.
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