But then she landed a new publisher who tasked her with publishing a contemporary romantic suspense novel each year. She initially specialized in historical romance. This one sold even faster than the first one and it gave Robards’ career a much-needed boost. Within three months, she had a second novel. But Robards always found time to write during her lunch break.

Because she had to survive until her next novel was written and published, she secured a temporary position in an orthodontic clinic. In fact, she was so confident in her ability to succeed as a writer that she abandoned her studies in law school so that she could focus on her writing career. However, Karen Robards was not perturbed.

This discouraged them from buying more of her work. Publishers were not convinced that the author had much of an audience. It only stayed in stores for three weeks. ‘Island Flame’ wasn’t necessarily a big hit. This is because they created the foundation that she used to write her debut novel, ‘Island Flame’ in 1981. However, Robards now perceives those 50 pages in a positive light. But she wasn’t perturbed by her choice, not until she realized that she would have to read her work to the class. When she was penning it, Robards knew that her subject matter was far from conventional for her class. This eventually drove her to write 50 pages within the historical romance genre. She studied the publishing industry to identify the kind of storytelling it responded to. Robards took this assignment quite seriously. But she was quite happy when Reader’s Digest published her story in 1973, sending her a $100 check for her efforts.Īnd then, during her time at the University of Kentucky, a professor asked the class to write a 50-page story that was worthy of publishing.

She wasn’t sure what to expect when she submitted it. First, while she was working for her father, an orthodontist, in her teenage years, Robards saw a magazine that asked readers to submit funny anecdotes.įascinated by the challenge, Robards wrote a two-paragraph story. Two events compelled her to experiment with publishing. She is fairly certain that she would have pursued a career in the legal field if her writing hadn’t taken off.

Amanda rose by karen robards