Goddess of Steam

PALMER — Jackie Ivie is Palmer’s Goddess of Steam. Just flip open a copy of one of her soft-back books and you’ll catch on quick.

Since 2005, Ivie’s ‘Knight’ series might be completely different in the historical sense, as well as characters and situations, but her three books have one thing in common: They’ve all sold right off the shelves around the world and they’re chock full of sultry.

Jackie has written thirteen novels over her short career as a historical romance novelist, but it took “Lady of the Knight,” her first published work in 2005, to jump start Ivie’s love and career for writing books.

With a knack for writing fantasies women relate and a passion for European history, Ivie put pen to paper and came up with two more popular books, “Tender is the Knight,” (2006) and “The Knight Before Christmas” (2007).

“The names are a bit cheesy,” Ivie admitted.

In 1980, a Wall Street Journal article referred to historical-romances as “publishing’s answer to the Big Mac: They are juicy, cheap, predictable, and devoured in stupefying quantities by legions of loyal fans.”

Ivie admits her body of work will always be criticized, but asks those in doubt to read just for entertainment.

With a new book hitting the shelves next year, Ivie took some time to answer the age old question, do those scantly clad men on her book covers really exist?

Bullseye: Do you have a loyal Valley fan base?

Jackie Ivie: I do have a very small “Jackie Ivie fan club” here in Palmer. There are two founding members that formed in 2005 and I met them then. We had a homemade wine tasting party at one’s house. Wonderful ladies. I have about 10 or 15 readers that I know of in the Valley. I’ve gotten e-mails all the way from Malaysia. A lot of the time people just write to tell me it wasn’t their cup of tea.

BE: How does a girl from Salt Lake City grow up to write historical romance novels?

JI: I fell in love with romances back in the 1970s, then I moved to Wyoming and got to the point where I thought I could write one of these better than the one I was reading. Nine books and 22 years later, I got published. But once you get that fire started, it’s hard to get it extinguished. It’s really quite fun. I get to kill off the people I want dead.

BE: Do you ever get the itch to quit your day job, leave Alaska and run away to warmer climates to write, live on the beach enjoying Piña Coladas?

JI: Heck no. Well, maybe for some of the winter. Palmer is it for me. I love staying at home and looking out the windows and write. Weekends I do feel like it’s time for a vacation, especially when you get a taste of it. I lived in Wyoming for 22 years, so I’m used to all this cold stuff. As long as you’re indoors looking out, everything is wonderful. Luckily, writing is something you can do indoors, where it is nice and cozy. You have to write because you love it. I’ve always loved reading, but I didn’t get any formal training to write and had to learn that on my own.

BE: Your characters are set in Scotland most of the time. Have you been?

JI: No, I haven’t yet. The guys in the kilts have always fascinated me, hence the reason I guess I go there in my books. I have every book on Scotland imaginable. But, that is just one branch I was writing. I’ve taken the characters to New Orleans, Egypt during the Indian tea company crisis, France during the revolution. The one that took off was the Scottish genre. That’s what my publisher wants because that’s what the fans want right now.

BE: Your books have been called everything from adventurous, sexy and steamy to trashy and submissive. How do you handle opinions about your subject matter?

JI: I’ve dealt with over 300 rejections before getting published. I would tell a person who doesn’t like my books to read another one. You have to have the inner conviction to get through the people who told you ‘you can’t do it.’ I hear from people all the time, ‘It’s utterly awful.’ You just learn to say ‘next.’ You can’t let it get to you because it will stifle some writers. I love the experiences in the books: The first glance, your first kiss and touch, and I talk to people this has happened to and they get it. So, if people don’t like it, then I’m sorry.

BE: I’ve read portions of ‘The Knight Before Christmas’ online. Pretty steamy stuff.

JI: Oh yeah. I’m not quite erotica, so to speak. There are those books that are the very heart of the triple-X book industry. I’m not there. I consider myself a sensual, historical romance novelist. You know, like from “Gone With the Wind” where the scene ends with the door closing, but the reader knows they’re about to do it. Kathlene Woodiwiss knew it best. Now there is a forerunner of the historical-romance novel as we know it today. She just passed away and was one of my aspiring authors. I was walking my dog once and a lady stopped me on the street and said, ‘I was blown away by your book!’ That makes it worth it.

BE: Those half naked men on the covers must be effective in getting women to buy the book. Is that the gist of it?

JI: [Laughs] Of course! That’s one of the top covers, the ones with the guy on the cover. The “clinch” covers are the ones that have the couples embracing, usually air-brushed or painted. I never knew these things before being published. I have a Spanish cover of ‘Lady of the Knight’ called ‘La dame de caballero’ that was in that theme. A Dutch version had the cover I always envisioned. When I was younger and in the local bookstore, I started making a place on the book shelf for Ivie, and the store manager said, ‘What are you doing? There’s no Ivie on the shelves.’ I would say, ‘One of these days there will be.’ Bingo, it happened. I realized though that once you get your dream, it’s not like you think. It was a different step in life, but the clouds didn’t part.

BE: Other romance authors, such as Jackie Collins and Nora Roberts, have made fortunes and have topped best-sellers lists writing in your genre. Do you think romances will keep flourishing with the public?

JI: Romances are 58% of the market! I think Nora Roberts is on the top of that genre. That would be really awesome, to be on a best sellers list, but I’m not in charge of that, the readers are. Right now, as it stands, the cover is 50% of the purchasing power. Placement in the bookstore is another one, so if they don’t know your name, you have to be clever. I do get good covers though, I will admit. I love Zebra [Ivie’s publishing company] for that.

BE: What is it with knights, heroes and princes and being rescued in many of these books?

JI: I think it’s because that life is so much different than life is now. Historical books take so much more time and effort to research, eventually more appreciated than what life is like now. I couldn’t write contemporary stories to save my life. The lingo and technology moves too fast, so if you started writing about so-and-so using his word processor, you’d better scratch that and start over. Not so with my books.

BE: Where is our knight going in the next Jackie Ivie book?

JI: Further back in time to 1137 Scotland, with Kind David and his priories. I love priories. My hero in this next one is a Norman and the lady is a Highlander, I haven’t a clue what guy in the kilt they’ll put on the cover, but I hope my hero matches the cover. I have a fantastic editor [Audrey LeFehr]. She’s the editor of my future, and she knows what she’s doing. I don’t pick the titles. This lady wrote me telling me she hated the titles. The next one is a “Knight Well Spent,” so she’ll love that one. [Laughs]

Jackie Ivie will be signing copies of her books from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday at Waldenbooks in Wasilla.