She treats writing as the full time job it is, working from 8 A.M. Robards resides in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband and three sons, and credits her success to her supportive family and to her dedication. Her books have a winning combination of suspense, passion, and humor that keep readers coming back. She has stated that she chooses to write books that she would want to read, and her readers seem to agree with her. She is one of the few romance authors who’ve been able to make the switch from historical to contemporary romance, and she continues to write successfully in several romance genres, even when her publishers seem to think that particular style of book isn’t going to sell. Throughout her career, Robards has continued a common-sense approach to writing, choosing her own path instead of allowing others to direct her course. Thrilled by her success, she dropped out of law school and began writing full time. She resurrected her creative writing project, sent it to publishers, got some interest, and wrote Island Flame (1981). In the summer before her final year of law school, Robards saved herself from a career path she didn’t want by dedicating herself to her writing. Her discouragement didn’t last for long, though: those first 50 pages turned into her first novel. Her classmates laughed, and her professor noted that while she had talent, she needed to fix her reading material.

In a class full of men who believed they were writing the next great American novel, Robard’s steamy, exciting romance stood out – in a bad way.

Pragmatically, Robards went to a local bookstore, looked at what was selling, and decided that was what she would write. During a graduate level creative writing class, her professor requested they write the first 50 pages of a book that would get published. When she wrote the first few pages of her first book, she had never even read a romance, noting that she had always considered them to be to un-intellectual for her liking. She had a submission accepted to Reader’s Digest at a young age, but in her family of doctors and lawyers, “author” was not a valid career choice. Karen Robards didn’t intend to become a best-selling romance author.

Dark torment by karen robards