Carol went so far as to create a crossword puzzle for the author’s website. They support her decision to write romance novels. She also defended the romance genre in an article in The New York Times.Įloisa’s father, stepmother, and mother are proud of her publishing success. She rejected that attitude, walked into a faculty meeting at her university, and shared copies of her books with every professor at the gathering. The author realized that she kept her second career a secret because she was ashamed of her romance novels. However, by the mid-2000s, Eloisa had decided to reveal her second career to her friends. Eloisa was so determined to keep her publishing career a secret that she would ditch her glasses in favor of contacts whenever she attended functions under her pseudonym. She used the name to write multiple bestsellers.

This is where the ‘Eloisa James’ pen name emerged. She wanted to keep her academic work separate from the romance novels she wrote. However, despite her success, she was a little hesitant to pursue publishing. The advance she made cleared her student loans. She wrote a story and made a submission to a publisher. The author responded by following in her parent’s footsteps. He wanted the couple to clear their student loans before expanding their family.

She already had one child, and her husband was hesitant to add a second one. And even though Robert wanted her to read the classics, he permitted Eloisa to consume one romance novel a week.Įloisa, who attended Havard, Oxford, and Yale University, started writing romance during her stint at the University of Virginia. She blames the obsession on Georgette Heyer. Her fascination with romance at that time was difficult to ignore. She started producing plays with her siblings and charging adults a fee to witness the results of her hard work. These stories sparked the author’s imagination. Eloisa’s father was always reading to his children, introducing their young minds to literary classics. Instead, her family had amassed a sizable collection of books.

Wright wrote a poem for Eloisa, which he included in ‘Collected Poems.’ The volume won a Pulitzer Prize. Her godfather (James Wright) was even more awe-inspiring. In fact, Carol used her daughter for inspiration when she wrote ‘The Maternity Wing, Madison, Minnesota.’

On the other hand, Carol Bly wrote short stories. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that writing runs in Eloisa’s blood.

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