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Romance writer 'Haunts' the city Hope Tarr's latest sexy love story is set in Fredericksburg, her home for the past six years Date published: 4/6/2007
Hope Tarr doesn't try to convert literary highbrows into romance readers.
Some people will never appreciate a 250-page mass-market paperback love story, no matter how well told. That's fine. Tarr's not writing for them. Instead, she writes for those dedicated readers who make romance the biggest-selling genre in publishing. Romance novels accounted for $1.4 billion in sales in 2005, according to the Romance Writers of America. That's more than mysteries, literary fiction and sci-fi combined. Tarr, a 42-year-old Fredericksburg resident, has just published her sixth novel, a Harlequin Extreme Blaze contemporary set in Fredericksburg. Told partly in flashbacks, "The Haunting" is the story of a University of Mary Washington history professor who kindles a romance with a ghostly hunk--a Union soldier unjustly executed for treason after the Battle of Fredericksburg. The book features many sites Tarr has frequented in her six years as a Fredericksburg resident. The heroine, Maggie, has coffee at Hyperion, dines at Bistro Bethem and shops at e.e. smith and kybecca. She finds a tintype of her 19th-century counterpart at Beck's Antiques. The photographic twist was inspired by an experience Tarr had a few years ago at a city estate sale. She felt drawn to an image of a woman in 1860s dress, whose expression suggested intelligence and wistful sadness. Tarr imagined that this woman was bookish, and she felt a kinship. She bought the photo for $3 and glanced at it for inspiration while writing "The Haunting." Two city locations--the building that now houses the Fredericksburg Visitor Center and the National Cemetery--were slightly altered to work with the plot, Tarr said. Other locations are true to life. Heroine Maggie does research in the Virginiana room of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library and lives in a historic home on Caroline Street similar to one in which Tarr lived for five years. Tarr still lives in the city but in a smaller space, with two cats to keep her company during long hours of writing. Tarr is under contract to produce three books a year for romance juggernaut Harlequin and one per year from the newer, smaller Medallion Press.
Date published: 4/6/2007
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