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NTRWA
April 2004 Spotlight On...
WANDA RAINE
by Juliet Burns
Last
year marked the 20th anniversary of North Texas Romance Writers. NT is one
of the first RWA® chapters in the United States. Wanda Raine
was there at the beginning of this exciting adventure. She, along with her
critique partners, June Harvey and Faye Courageous, became charter members
at the first meeting held in 1983.
Wanda was born in Denver, Colorado
in 1934. Her daddy called her bumple
because she used to go bump, bump, bump down the
hill and her daddy would catch her. She met her husband
at her job in Cincinnati
and next month they’ll celebrate their 46th wedding anniversary.
Wanda had 5 children but has tragically lost 2 sons and
has raised her grandchildren after their deaths.
Through it all, she’s always written. As a freshman in high school, her
teacher asked for a short story and Wanda’s writing won 2nd place in the
contest. She and her family moved to
Arlington
in 1962, and eventually
she began taking writing courses at
Tarrant
County
College
. There she met June,
Faye, and several other writers who formed a critique group. They traveled
to writing conferences together and, though June has passed away, she and
Faye remain friends today.
Wanda writes Romantic suspense and is currently working on an intrigue set
against the dangerous burning oil fields of
Kuwait
. Her favorite authors
are Mona Sizemore (writing as Deana James); Sandy Steen, an original NT
member who writes Harlequin Temptations; and Joyce Sullivan, who writes
Harlequin Intrigues.
If you write historicals, Wanda is wealth of
information. Her grandparents were pioneers of the west and she remembers
visiting their 2 room log cabin with no electricity and only a pump for
water. Though she doesn’t have email, if you call her and state that you
are a member of
North Texas
, she’ll be glad to answer any questions about how
life really was back in the old west.
Her pet peeve is reading Historical with inaccurate historical facts and
the use of proper English in writing.
My favorite story Wanda told me was her most romantic moment. For twenty
years of her marriage, Wanda did not have an engagement ring. She would
occasionally mention to her husband she’d like a pearl engagement ring,
but nothing ever came of it and she’d all but given up. So when her
birthday rolled around one year, Wanda asked for a kitchen appliance. But
her husband took her to the romantic hilltop restaurant, Calamity
Jane’s and Wanda tasted her first Mai-Tai. After dinner, her
husband, thwarted by her refusal to order dessert, simply handed her a
beautiful engagement ring with 2 pearls flanked by two diamonds. Of
course, Wanda cried.
Now, that’s romance!
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