Romance Fiction Has a History

In the world of romance fiction, 1996 was ages ago. As was 1997 and 1999. Authors and readers have come and gone multiple times over since then, as have entire publishing companies and subgenres. Lots of us read our books on handheld computers, something that seemed unthinkable all those years ago. Most of us can name a few romance authors who were writing then, often because they’re still writing now, but we’ve forgotten so many more of them. Today we’re going to highlight three of those names that have faded in the years since, to try and add a little context to lives that met a tragic end.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. According to The Hotline, intimate partner violence affects more than 12 million people each year in the United States. One in four women and one in seven men have been the victim of severe intimate partner violence over the course of their lifetimes. Unfortunately, the happy endings created and consumed by those in the romance community don’t insulate us from these statistics. 

Three of the most high profile domestic violence deaths in our community happened within three years of each other. Ann Wassall was murdered in 1996, Pamela Macaluso in 1997, and Nancy Richards-Akers in 1999. The murder of Nancy Richards-Akers was the only one to make national news, with articles in The Washington Post, Salon, and CNN among others. Because each was murdered by a husband who then committed suicide, every article linked Richards-Akers’ murder to the murders of Wassall and Macaluso, flattening the lives of these women to their cause of death. 24 years later, any internet search for their names lists the 1999 articles first and foremost.

I do not want their deaths to be the only things we remember about these three women. Each of the following biographical sketches is an attempt to fix that. They are not complete, and I welcome any additional information that folks can provide in the comments.

Ann Wassall (1939-1996) lived in Newark, California. She had been a freelance editor for Harlequin at one point, but gained local fame for her romance review TV show “Ann’s World” on Fremont’s cable access network. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the half-hour show ran every week for 16 years, and more than 600 episodes. Wassall would review between five to seven books on each show, meaning she shared more than 4,000 books with her community. She was murdered on December 12, 1996.

Pamela Macaluso (1952-1997) began her career writing contemporary romances in 1990 with Remember My Love, an amnesia romance for Meteor Publishing’s Kismet line. After another Kismet book, she moved over to Silhouette Desire, writing five titles for the publisher as well as a title for Zebra’s short-lived Precious Gem Romance line. She was murdered alongside her two sons in March 1997. The book she was working on at the time of her death, The Cowboy Who Came in From The Cold, was published posthumously as a Silhouette Desire in June 1998.

Nancy Richards-Akers (1954-1999) grew up in suburban Scarsdale, New York before attending Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C. She began her writing career as a congressional speechwriter before starting a family. Her romance career began in 1987 with the publication of a Regency romance called The Mayfair Season for Warner Books. In 1992 she began writing Regency romances for Avon, eventually publishing ten Regency and Irish themed historical romances for the company. She had a loyal following among historical romance readers, and The Washington Post named 1997’s Wild Irish Skies one of the top ten romances of that year. She was murdered on June 5, 1999.

If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, please reach out for help. The Hotline provides multiple confidential methods of reaching out, or you can reach out to your local shelter. The Hotline also provide resources for those who want to get the word out to raise awareness and advocate about intimate partner violence during October and the rest of the year.

A special thanks to Sarah Skrobis at the Staunton Public Library in Virginia for helping me track down print articles about Ann Wassall.

Additional Sources Used:

REED, DAN. “TV HOST, HUSBAND FOUND DEAD MURDER-SUICIDE: NEWARK MAN SHOT ANN WASSALL, THEN HIMSELF, POLICE SAY..” San Jose Mercury News (CA), Alameda County ed., sec. Local, 14 Dec. 1996, p. 1B.

NANCY RICHARDS-AKERS, Fictiondb.com https://www.fictiondb.com/author/nancy-richards-akers~6227.htm

PAMELA MACALUSO, Fictiodb.com https://www.fictiondb.com/author/pamela-macaluso~4744.htm