Margaret Nienstedt, 74, of Crystal Lake, gladly paid $3.08 for her autographed copy of the newest romance novel by Crystal Lake`s popular author. The inscription read: ”To Margaret with best wishes, Jean Barrett.”
Behind her, Barrett was signing copies of the new book with its front cover picture of a couple in a clutching, passionate embrace, at a Crystal Lake bookstore Sunday afternoon.
Barrett is not what many expect a local-4th grade teacher turned romance novelist to look and sound like: 6 feet 4 inches tall, whiskers, a bass voice. Barrett is known about his hometown as Bob Rogers, an elementary school teacher for 31 years who quit four years ago to write romance novels full time.
Rogers, who`ll only say he`s in his late 50s, was born and raised in Crystal Lake, where he now lives with his schoolteacher wife, Laura. He writes for Silhouette Books, a subsidiary of Harlequin Enterprises, which has more than 800 authors, but the soft-spoken, good-humored Rogers says he is one of only three who are male.
His latest novel, ”Held Hostage,” is a story about ”a plain-Jane schoolteacher” stranded in the Canadian wilderness with a fugitive accused of murder, according to advertisements.
The signing was held the day before school started in Crystal Lake, and the notion of a schoolteacher heroine piqued the curiousity and imaginations of many of Rogers` former colleagues.
”I`ll start this tonight,” said Carol Vander Meade, a 3rd-grade teacher. ”I always root for the plain-Jane schoolteacher, the one who has a weight problem and is not a raving beauty. I like stories where people end up happily ever after.”
Rogers said he thinks he ”surprised a lot of people” when the first of his six books was published.
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”They are sexy. It may not have been my choice, but if you want to be published . . . you`ve got to write for the market.”
His last novel, ”A Ring of Gold” has sold 167,000 copies as of last spring, and was being issued in several foreign-language editions.
Though he says he has never based his fictional characters on local residents, people in Crystal Lake can`t help wondering.
Said 4th-grade teacher Judy Spellacy: ”I`m interested in reading this one. It`s about a schoolteacher. I want to see if there are any teachers in there or personalities I know.”