Fay Robinson

Author Fay Robinson passed away December 2, 2002. As well as being a double RITA Award-winning author of five Harlequin Superromance novels, Fay was a mother, a wife and a genuinely giving and wonderful person. She leaves behind a legacy of good memories and great books. Fay Robinson believed in love at first sight, happy-ever-after endings and that some hearts are destined to unite. How could she not? Her English mother and American father married by transatlantic telephone at the close of World War II, six months after their first and only date. Fay had her own rendezvous with destiny while doing an interview on a firefighter for her local newspaper. That night she told her best friend, "Today I met the man I'm going to marry." She and her firefighter were married for more than 25 years. Fay, her husband and son lived on a small farm in Alabama, in the U.S., within 100 miles of the place where her paternal ancestors settled in the early 1800s. Her mother's family is scattered across the world - in England, Canada, India and New Zealand. Her ancestry is colorful; it includes a famous painter, a war hero (and a deserter), a riverboat captain, a psychic, farmers, bricklayers and a mysterious grandfather with possible ties to England's royal family. The women in her family were pioneers. They worked beside their husbands, carving out homes in the wilderness. For her novels, Fay liked characters who are realistic and interesting, and who find themselves in situations that test their identities and beliefs. Her stories are bold and emotional. She said she wanted the reader to weep, laugh out loud and be surprised as a result of her plot twists. "When they finish they should say, 'Wow! That was a great read.' If they do that, I've done my job." Fay was a professional researcher and writer most of her life. She wrote hundreds of articles, personal essays and opinion pieces for magazines and newspapers. Though she had only begun her career in writing romance, she had already made an impact in so many ways, and she will be greatly missed.