In memory of Joan Van Nuys
Joan Van Nuys was born Joan Carol Atkinson in Tarentum, Pennsylvania on April 13, 1929. Her father, an itinerant salesman and alcoholic, was convinced that music was the key to getting his family out from under the weight of poverty. Her older sister, Betty, was already considered a violin prodigy when Joan started learning the violin at age six. Although not a prodigy like her sister, she continued her studies and became an accomplished classical violinist.
She married Robert van Nuys in 1950. They settled in western Pennsylvania and had three daughters. In the 1960s and 1970s, she performed with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra.
Joan began writing late in life after her daughter Carol moved to Norway in 1973; she compiled Carol’s many adventures into short story form. Although not a fan of the romance genre (she never read a romance novel before deciding to write one), she thought it might be an easy way to begin a writing career. Over a period of seven years, she wrote seven critically successful and popular historical romance novels published by Leisure Romance and Avon Books.
Joan had three daughters, four granddaughters (two of them Norwegian), three cats, and she lived in the same old ivy-covered house in northwestern Pennsylvania for many years. She was an avid fan of Star Trek Second Generation, Star Trek Voyager, The Young and the Restless, and she loved reading, gardening, pingpong and exploring old towns in Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. She died on May 20, 2000, after a brief battle with colon cancer. Her novels are still widely available on the Internet.
To read more:
http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/20582247/