As literary beginnings go, Iris Johansen's were inauspicious. She was too embarrassed to show her first four novels to anyone. Twelve years ago, when she was 43 and working as a reservations clerk for Eastern Airlines, she sent her fifth attempt to Bantam Books. It was called "Stormy Vows," and it was a romance novel about a film director and an actress.
For six months "Stormy Vows" sat in Bantam's slush pile, the place where unsolicited work, both promising and egregious, is relegated. Then Johansen got the call that all would-be novelists yearn for: Bantam said that the book was good enough to publish.Now, 46 published books later, Johansen has reached another milestone. Earlier this month, her latest novel, "The Beloved Scoundrel," debuted on the New York Times best-seller list, the first time any of her books has ever made it onto the list.
"Beloved Scoundrel" is a romance novel, too, about a feisty young woman and her love affair with Jordan Draken, the brooding and not-so-trustworthy Duke of Cambaron.
"The writing part is very easy for me," said Johansen, who now has an agent, two million copies of her books in print and, perhaps most rewardingly for her, no day job at an airline.