American famous writer of modern love and crime novels Iris Joansen was born in the United States in April 1938. She started literary activity quite late. Before coming to writing novels, she spent quite a long period of her life serving at once several of the largest US airlines. This work allowed her to travel a lot, get acquainted with the culture, life and history of various countries. Over the years, she traveled almost the whole world. Each trip is a mass of new, hitherto unfamiliar experiences that she tried to absorb like a sponge.
Since childhood, Iris Joansen had a vivid imagination, a special gift to invent and tell various exciting stories. Friends loved to listen to her with bated breath, and this feature of her brought her great popularity among her peers. Nevertheless, in her youth she did not think at all of writing and did not even suspect that someday she would become famous not only in the States, but throughout the world as a writer of love and detective genres.
A family
The famous writer Iris Joansen has a wonderful family. She, together with relatives, her beloved husband and children - son Roy and daughter Tamara - live in the south of the country, in the state of Georgia, exactly where her beloved literary heroine Scarlet O'Hara came from. Surely, fans of Iris’s work more than once noticed the similarity of her characters with the legendary Lady Butler from Margaret Mitchell’s immortal novel “Gone with the Wind”. Nevertheless, Iris tries not to repeat herself in her books and each time invents completely different heroines who differ from each other not only in their external data, but also in their characters and fates.
Of course, the writer can be "blamed" for excessive sentimentality and the fact that she, as a typical American, is a supporter of the "happy endings." Perhaps all of this “fault” is her well-established marriage. Iris is a wonderful mother. Despite the great employment in the aviation industry, she always tried to devote all her free time to her children, was engaged in their development, and she became interested in literary activity only when they grew up, became independent and entered adulthood. A great passion for the writer is her dogs, she has six of them.
Beginning of the career of a writer
In the early eighties, having crossed the threshold of the fortieth anniversary, Iris Joansen suddenly took up her pen. Perhaps she began to do this in order to fill the void that had formed in her house with the departure of the children who went to college. Or maybe she’s finally ripe for this. Her first novel, Touching the Horizon, brought her great success and recognition.
Genre change
In the very beginning of the nineties, Iris suddenly changed the direction of her works and began to compose exclusively historical romance novels. Her first book in this genre was The Wind Dancer, whose name translates into Russian as "Dancing Wind." The acquaintance of the Russian reader with the work of this writer began precisely with this novel. And he, of course, has become a wonderful calling card for the author.
The name Iris Joansen, all of whose books began to be translated into Russian, increasingly began to appear in book ratings presented in Russia. In 1996, she once again decided to change the genre and began to write detective novels with elements of love stories. And imagine, they were given to her better. On the sites where her books are published, you can find reviews in which readers share their admiration for the analytical mindset of the famous writer.
By the way, the son of Iris - Roy - followed in the footsteps of his mother and also became a famous novelist, as well as a screenwriter for Hollywood films. He was awarded the Special Edgar Allan Poe Prize. As for the daughter of Iris, Tamara, she is also not far from writing and helps her mother in finding new and interesting material for the creation of her works.
Iris Joansen: all books. List
2006 was a landmark year for the American novelist. She received recognition from the famous New York edition of the New York Times. Seventeen of her books (30 in total) were on the bestseller list of this famous newspaper. According to the results summed up in 2015, over 25 million books were sold over the 25 years of his writing career. Naturally, romance brought her and her family a great fortune. However, for Iris, as for any creative person, recognition of fans is much more important.
Publications
To date, the famous American writer writes about 30 novels. They are distributed in the following author's series:
- “White Silk“.
- “Donovany”.
- “Delaney“
- “The Duet" (1-2-3).
- “Hotel Santa Flores”.
- "Dancing wind."
- “Eva Duncan.”
- “Clanade” and others.
Her books have also been published in several publishing series. Here is some of them:
- "Fantasies of women of Balzac age."
- “Enjoying life.”
- "The voice of the heart."
- “Lace”.
- “Love Stories.”
- "Temptation".
- “An unexpected love affair.”
- "My love".
- "Charm".
- “Romantic mood”, etc.
Best works
Among the books of the writer, a special place is occupied by the work “Castle in the Sand”. This is her third book, and she is part of a series of contemporary love affairs. According to some critics, the plot of the work is a little implausible, even fantastic.
This is the story of a girl who suffered a deep mental trauma, because of which she decided that she would never be able to fall in love again. Wishing to have a baby, she resorts to artificial insemination. Her daughter becomes the only meaning of her life. But overnight in her life, everything changes when she meets a mysterious dreamer who believes that a strong and reliable castle can be built even out of sand.
The book “Castle in the Sand” evokes conflicting feelings, but it leaves no one indifferent. Of course, the plot of the book is extraordinary, and this once again suggests that its author - A. Joansen - is an unusual writer and possessor of special talent.
Her other book, Dancing Wind, is the first serious work of the writer. This is a mix of the classic thriller romance novel, and it reads in one go.
Speaking about the best works of this American writer, one cannot help but name the novel “Bronze Hawk”. This is the story of a desperate journalist who, for the sake of an interesting interview with a famous and no less magnificent man, is ready to make an unsafe balloon trip. And this time, Iris Joansen managed to get to the point and create an exciting storyline, thanks to which the book began to be considered a bestseller.