A Love of Romance
Penfield author pens 106 books — one selling more than 1 million copies. At 74, she is embarking on a new project
By Mike Costanza
In 1994, Kathy Schaefer was ready to drop her dream of being a writer of romance novels.
“I had had so many rejections,” the 74-year-old said. “I was this close to quitting.”
Then came that phone call from Harlequin Enterprises, a powerhouse publisher of romance novels.
The moment she picked up the phone, Schaefer realized that her dream was coming true. Publishers send rejections through the mail.
“They don’t call unless it’s good news,” she said.
“The Father Factor,” Schaefer’s first published book, sold 1 million copies. Since then, the prolific author, who writes under the nom de plume Kathryn Shay, has penned another 106 works. That total includes novels, novellas and collections of short stories. Most of her books have been set in Upstate New York or the Southern Tier. All but one have been romances.
Schaefer came to love romantic fiction and movies while growing up in Corning.
While in the ninth grade, she wrote a short story about a young woman named “April Blake” who went to New York City to become a newspaper reporter. The story was never published, but when Schaefer applied to Nazareth College, (now Nazareth University) she wanted to study creative writing. Her mother insisted that she acquire more marketable skills.
“My mother said that I couldn’t support myself as a writer, so I had to take teaching classes,” Schaefer said. “I was furious, but you did what your mother told you in those days.”
She did manage to take 18 hours of creative writing in addition to her classes on teaching. Charles Mills, a respected author, was teaching one of those courses and allowed her to do it as an independent study.
“Every week, I would write a story and he would read it and critique it,” Schaefer said. “When that class ended, he said ‘Ms. Ruocco, [her maiden name] you have talent and you could go far in this area.’”
While attending Nazareth she met the man who later became her husband, St. John Fisher College (now St. John Fisher University) student Jerry Schaefer. After graduating from their respective colleges, they married and moved to Chili, where Schaefer became an English teacher at Gates-Chili High School. Though she loved teaching, she never lost her desire to write romance novels and other works. Her first book was based on her short story about April Blake.
“It was terrible and it had several rejections,” Schaefer said. “I put it in a drawer and it never saw the light of day.”
Schaefer continued writing while teaching full-time, keeping house and helping to raise two children.
“I used to write on weekends, in mornings,” she said. “Then I used to sometimes get up 4 o’clock in the morning, before the kids got up to go to school.”
By the time she was 45 years old, she’d received more than 60 rejection letters from publishers and literary agents. Then Harlequin agreed to publish “The Father Factor.”
“The Father Factor” features the overworked father of two children. One has spina bifida, a serious spinal condition and the other is depressed to the point of suicidality. Add to that mix a high school guidance counselor who wants to help the family and you have the elements of a love story.
“As they work together to save the [depressed] child, two adults find the love of their lives,” Schaefer said. “It’s love conquers all, but it’s the love of adults. It’s also the love of family.”
Fearing the effects of the book’s love scenes upon her teaching career, Schaefer adopted the pen name “Kathryn Shay.”
“They were…what I consider wholesome and good love scenes, but I was afraid one of my kids’ mother or father would say ‘Oh my god, my son’s English teacher wrote this,’” she said.
Instead, local parents brought their children to Schaefer’s book signings and sent them to her classroom to ask her to sign copies of her books. In addition, she found having a secret identity to be a bit of a thrill.
“It’s fun being someone else,” Schaefer said. “I used to go to [romance writers’] conferences and I felt like a different person.”
After featuring high-powered businessmen as the protagonists in her first few books, the author placed more heroic figures in the centers of her works.
“I wanted to do something that nobody does and so I thought of firefighters,” she said. “It was the image of a firefighter who runs into a burning building to save people, knowing he might not come out or she might not come out.”
Before turning on her computer, Schaefer set out to learn all she could about firefighters and firefighting. With the permission of the Rochester Fire Department, the author spent parts of each year from 1997 to 2005 talking to and observing firefighters on the job. During that time, she donned a firefighter’s turnout gear, learned how it felt to use a firehose, played a victim in training exercises and rode firetrucks to calls, though she was never allowed close to a blaze.
In addition, Schaefer read a great deal about firefighting, shared meals with firefighters and spent a lot of time talking to them about their experiences. Those conversations could be very intense.
“After 9/11, I talked to them until 2 in the morning about how they felt,” Schaefer said. “I also had talked to them about what it was like to get burned badly. A lot of them had that experience.”
All that legwork helped her write four series of romance novels that focused upon firefighters, their lives and their relationships — 27 books in all.
Many other types of characters people Schaefer’s’ works, including teachers, doctors, journalists, princesses, sisters, brothers and even the daughters of Presidents of the United States. Though primarily a romance writer, she hasn’t been afraid to reach beyond her genre. “The Perfect Family” is about a family whose son comes out as gay. Schaefer based the fictional work upon the experiences her family underwent with her son, Benjamin, who is gay.
“I wrote this book because I wished I’d had a book like this,” she said. “It shows the challenges that even a good family has.”
Schaefer retired in 2004 after 33 years as a teacher, moved with her husband to a spacious, brightly lit home in Penfield and continued to write.
She’s recently slowed down a bit to spend time with her husband, Jerry, a retired business executive, their two adult children and their granddaughter.
The author is currently in the very early stages of writing a new series, “Wounded Heroes.”
Praise from friends, other authors
Barbara Keiler has known Schaefer since the early 1990s.
“We were both writing for Harlequin and we met at a romance writers’ conference — probably the Romance Writers of America national conference,” said Keiler, who writes under the pen name Judith Arnold.
Though Keiler had been a published author of fiction for about 10 years and Schaefer had recently had her first book published, the two hit it off and became good friends.
“We have supported each other during difficult times, cheered each other on and cheered each other up,” Keiler said. “We have worked together on several multi-book publishing projects and I always enjoy working with her. I treasure her friendship.”
Keiler has also enjoyed reading her friend’s works.
“She writes about characters I can relate to and believe in, real-world people who struggle with real-world problems and work hard to overcome them,” Keiler said.
At the same time, she confesses to being awed by her friend’s accomplishments.
“For many years after she first started selling romances to Harlequin, she continued her career as a high school English teacher, a job for which she had as much passion as she did her writing,” Keiler said. “How she managed to produce so many fabulous books while also teaching full-time, I don’t know — but she did it.”
Keiler has written more than 100 published romance novels, along with the Lainie Lovett series of humorous mysteries and is currently publishing hardcover literary fiction.
On Fire to Learn
When Kathy Schaefer wanted to research firefighting, she turned to guys like Joe Giorgione. He was on duty at the Rochester Fire Department’s station at the intersection of Broad and Allen streets when Schaefer appeared.
“We started by showing her around the equipment, kind of explaining how our groups worked, how firefighters worked how the hierarchy was set up,” Giorgione said.
Schaefer was never allowed close to a fire, but rode firetrucks to calls and observed Giorgione and his coworkers in action. She also joined them at meals and talked to them about their jobs.
“It was very pleasant, very professional,” Giorgione said “She wanted the details, which kept us interested because it wasn’t someone who just wanted to try to glamorize firefighting.”
Giorgione said he enjoyed working with Schaefer. Though works of fiction are not his style, “After the Fire,” Schaefer’s 2003 book on the lives and loves of firefighters, was a pleasure to read.
“The way she told the story, things were truthful,” he said.
Giorgione would know. He retired from the Rochester Fire Department as a lieutenant in 2013.
The inside of “After the Fire” features a photo of Schaefer with Giorgione.
Praise for Schaefer’s Works
Here’s a partial list of the author’s awards:
• Five RT Book Reviews Awards
• Four Golden Quills
• Four Holt Medallion Awards
• The Bookseller’s Best Award
The author’s books have been on the New York Times, USA Today, Amazon, Apple and Barnes and Noble bestseller lists, serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine and featured in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and People magazine.
5 Things About Kathy Schaefer
1. She and her husband Jerry love to travel. They annually spend time in Jamaica and Florida and have visited Italy, Greece, England, France and Spain.
2. The couple frequently heads to New York City to take in Broadway shows. The last one was “Hamilton.”
3. When at home, Schaefer enjoys reading romance novels, particularly those of the writers she counts as friends, as well as women’s fiction.
4. When she flips on the television, Schaefer likes watching police and fire department dramas — Chicago Fire is one.
5. April, Schaefer’s daughter, is named after the principal character in her first short story and her first novel.