Motorcycle-Gang Romance Makes Noise

Suzanne Forster’s new romance novel, “The Devil and Ms. Moody,” was not an easy sell.

When the Newport Beach author submitted a proposal for the novel in the mid-’80s, her publisher at the time was intrigued with her story but considered the subject matter--a motorcycle gang--too risky for a romance novel.

“The Devil and Ms. Moody” (Bantam Loveswept) has proved to be a successful exception to the dictum that romance novels must avoid dealing with “grim, gritty and unpleasant reality.”

As Forster says: “I’m happy to say (‘The Devil and Ms. Moody’) has plenty of all three. It’s also funny, a little raunchy . . . steamy enough to fog reading glasses.”

The romance novel, Forster’s ninth since 1985, earned a rare five-star rating from Romantic Times, the first time in two years the trade magazine’s reviewer has awarded five stars.

“I found out with a big arrangement of flowers on my front porch from my editor,” Forster said. “It was a real surprise.”

Forster’s heroine, as she explains, is Edwina Moody, “a straight-arrow investigator who traces heirs. Her assignment is to track down the missing heir to a fortune, who has joined a motorcycle gang in Southern California.”

The novel’s hero is Diablo, “a rogue biker--your basic outlaw in black leather--who has his own reasons for wanting to join the Warlords. Despite an instinctive mistrust of each other, (Edwina and Diablo) form an alliance that results in a lot of spine-tingling complications, not the least of which is a powerful physical attraction.”

Indeed, Romantic Times bestowed the magazine’s WISH Award on the roguish Diablo. (WISH stands for Women in Search of a Hero.)

Forster said she has always been fascinated by the counterculture world of motorcycle gangs.

As she sees it, “bikers are the closest thing we have to the primitive warrior of ancient times. Bikers tend to be rugged individualists who break from tradition regularly. They’re mavericks by nature, and if we can believe their public image, they’re often physically aggressive and sometimes even violent. Those very traits, greatly valued in ancient war-faring cultures, are not valued in our ‘civilized’ society today.”

It’s ironic, she added, “that bikers are often branded rebels and outcasts for the very instincts that were once considered noble.”

Forster began writing in 1980 after being injured in a car accident.

At the time she was a graduate student in clinical psychology. To pass time while she was recuperating, her husband, Allan, jury-rigged a portable keyboard for her computer so she could write in bed.

“I started with a personal journal,” she recalled. “I never intended to be a writer.”

Although she and her husband, an aerospace engineer and consulting attorney, have written unproduced screenplays together, Forster is devoting full time to writing romances--two to three a year.

This year has turned out to be the most memorable in Forster’s writing career.

In March, her eighth book, “Wild Child,” hit No. 2 on Waldenbooks’ romance bestseller list. That was her first bestseller and was, she says, “cause for considerable celebration in the Forster household.”

Forster said she enjoyed writing “The Devil and Ms. Moody” more than any of her other novels.

“It got a little dangerous along the way. Not truly danger, but it was certainly a little more risky than my other books. I went to biker bars and spent a day at a biker rodeo.

“The first thing my husband and I did at the rodeo was buy a black Harley T-shirt. We just mixed and mingled. . . . I told them I was doing a story without going into a lot of detail. We had a great time and . . . and they were tremendously helpful and very cooperative.”

With a laugh, she added: “I heard stories I couldn’t use--a lot of stories.”