AUDIENCE MEMBER#3:  “But what would be the reaction if someone picked up ‘Strange Wine’ from the Romance section and took it home to read?”

JEAN (laughing):  “A Barbara Cartland fan?!”

WINSTON:  “From between two Barbara Cartland novels, well . . .”

AUDIENCE MEMBER#3:  “I would like to have been a fly on that wall!”

PAT:  “Self advancement!”  (Laughter)

WINSTON (to Pat):  “Either that or brain destruction!  Harlan when he lets loose?!”

PAT:  “Lord, what a frightening thought . . .”

AUDIENCE MEMBER#2:  “I need you to enlighten me . . . Who is Barbara Cartland?”

WINSTON:  “Barbara Cartland is one of the foremost writers of the syrupy ‘Love Conquers All’ novels.  She turns them out at the rate—”

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  “How do you know about these things?!”

WINSTON:  “I read ‘Writer’s Digest.’  She turns them out at the rate of about one every eight weeks.  She has a staff of about fifteen researchers and secretaries.  She’ll do some research on a particular place and era, get into what the wines tasted like, what the people dressed like, what the social mores were, then say, ‘Okay, I’ve got it . . .’ and churn out another book.  But they all fit some kind of basic formula . . .”

JEAN:  “They’re all the same story . . . The heroines . . .”

AUDIENCE MEMBER#3:  “. . .  They have no individuality.  They’re all blonde or redheads, have very white skin . . .”

WINSTON:  “She’s one of the few women who’s tops in the field.  Most of them are written by men, under female pseudonyms.  One of the best writers is Michael Avallone, who wrote several of the ‘Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ paperbacks and the ‘Ed Noon’ detective series, and several other series under various pseudonyms.  He’s been writing gothics and romance novels under female pseudonyms for years.  I met an author at Roberta Rogow’s last convention — in New Jersey, last December — and he said, ‘My book was on the Top Ten Bestseller List, under my female pseudonym, and I couldn’t tell anybody!’  (Laughter)