Browning, Dixie (Burrus) 1930- (Zoe Dozier; Bronwyn Williams, a joint pseudonym)

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BROWNING, Dixie (Burrus) 1930- (Zoe Dozier; Bronwyn Williams, a joint pseudonym)

PERSONAL: Born September 9, 1930, in Elizabeth City, NC; daughter of Maurice Lennon (a professional baseball player) and Rebecca (Stevens) Burrus; married Leonard Browning (an electrical engineer), October 29, 1950; children: Elizabeth Browning Fox, Leonard III. Education: Attended Mary Washington College, 1947-48, Richmond Professional Institute, 1948-49, and City Memorial School of Nursing, Winston-Salem, NC, 1949-50.

ADDRESSES: Home—5316 Robinhood Rd., Winston-Salem, NC 27106. E-mail—dixiebb@mindspring.com.

CAREER: Painter and writer. Arts and Crafts Association, Winston-Salem, NC, teacher, 1967-73; Art Gallery Originals, Winston-Salem, founder and codirector, 1968-73; North Carolina Watercolor Society, founding member and first president, 1972-73; Art V Gallery, Clemmons, NC, codirector, 1974-75; Browning Artworks, Frisco, NC, president and co-owner, 1984-1999. Lecturer on painting and demonstrator at schools. Member of Winston-Salem Arts Council. Appeared in film Somebody Moved My Mountain, in film for Hunt Mfg. Co., and in Harlequin produced video about writing romance novels. Exhibitions: Work exhibited in collections, including U.S. Coast Guard Museum, R. J. Reynolds World Headquarters; Duke Medical Center; Museum of the Arts and Sciences, Statesville, NC; Integon Corp.; NCNB; Wachovia Bank and Trust; Lowenstein Collection; Rachel Maxwell Moore Art Foundation; Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation; Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation; and Municipal Collection, Southport, NC.

MEMBER: Romance Writers of America, Watercolor Society of North Carolina (co-founder; president, 1972-73), Novelists Inc.

AWARDS, HONORS: First prize, Southport Art Festival, 1967, 1968, 1971; first prize, Associated Artists of Winston-Salem, 1972-75; best in show award, Association of Artists of North Carolina, 1981; Romance Writers of America (RITA) Award, 1983; Maggie Award, 1989, for Dandelion, 1990, for Stormwalker, and 1994, for The Warfield Bride; first place award, North Carolina Press Club, 1992, for Not a Marrying Man, 1993, for Gus and the Nice Lady, and 1994, for Hazards of the Heart; first place award, National Federation of Press Women, 1992, for Not a Marrying Man, 1993, for Gus and the Nice Lady, and 1994, for Hazards of the Heart; RITA finalist, 1997; first place award, NCPress Club, 1997, for Seaspell, and second place award, for Look What the Stork Brought; RITA finalist, 1995, for Slow Surrender, and Single Female (Reluctantly) Seeks.

WRITINGS:

ROMANCE NOVELS

Tumbled Wall, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1980. Unreasonable Summer, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1980.

Chance Tomorrow, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1981.

East of Today, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1981.

Journey to Quiet Waters, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1981.

Winter Blossom, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1981.

Wren of Paradise, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1981.

Finders Keepers, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1982.

Island on the Hill, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1982.

Logic of the Heart, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1982.

Loving Rescue, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1982.

Renegade Player, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1982.

Image of My Love, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1983.

Practical Dreamer, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1983.

Reach Out to Cherish, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1983.

Secret Valentine, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1983.

Shadow of Yesterday, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1983.

First Things Last, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1984.

The Hawk and the Honey, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1984.

Journey to Quiet Waters, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1984.

Just Desserts, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1984.

Late Rising Moon, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1984.

The Love Thing, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1984.

Stormwatch, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1984.

Time and Tide, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1984.

Visible Heart, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1984.

A Bird in Hand, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1985.

By Any Other Name, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1985.

Matchmaker's Moon, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1985.

Something for Herself, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1985.

The Tender Barbarian, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1985.

Reluctant Dreamer, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1986.

The Security Man, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1986.

In the Palm of Her Hand, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1986.

A Winter Woman, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1986.

Belonging, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1987.

Henry the Ninth, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1987.

A Matter of Timing, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1987.

There Once Was a Lover, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1987.

Along Came Jones, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1988.

Fate Takes a Holiday, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1988.

Thin Ice, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1989.

Beginner's Luck, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1990.

Ships in the Night, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1990.

Just Say Yes, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1991.

Twice in a Blue Moon, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1991.

Best Man for the Job, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1992.

Gus and the Nice Lady, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1992.

Not a Marrying Man, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1992.

Hazards of the Heart, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1993.

Kane's Way, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1993.

Keegan's Hunt, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1993.

Grace and the Law, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1994.

Lucy and the Stone, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1994.

Two Hearts, Slightly Used, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1994.

Alex and the Angel, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1995.

Single Female (Reluctantly) Seeks, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1995.

The Beast, the Beauty and the Baby, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1996.

The Baby Notion, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1996.

Stryker's Wife, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1996.

Look What the Stork Brought, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1997.

The Passionate G-Man, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1998.

His Business, Her Baby, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1998.

A Knight in Rusty Armor, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1999.

The Texas Millionaire, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1999.

The Bride-in-Law, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1999.

A Bride for Jackson Powers, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2000.

Cinderella's Midnight Kiss, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2000.

The Virgin and the Vengeful Groom, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2000.

Long Shadow's Woman, Harlequin Super, 2001.

More to Love, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2001.

Rocky and the Senator's Daughter, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2001.

The Millionaire's Pregnant Bride, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2002.

The Marrying Millionaire, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2002.

Beckett's Cinderella, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2002.

The Quiet Seduction, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2002.

Beckett's Convenient Bride, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2002.

Ann Elise, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2003.

Social Graces, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2003.

Undertow, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2003.

Driven to Distraction, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2004.

HISTORICAL ROMANCES; WITH SISTER, MARY WILLIAMS; UNDER JOINT PSEUDONYM BRONWYN WILLIAMS

White Witch, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1988.

Dandelion, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1989.

Stormwalker, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1990.

Gideon's Fall, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1991.

The Mariner's Bride, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1991.

A Promise Kept, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1992.

The Warfield Bride, Topaz (New York, NY), 1994.

Bedeviled, Topaz (New York, NY), 1995.

Slow Surrender, Topaz (New York, NY), 1995.

Halfway Home, Topaz (New York, NY), 1996.

Sunshine (novella), Topaz (New York, NY), 1997.

Seaspell, Topaz (New York, NY), 1997.

Entwined, Topaz (New York, NY), 1998.

Beholden, Topaz (New York, NY), 1998.

The Paper Marriage, Harlequin Historical (New York, NY), 2000.

Longshadow's Woman, Harlequin Historical (New York, NY), 2001.

Good As Gold, Harlequin Historical (New York, NY), 2001.

The Mail-Order Brides, Harlequin Historical (New York, NY), 2001.

Beckett's Birthright, Harlequin Historical (New York, NY), 2002.

Blackstone's Pride, Harlequin Historical (New York, NY), 2003.

OTHER

(Illustrator) Richard Walser and Julia M. Street, TheNorth Carolina Parade, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1966.

(Under pseudonym Zoe Dozier) Warm Side of the Island (romance novel), Bouregy (New York, NY), 1977.

(Under pseudonym Zoe Dozier) Home Again, My Love (romance novel), Bouregy (New York, NY), 1977.

(Author of introduction) Howard Jeffries, editor, Artists/U.S.A.: 1979-80, Herbert Lieberman, 1979.

Also contributor to Drawing and Painting the Natural Environment, edited by Barclay Sheaks. Author of "Dixie and Art," a weekly column in Winston-Salem Suburbanite, 1976. Contributor of artwork to magazines, including North American Moravian. A manuscript collection of Browning's writings is housed at University of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill; and Bowling Green University, Bowling Green, OH.

SIDELIGHTS: Romance novelist Dixie Browning has developed a very successful style within the genre guidelines for shorter novels, one that she has used in plotting most of her contemporary novels. She sets the stories within or nearby her home state of North Carolina, a territory she can commit to text colorfully and convincingly in creating an intriguing backdrop for her romantic encounters. Her heroines are often involved in the art world, while her heroes generally are white-collar workers or professionals of some sort, including various trades: a powerplant specialist, several investigators, retired military, and an environmentalist to name a few. Browning keeps secondary characters to a minimum, preferring to intensify her romantic mood by centering the interactions on those of her primary characters, caught up in their own intimate world.

Browning's dialogue consists largely of witty banter, clever ripostes, and verbal fencing and parrying. A typical Browning plot sees heroine and hero initially thrown together by some circumstance that causes them to spend a great deal of time together, often living in the same residence. She next creates a minor conflict between the two, and then, nearly always, some minor injury to one of them brings the other into a nurturing role, causing a tentative yet intensely sensual contact. The two eventually fall in love and consummate their feelings for one another. However, some temporary conflict must then be resolved before they can begin their lives together.

Browning's collaborative novels with her sister, Mary Williams, have been published under their Bronwyn Williams joint pseudonym. These historical romance novels are also set in or near North Carolina. Although romantic involvements are an integral part of these stories, other plot elements receive far greater detail and development than in Browning's other books. Essayist Linda Lee, writing in Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, felt the Bronwyn Williams's books are "rich in detail," and commented that "the heroines of these historical novels endure great hardships and cruelty.... [The] sometimes incredible experiences of the heroines seem more the focus of the novels than the love story; nevertheless, the Bronwyn Williams books do offer the reader plenty of historical detail and a complex, suspenseful plot."

Browning once told CA: "If I'd started writing earlier, I would have written differently. After having gone through several stages as a reader, including historical fiction, detective fiction, science fiction, and nonfiction, in more or less that order, I was introduced to romances. It was while I was reading those that I tried my hand at writing.

"The latest revolution in the romance genre has come about in the few years since I've been writing, and it's been exciting to see the effect of the American writers in a field once dominated by the English. I think some of the freshest writing being done now is in this field. It has to be, if only because of the enormous quantity of works being written and published.

"The romance novel has been around for a long time. It has always been castigated by certain segments of the public. Whether this is because it generally lacks the violence that some men find a necessary ingredient to their entertainment, or because many people are uncomfortable when dealing with their tenderer emotions, I don't know. I would no more think of apologizing for writing about love than I would apologize for loving my husband. I write about people. My dearest wish is to have these people become as vibrantly alive for others as they have for me. Thus, for an hour or two, I can expand the limits of someone's life and fill those hours with pleasure and excitement. Not a bad aim, all things considered."