This week I received word from a friend that Kate Duffy, the much-loved editorial director at Kensington Books, has died. All around the Internet you can find so many writers who were touched by her in some way. Even those who weren't published by her have very affectionate memories of her.
I'm one of those who was fortunate enough have been one of her writers (though she was not my direct editor). I wrote for both the Bouquet and the Encanto lines early on in my career. When I hear her name, what first comes to mind was how a friend and I greeted her in the hallway at a Romantic Times conference, and Kate ended up having a conversation with us that lasted about an hour! It was that conversation, and even more so the one right after September 11, when Kate called each individual Encanto author to tell us the publisher was ending the line, that revealed to me what a genuine and caring person she was. Kate was passionate about her work--the woman loved the romance genre--and she was genuine and honest and real, as we should all be.
My heart and prayers go out to her family, her coworkers, close friends, and her writers. And thank you, Kate! I will never forget you.
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