Countering the stereotype of the romance writer as a middle-aged housewife with time on her hands, a formidable cohort of authors are hitting the romance bestseller lists while still in their 20s and 30s. Some of these women are just starting out, but a significant number of them already have quite substantial booklists.

They are informed and inspired by a wide array of media, and don't feel tied to established archetypes when it comes to telling a compelling story. Television, graphic novels, and video games share space in their minds with history and the romance-writing tradition, and their novels blend 21st-century sensibilities with the timeless emotions of love.

Romance editors looking to revitalize the genre and bring in a new generation of readers find that those readers respond very well to books by authors under 40. "Young authors have the energy and knowledge of the younger readers that we're trying to reach," says Alicia Condon, editorial director at Kensington Books. "They also tend to be very Internet-savvy, which is great for marketing."

One bond these younger authors have is common experience in discovering romance and common models for what a romance novel looks like. "I feel like I'm a part of a particular romance generation that grew up in the '80s and '90s," says Lauren Willig, who researched her historical fiction in university libraries and published her first novel at the age of 27. The eighth book in her popular Pink Carnation series, The Orchid Affair, is due out from Dutton in January. "We all read Johanna Lindsey, Jude Deveraux, Judith McNaught. The stories were emotionally focused, deep tearjerkers, in which things were always larger than life. You had these very strong alpha heroes who wanted the heroine just because he wanted her, and they were tamed by the heroine's sweetness or spunkiness."

Now, Willig says, younger romance authors have a unique opportunity to affect the popular presentation of gender relations. "I think for many of the people in my generation of writing, even though we loved what we grew up with, there was a certain amount of push back. Every woman who was writing strong-willed, sensible heroines and conciliatory heroes was somehow redressing the idea that romance was cute or antifeminist."

Zoë Archer, whose Blades of the Rose historical adventure romance series (published by Kensington's Zebra imprint) wraps up with Rebel this month, also believes that the way ro­mance heroes and heroines relate reflects the writer's culture. "Some of the forced seduction tropes from the '70s and '80s—ripped bodices, punishing kisses, rape that becomes an expression of love—arose because there was considerable anxiety concerning women's roles in the workplace and society," Archer says. "In these earlier romances, choice, and its attendant anxiety, is eliminated. But younger authors are already familiar with women's presence in the workforce and women's viability as powerful figures. That frees us to write enfranchised heroines."

Even when they're writing historical romance, these young women think there's a space to tell their stories in a 21st-century way. According to Delilah Marvelle, whose racy Scandal trilogy is due out from Harlequin in the first three months of 2011, "What readers once knew as polite Regency books, focusing on mores and etiquette, have turned into a grittier form of literature, with themes that go beyond what Jane Austen would have dared to scribe—though it doesn't necessarily mean she didn't want to write it. Talk about untold stories. It makes me crack my knuckles and dig in."

Jill Myles, who publishes free stories on her Web site, jillmyles.com, in addition to her ongoing Succubus Diaries series through Pocket Star, says that authors who grew up in the culture of social media find it natural to have informal and detailed public discussions with their readers online. "It's something I've always done," she says. "I frequent message boards, blog, tweet, and word-war in chat rooms. I definitely feel a connection with the book blogger culture that's cropped up in romance. It feels like a big chatty conversation among friends." Myles connects explicitly with this younger group of fans in the way she writes: "I'm writing a different type of story because I'm writing for my generation. My heroines are still figuring out their goals in life. I write happy-for-now endings, and not a single solitary baby epilogue. I want to write heroines that I relate to."

But some of these 30-something authors don't feel that demographics make much of a difference in the way that they write or interact with their fans. Marjorie M. Liu sold her first book the day before her 25th birthday; in the past seven years she's become a worldwide traveler and a bestselling author with more than a dozen novels and a portfolio of comic book work under her belt. She grew up reading the classics, and notes, "What I read most was not written by people my age. In fact, they were mostly from a different century, but I still felt like those stories were relevant, fresh, and new. When you're trying to write a book and be relevant, I don't think age matters as much as living a full life and having a lot of character empathy." So Liu feels at home with writers of every age: "I love books and I love storytelling. The people I am around also love books and love storytelling. We have a common bond of books and words."

Writing is in the blood of these young authors, many of whom honed their craft for several years before breaking in. Willig sent her first 300-page, handwritten novel to Simon and Schuster at the age of nine! Archer thinks that a lifelong determination to become published authors drives her peers to professional ambition that translates into industry success when their work is ready. "We come out swinging, intent on carving a place for ourselves in the writing world," she says.

All good novelists grow as they proceed through their careers, but when the author is also growing into her own life at the same time, the differences over just a few years of writing can become obvious. In retrospect, Willig can see the evidence of her personal maturation changing the way she's written romance. "There are some doubts as to whether someone with comparatively little experience in life is qualified to write about the deepest of human emotions," she says. "My earlier books are probably lighter, happier, and more flippant because I was younger. There's a growth process, but one I would have denied if you'd asked me about it seven years ago."

Paranormal romance author Caitlin Kittredge, whose third Black London novel came out this month, sold the first novel she'd ever written at the age of 21 and landed a three-book deal almost immediately. This made her growth as an author, and as a person, very public. "I have a lot of extra time to get it right," she says. "Selling books I hadn't written yet was a fantastic writing teacher, because if I screwed up, somebody was still going to read the book."

These inspired young women aren't willing to rest on their laurels, and it seems likely that they'll be pushing the boundaries of romance fiction for a long time to come. Says Liu, "I hope I'm still hungry to tell a good story in 20 years, and I hope they'll be even better stories. I'll be telling stories for the rest of my life."

Vicki Borah Bloom is a frequent reviewer for PW's romance section.