SPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM/BILL JANSCHA Francis Ray's sixth novel, Incognito, was the basis for the first made-for-TV movie for Black Entertainment Television.

SPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM/BILL JANSCHA The steamy subject matter of DISD school nurse Francis Ray's romance novels may be too much for her mom, but readers eat it up.

DALLAS - Every weekday, Francis Ray, 59, works at a tiny school clinic packed with kids complaining of everything from a tummy ache to a splinter.

Ray's colleagues at the three Dallas elementary schools where she works respect the nurse practitioner for her compassion, which sometimes leads her to secretly buy clothing for abused children or rewards for struggling students who improve their grades.

"Nurse [Ray] is a sweet, personable lady," says Carolyn Johnson, a school counselor at McMillan Primary School. "She's very down to earth and very caring with our children."

Once in a while, however, when Ray calls a parent to notify her that her child is ill, the parent will ask, "Are you the Francis Ray that writes romance novels?"

When she replies affirmatively, the parent will continue, "How could you write such provocative scenes?"

Ray says such queries often leave her speechless.

Johnson says it's hard to imagine the kindly, nurturing school nurse weaving tales steaming with passion.

"To read Nurse's books, you wouldn't think Nurse had that kind of creativity," Johnson says. "Nurse tends to be kind of shy and reserved. But, obviously, she has a very vivid imagination."

At a book signing at Black Images Bookstore in Dallas, Ray was poised and confident when asked about being an author of 18 romances and three mainstream women's fiction novels. The difficult part, however, is responding to probing questions from readers who memorize her most passionate scenes.

"Those intimate scenes are very private. I don't like to talk about them. I'm even embarrassed to discuss them with my mother. Sex was never a topic I discussed with my mother. My mother says she reads my books until she gets to those scenes and that's as far as she can go. She says, 'It was good until I got to the part where I had to put it down.' "

When Ray talks about the intimate scenes in her work, she lowers her gaze. She writes alone in her home office and feels hard-pressed to talk about them -- even though she knows thousands of readers, most of them African-American women, will devour them.

Over the years, Ray has developed loyal fans. In early April, about 50 women met at Black Images Bookstore in Dallas for a signing of her newest novel, Somebody's Knocking at My Door.

Gizzelle Green, 35, a teacher from Red Oak, says she follows Ray to all of her public appearances. She had longed to read romances by and about African-Americans and is hooked on the books.

"I've been reading romances forever," Green says. "There were no black authors for the longest [time]. I like Francis Ray's books because they're real. The characters are educated, successful black people, like the people I like to spend time with."

The books also promote certain values, readers say.

In Turning Point, Ray writes about a woman who struggles to leave an abusive marriage. Eventually, she meets a soul mate in a neurosurgeon who has suffered an accident and become blind. After learning life lessons, they live happily ever after.

"Characters in the books teach their sons and daughters how they should treat each other," Green says.

Ray was born and raised on a farm in Richland, a small town in North Central Texas. She was the youngest of five children. When Ray was 10 years old, she and a brother were playing and they lit a bucket of oil with a match. The fire quickly spread to Ray's dress, inflicting second- and third-degree burns on her torso and legs. The accident caused her to be hospitalized and miss school for nearly a year.

It also indirectly led to her nursing career -- her writing career came years later.

She was an avid reader of novelists like Sydney Sheldon, but Ray was frustrated by endings where the protagonist, who had usually suffered a great deal, didn't prevail. In 1987, she read a compelling love story with a happy ending by Kathleen Woodiwiss.

"I liked the concept of hardworking men and women who worked through their problems without resorting to drugs or criminal activity. They were sensual, yet monogamous. That was what my parents were doing. That's what I did in my own marriage."

Her new interest in romances with a twist led her to attend a support group for romance writers. It took her four years to get a short story published. In 1994, Kensington Publishing launched Arabesque, a line of books targeted to African-Americans, and her book Forever Yours was published.

Ray says that all of her titles combined have sold close to 2 million books. Her books consistently make the bestseller lists of Blackboard and Essence magazine. Incognito, her sixth title, was the first made-for-TV movie for Black Entertainment Television.

"Writing allows me to create my own world where the good guys win and the bad guy gets theirs," she says. "In writing, I'm the kindhearted master of my universe."