Corin Tellado | Spanish novelist, 81

Corin Tellado, 81, a well-known Spanish author of more than 4,000 romance novels, died of heart failure Saturday at her home in the northern seaside city of Gijon.

Born Maria del Socorro Tellado Lopez in the northern coastal village of Viavelez, Ms. Tellado became popular as a novelist throughout the Spanish-speaking world.

In 2007, the regional government of her native Asturias honored the author for a lifetime dedicated to literature with an exhibition called "Corin Tellado, 60 Years of Love Novels."

"I'm not a romantic, nor a dreamer or visionary," she said at the inauguration. "However, someone had to write novels about love, and it just happened to be me."

Despite ill health that forced her to have blood dialysis three times a week since 1995, Ms. Tellado wrote right to the end, delivering her final novel to Variedades magazine Wednesday.
- AP