After buying her husband an electric typewriter for a Christmas present, Woodiwiss appropriated the machine to begin her novel in earnest.

[2] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the feminist movement gained visibility in the United States, female sexuality became more open.

Short novels which followed a conventional plot pattern and were set in contemporary times were known as category romances.

Rather than follow the advice of the rejection letters and rewrite the novel, Woodiwiss instead submitted it to paperback publisher Avon Books.

After Heather Simmons, a penniless orphan, kills a man named William Court who was attempting to rape her, she flees the scene.

Over the next few months, as they prepare for and undertake a voyage to Brandon's home in Charleston, South Carolina, their feelings for each other begin to soften.

Once in the United States, Heather is plagued by Louisa Wells, Brandon's jealous former betrothed, who attempts to drive a wedge between the couple.

Several months later, Heather and Brandon resolve their differences, profess their love to each other, and share a bed for the first time as husband and wife.

[7] The initial rape was used as a plot device to overcome the societal norms which frowned on women who consented to premarital sex.

Woodiwiss developed her female protagonist, Heather, more along the lines of a gothic heroine, as slightly more independent but still occasionally needing a stronger man to rescue her.

[3] Woodiwiss's hero, Brandon, was initially depicted as ominous and dangerous, "darkly tanned" with black hair and a willingness to imprison the heroine to get his way.

[7] In her book The Dangerous Lover, Deborah Lutz labels this reversal a "grandness of contradiction distinct from other romance formulas, particularly earlier ones".

[7] Like most paperback publishers, Avon chose one book each month to receive extensive advertising and a larger than normal print run.

In 1970, Avon had broken with tradition by selecting Burt Hirschfield's Fire Island, which had not previously been published in hardback, as a featured title.

[3] To reflect the more sensual content of the novel, the cover depicted a couple in a full-embrace rather than subtly hinting at physical contact.

[6] Avon's "extraordinary success" led other paperback publishing firms to begin featuring original works by new authors.

The roots of this decline may lie in the sexual revolution and the feminist movement and are likely entwined with the success of The Flame and the Flower.

[18] These novels were historical fiction tracking the monogamous relationship between helpless heroines and the hero who rescued her, even if he had been the one to place her in danger.

[19] This new type of novel, also occasionally referred to as an epic romance, featured longer plots and more intimate and steamy sex scenes.

[20] The Flame and the Flower directly inspired LaVyrle Spencer and Jude Deveraux to begin their own careers as historical romance novelists.

According to Deveraux, she began work on her first book, The Enchanted Land, the day after she finished reading The Flame and the Flower [21]