A romance novelist who wrote an essay entitled How to Kill Your Husband, has been accused of shooting and killing her husband in the US state of Oregon.

Nancy Crampton Brophy, 68, was arraigned on Thursday, months after her husband, Daniel Brophy, 63, was murdered on June 2.

She authored books about relationships that were “wrong” but “never felt so right”, with titles such as The Wrong Husband, The Wrong Cop and Hell on the Heart.

In The Wrong Cop, the Portland-based writer wrote about a woman who “spent every day of her marriage fantasising about killing” her husband, while The Wrong Husband was told the tale of a woman trying to flee an abusive husband by faking her death.

She wrote the damning essay about killing a spouse on her blog, See Jane Publish, in November 2011, describing five core motives and murder weapons she would use to kill a husband in a romance novel.

Daniel Brophy was an instructor at the Oregon Culinary Institute. Photo: LinkedIn

She opined: “As a romantic suspense writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about murder and, consequently, about police procedure.”

“After all, if the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don’t want to spend any time in jail.”

Access to the website has now been set to private.

Ms Brophy was arrested on charges of murdering her husband with a gun last Wednesday and unlawful use of a weapon in the death of her husband, the Portland Police Bureau said.

A motive is yet to be revealed.

Mr Brophy worked as a chef at the city’s Oregon Culinary Institute – where his students found him wounded and bleeding earlier this year.

Two days after his death, Ms Brophy wrote an emotional post on Facebook, saying “I have sad news to relate”.

“My husband and best friend, Chef Dan Brophy was killed yesterday morning. For those of you who are close to me and feel this deserved a phone call, you are right, but I’m struggling to make sense of this right now.”

The couple were married for 27 years and had their “ups and downs”, but there were “more good times than bad”, Ms Brophy wrote on her website.

“My husband and I are both on our second (and final – trust me!) marriage. We vowed, prior to saying ‘I do,’ that we would not end in divorce. We did not, I should note, rule out a tragic drive-by shooting or a suspicious accident,” she said.

-with agencies