South African Romance Writers' Community

How did you become a writer and what made you want to write?

I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing, or at least making up stories. My mother told me that when I was a small girl she found me telling stories to my two younger sisters. They were in their cots and I had a big encyclopaedia from which I was ‘reading’ the story of Drippy Droppy and Droopy the three little raindrops! Then I was always scribbling some story or other as I grew up. I wrote my first ‘book’ (all of 40 pages) when I was eleven – often writing it in secret in lessons in school. I also wrote a long romantic story about a rock star that my friends read in episodes like a serial. When I was at university and just after I had a few short stories published but it wasn’t until I became a stay at home mum to my son that I started seriously working towards publication. What made me want to? It’s a dream I’d always had. I had all these stories in my head and I wanted to get them down on paper at least.

Why do you write romance?

There are rational reasons and emotional reasons. When I was growing up, my mother had a friend (Marguerite Lees) who wrote romances for Mills & Boon. She was the only published author I knew and she was one of the very few people who encouraged me by telling me that I could write and I should try for it. She had brought up two children as a single mother by writing and I thought she was a wonderful example. Also, when I looked back at all my childhood writings, specially the rock star ‘serial’ I realised that what I most loved writing about was the emotional stories of my characters, the male-female relationships and their romances. Even the ‘book’ I’d written at 11 had a dark, moody, ambiguous ‘hero’ in it - even if he was only 14! I loved reading romantic fiction too though I hadn’t read the concentrated form of romance that is the category romance of Mills & Boon apart from the ones my mother’s friend had written. I picked one up out of interest and loved what I was reading. With the memory of Mrs Lees in my mind, I thought I could try this sort of writing while I was at home with a small child. But when I started to try and write romance – which meant reading lots of the books – I came to love the genre and the format of what Charlotte Lamb used to call ‘these complicated little books’, I started out trying to write romances as an experiment and ended up staying with them because I love them.

How did you come up with the concept for The Good Greek Wife?

My editor rang me up with the idea they had had for a mini series. ‘It’s a bit different,’ she said, ‘. . .a bit of a challenge.’

Well, I’m always ready for a challenge, and when I heard about this one I was really intrigued. It was a mini-series of books based on the ancient Classic Greek Myths, updating them to fit into the Modern Romance line.

I wasn’t sure what story to Modernize, but then I remembered the story of Odysseus. A man who goes missing for years and whose wife waits at home, never knowing if he is coming back or not. That was just the inspiration I needed. It was the sort of story that fitted perfectly into the Modern Romance line–up. Of course there were some things I needed to change slightly. Odysseus was a King who had gone off to the Trojan Wars and he didn’t return for over ten years. That might have worked in ancient times, but would be more difficult today. But the essence of the story remained the same. My ‘Odysseus’ - Zarek Michaelis – is a Greek shipping magnate who went missing for two years after an attack on his boat (the Troy). And like the original, when he returns he find that his wife (whose name is Penny, after Odysseus’s wife who was Penelope) has new suitors, all wanting to take over the kingdom (or in this case the company) he owned. So he has to prove himself to his wife and she has to prove that she has stayed faithful and loving all the time he has been missing. They have to get to know each other all over again and rediscover the love that had brought them together in the first place.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of this particular novel?

Well, my editor needed the book in a strict timetable to fit with the publication schedule they had planned. I had originally been meaning to work on a different story so that had to be shelved and I needed to concentrate on A Good Greek Wife? From start to finish it will have been around four months, with some revisions, which I had to turn round in two weeks to make sure we hit the publication date.

How long did it take from completion of the first draft to hitting the shelves?

Hmm - checking my emails, I see that the book was accepted on 17th November 2009 – so that’s – what ? – about 8 months.

Did you experience much rejection before selling your first novel?

I had some rejection. I think most authors do. But I was lucky - I just had two books rejected before my first one was bought. I wrote my first attempt before I’d read many romances so I’m not surprised it was rejected. It was pretty bad. My second book earned me a personal rejection letter. It was actually from a Senior Editor which meant that the book had been passed to her . I didn’t realise at the time that this was a real compliment and meant I was getting closer to acceptance. I just saw it as a rejection. But in the letter she did say to ‘try again’ – so I did! And the next book was The Chalk Line which was accepted.

Tell us about The Call (your first sale).

As I said, I’d tried writing a couple of books and had them rejected. Now I’d been asked to try again and I needed a new story. I didn’t have an idea. But then I got a dose of flu and a temperature of 102 – and I had a great idea about a couple having to share a house – a bungalow – and dividing it in half by putting a line – a chalk line down the middle of it.

I wrote the story and sent it off. Back then (I have been published for 25 years so this was a long time ago!) you had to submit a full manuscript and everything was done by mail – so there wasn’t actually a ‘Call’. But one day in July I came home from a shopping expedition - we’d been to the market for fruit and veg – and lying on the doormat was a big white envelope with a red rose on it. I was shaking so much that I could barely open it. Inside was a letter that said that an editor had read and enjoyed my book and with some revisions they could consider publishing it. Would I be prepared to come to London and discuss it with them. Would I?!

I went off to London and met the editor who had written me the letter and a Senior Editor – the one who had written me that rejection letter on my second submission. We talked about the book and the revisions they asked for were simple and understandable, so I felt sure I could do them. Then they took me out for lunch (I have no idea where or what I ate!) and I came home ready to do the revisions. They succeeded and the book The Chalk Line was bought. It was a wonderful but rather bitter sweet time as I had kept my writing a secret but now I could tell my family – but we had just learned that my mother had terminal cancer. Sadly she didn’t live to see the book in print. But she did know that I had had it accepted.

What was the easiest part of writing this novel for you?

Well, when I was writing The Good Greek Wife? it was a challenge and made easier by the fact that I was modernising a Greek myth. The story was there but a lot of it didn’t fit. So the easiest bit was knowing that my hero had been lost at sea and had now come home, with all the drama and confusion that unexpected return had created. It was exciting creating the moments when my heroine met her husband again after two years of thinking he was dead. But then I didn’t have events like the Trojan war and the giants and nymphs etc who had kept the original Odysseus from returning home so I had to think of very different answers for those.

What do you struggle most with when writing?

I always write long. When I first started writing romance, the word length was 55-60,000, now it tends to need to be closer to 50,000, so I’m always having to struggle to fit in everything I want to put into the story as I’m getting so very close to the end. Personally, I think it gives the reader a fuller story, but the word limits are pretty set.

The other thing is that having written 57 romances now, I sometimes find myself writing something and I think ‘Oh – I wrote this in The Antonakos Marriage or The Sicilian’s Red-Hot Revenge’ or something. And then I panic because I feel that I’m repeating myself. But the truth is that it’s very difficult to be truly original and different in writing romance, there are tried and tested themes and stories that will come back again and again – and each time you can only put a new, hopefully fresh spin on those. So even if I have written something similar before, it won’t have been about these characters or in this particular setting or under these same circumstances etc.

How important is research to you?

If there is something that I need to make sure that it’s accurate then research is vital. I would hate to get facts wrong or mislead someone over the truth. For example, I recently wrote a book about a heroine who has suffered with post-natal psychosis. Not just depression but the full-scale illness. I had some experience of PND, but I wanted to make sure that this was really right. I didn’t want to write the book unless I could show something of the truth about the condition. So I researched that a lot, reading books about it and talking to people about their experiences. I was thrilled to find that when the book (Kept for Her Baby) came out I received a lot of emails from women who had suffered with this problem and a couple of health professionals too. They told me that I had got the facts and the details right and as a result my book had touched them, brought them to tears - and in some cases helped them to feel that they were not alone. That was a wonderful reaction and I was so happy with the response this book has had.

What did you learn while writing The Good Greek Wife that will always stay with you?

Writing The Good Greek Wife? meant that I needed to do a little bit of research as well. My hero, Zarek, is lost at sea at the opening of the book. What has happened to him is that his boat has actually been attacked by pirates and he has been kidnapped. I thought of that idea after reading some reports of pirates around Africa etc. It seemed unexpected that piracy was actually so common in the 21st century but the more I researched it, the more I realised that it was happening a lot. And that was pretty scary.

I also had to go away and reread the story of Odysseus to remind myself of the myth I was modernising. I’d read all the Greek Myths when I was much younger but I’d forgotten how dramatic and exciting they were so it was great to be reminded.

Who or what has been your inspiration along the way?

Well, I’ve talked about my mother’s friend Marguerite Lees. She was someone who showed me that earning your living as a writer could be done. My mother was always an inspiration because she brought up five daughters as a single mother and went back to college as a mature student, earned her teaching qualifications and then held down a headmistress job a degree while coping with everything else.

My writing inspirations have been authors like Mary Stewart whose books got me hooked on romantic stories about dark, ambiguous heroes and Dorothy Dunnett whose Game of Kings series would have to be my desert island book – I can read it over and over again.

And of course my inspiration for my heroes has to come from my husband. He may say that he’s nothing like the tall, dark and handsome heroes – but we’ve been married for over 35 years and when I want to think of love and happy ever afters - there’s where I get my inspiration!

What advice do you have for aspiring writers? (Okay, I know the answer to this one: read the 12 Point Guide!)

Treat the romance genre seriously – many authors (some of them very well known) have tried to write romance cynically to make a fast buck and that always shows. Romance needs to be written from the heart. And finally, my advice to anyone who wants to be published anywhere – read, read, read . . . read the current output of any publisher you want to aim your book at, see the sort of thing they are currently publishing and then try to bring your own particular voice, your own twist to the tried and tested. You will find it really, perhaps impossible, to be truly original but you can be true to yourself and so truly authentic.

And yes- read my 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance. ;o) It has the best advice and information in it that I can give.

What's next for you?

Writing – I have a book that I’m writing as part of another mini series – this time Modernising some classics of English Literature. My book is based on Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. And then . . . another book – but at the moment I have no idea what! And there’s a reprint of the 12 Point Guide coming up in autumn.

Teaching etc – I am currently running a course on Writing Romance at Caerleon Writers’ Holiday. Then some workshops for Mills and Boon because of a new contest they’re planning (more details available at www.romanceisnotdead.com). The National Association of Writers’ Groups conference in Durham in September, Writers’ Roadshow in Yorkshire, Novel-Writing Weekend (teaching a new course Romance Writing – Moving it On) in Fishguard, Wales . . phew! That will keep me busy until the end of February next year.