Annie Burrows's Blog

Thank you all for following my blog here on Goodreads, where I have been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer. And dealing with themes in alphabetical order. This month, I've finally reached Z...and zombie kittens!

Last month, you may recall, I had to resort to looking in the dictionary to find a word beginning with "y" that I could use to talk about the writer's life. At that point, I thought I'd have as much difficulty finding a "z" word.

But then I had the nightmare about zombie kittens.

The zombie kittens got my son, my daughter, and my husband. I was left alone in a clearing, swirling a medieval mace round my head to stave them off, and began to yell - because although normal kittens are cute and fluffy, zombie kittens have glowing red eyes, and lots of sharp pointy teeth, not to mention the fact they can climb trees and then dive off branches onto your head. I yelled so loud as a particularly terrifying tortoiseshell launched itself at my face, its lethal claws flexed, that I woke myself up. I also woke up my long-suffering husband.

Next morning, when he asked what my nightmare had been about, and I told him, he couldn't stop laughing. He can never remember what he's dreamed about, let alone have a dream so vivid and terrifying it wakes him up shouting.

And that brings me round to the point. Even my nightmares aren't your average run-of-the mill ones that everyone has about finding you've gone to the shops with no clothes on, or all your teeth are falling out. (You do all have nightmares like that, right?) Because I have a rather overactive imagination. Which never switches off, not even when I'm asleep.

And that's what makes me a writer of fiction. When people ask me where I get all my ideas for stories from, I have never known what to tell them. Because ideas just come. And they come from the same place that those zombie kittens came from. The fervid depths of my imagination.

It isn't something I have studied to acquire. It's just the way I'm made. It started in childhood. On the way home from school, I'd chatter away to my imaginary friends. In the playground, I'd gallop round in an imaginary episode of The Virginian, (in which I starred) or hide from Daleks (saving the world in the process). People who have imaginations like mine look at the person sitting opposite them on a train, and instead of asking them what they do for a living, imagine a conversation in which they offer to murder someone you hate in exchange for murdering someone they hate. Or describe entire worlds that can be reached through a wardrobe in a spare room, or create a language spoken by a race of immortal beings who live in an enchanted forest.

We can't help it. We don't have to strive for plots, or characters, or scenes. They are continuously dancing about in our heads. And if we don't write them down, or act them out, then they keep on dancing, and shouting, and nagging, until we tell their story to somebody, in some way.

Even the zombie kittens.

My latest release is The Debutante's Daring Proposal (which contains neither zombies nor kittens)
But if you are interested, you will discover that I also dream up stories about Regency rakes and innocent country misses.

About once a month, I've been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer. And dealing with themes in alphabetical order. This month, I've reached Y which is for...

Ok, I have to confess that I resorted to going through the dictionary to find a word that began with Y, round which to write this month's blog. I could have cheated, and gone with "Why" which would have given me a lot of leeway. But I didn't want to do that.

Anyway, there aren't that many words in the dictionary beginning with Y, so I knew it wouldn't take me long to read through them.

Thankfully, it took only a few seconds to discover this little gem:
"Yesteryear" which is a poetical or archaic form for "a time in the past". Which seemed appropriate, as that is where I set my stories.

I've always had a fascination for yesteryear. It started when I was a little girl, with family trips to various stately homes. When we got home, my sister and I would dress up as ladies of the manor, and romp round the garden on imaginary horses - or, if it was wet, we'd draw plans of our ideal stately home, complete with dungeons, secret passages, and of course, massive libraries.

I started reading historical romances at school, although I didn't know it then. I thought I was studying Jane Austen, and Thomas Hardy. I still thought I was studying English literature at University, without realizing that reading all those stories, written in the past, had given me a love of reading about people from the past. After I left university, I didn't want to keep on studying great literature, but I did still find myself gravitating towards stories set in the past.

At first, I devoured books by writers such as Norah Lofts. I absolutely loved the way she took us into the lives of relatively ordinary people and brought an era to life. And then carried that story to the next generation.

Then I discovered Georgette Heyer, and learned that historical stories didn't need to be dark and melodramatic, they could be amusing romps.

And then, much later, when I was doing a writing course and I began to research the market, I discovered historical romances produced by Mills & Boon, which in those days went under the name of "masquerades". And I fell in love with historical romance - as a reader and as a writer. These were the kind of stories that were already forming in my imagination - where simple country misses won the heart of an apparently cold, aloof, brooding aristocrat. Or survived kidnap by pirates, or ran away from evil guardians disguised as boys, and generally discovered they were far stronger and braver than they'd been given credit for.

So I began to write stories set primarily in the Regency era. Why Regency? Because there was an established market for that type of story, and because I thought I knew most about that era, having read so many others set in that time. Stories, I feel, should provide an escape from real life. And the Regency is a great place for many of us to escape to, since it is far enough away from Nowadays to feel really exotic, but familiar enough so that we don't feel all adrift when we get there.

The only trouble is, once I began to write Regency romance, in earnest, I began to discover just how little I knew. When I sent my first heroine on a journey to find her long-lost brother in Spain, for example, I had no idea what route she might take, or how she'd get back to England once he died, either. I didn't know a thing about troop movements in the Peninsula, or how wounded soldiers were looked after, or what happened to their effects once they'd died. What was worse, it was extremely difficult to find out. I would go to the library for a book on a specific topic, and read lots and lots of them without finding out the one thing I wanted to learn. (Although I picked up a lot of other interesting facts instead). The only way round it, at that time, was to plough on, and hope for the best. Anything I didn't know, I skirted round, but even so, I'm sure I made a lot of mistakes.

Fortunately, nowadays, I have access to the internet. If I want to know how long it would take to travel by stagecoach from Yorkshire to London, I can probably find out within a matter of minutes. And what coaching inns my characters would be likely to have changed their horses, too.

x is for X rated...(the steamy stuff)

Once a month or so, Annie Burrows has been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer. And is dealing with themes in alphabetical order. This month, she's reached X...

Last month, I asked what I should write about when I got to x, and several people suggested x rated.

I don't think I actually write x rated stuff, to be honest. In my mind, an x rating means erotica. And although I do write some steamy scenes, my main focus is on what goes on inside the heroine's head and heart, not the hero's bedroom.

It's not that I shy away from writing love scenes. I write about people falling in love, and a big part of that process involves sexual attraction. If I didn't include that part of my heroine's journey to her happy ever after, I would feel as if I was leaving out a huge part of her story. But that is what it is - just a part of her story. Sometimes the fact that the hero and heroine make love is an essential part of the storyline, but sometimes it just isn't.

Because, during the Regency period, when my stories are set, single people didn't have the sexual freedom we enjoy today. There was a stricter moral code in place, and harsher punishments for women who didn't stick to those rules. Men sometimes had to make amends by marrying the woman they'd slept with, but by and large, it was the women left with the babies, the women who bore the brunt of society's disapproval, and the children who were left with the tag of bastardy.

Of course, if you were wealthy, there were ways round the rules that bound everyone else. Royal bastards were often given titles and lands. Girls from wealthy families who fell pregnant before marriage would get sent away to remote estates for a while, the child would be given to a humble family who'd receive wages for bringing it up, and the girl subsequently married off to someone who would be prepared to accept compensation for his bride's lack of purity. She wouldn't perhaps pay such a high price for having sex outside marriage, but she would still have a "stain" on her reputation - if anyone were to find out.

However, this means that my heroes and heroines are going to have to think very carefully about sleeping with each other before marriage. Which in turn means I have to think very carefully about how far to let them go if they aren't married. I do aim for historical accuracy, you see, and often I just can't imagine a scenario in which an unmarried couple would leap into bed with each other.

Which means that many of my books end up being what I would describe as "courtship" books. The couple might feel very attracted to each other, they may do a lot of flirting, but they won't fully consummate their relationship until after they are married. Or at least on the verge of marriage. That isn't to say there are no scenes where the hero tries to go as far as he dares. Which makes the ultimate scene, where he can finally make the heroine completely his, all the more satisfying (I hope!)

However, occasionally, I do write what I call "honeymoon" books. And the way I manage to do this is by having my protagonists marry at the outset, thinking they are going into a convenient marriage, and then finding they can't keep their hands off each other. And, because they're married, they don't have to. In fact, they tend to solve a lot of their issues in the bedroom (just like in real life?)

This means that my books don't all have the same level of heat. My 2015 Christmas book, for example, (The Captain's Christmas Bride) started with a girl accidentally seducing a stranger and having to marry him. And him believing that the only thing they have going for them is sexual compatibility. (You can imagine how that goes!)

In contrast, in the novella which is going to be out for Christmas in 2016 my hero and heroine don't get up to anything more than heated glances and one scorching kiss. It just wouldn't have been plausible for people in their situation, you see.

On the first Friday of every month, I've been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer. And dealing with themes in alphabetical order. This month, I've reached W...which I decided should stand for Writer's groups.

Writing can be a very insular occupation. I do spend a lot of time shut away in my study, writing down the adventures of my imaginary friends. But one thing I learned fairly early on is the benefit of connecting with other writers, either online or in real life.

Shortly before I landed my first publishing contract, I'd decided that if I got another rejection I was going to join the Romantic Novelist's Association (http://www.rna-uk.org/) so that I could send my manuscript in to their New Writer's Scheme for critique. I really felt I needed someone to read one of my stories and tell me why I was getting constant rejections, and, for a very reasonable fee, that is what the New Writer's Scheme provides. Only then I got an acceptance instead. So I joined as a full member and went along to my first local meeting.

It was wonderful to walk into a room full of like-minded people, and know I could talk about writing with people who would totally get what I was on about. I made my first writing friends through the RNA, and also picked up nuggets of useful advice for UK based authors, such as that wonderful institution of PLR (Public Lending Right). Basically, every time someone borrows my book from a UK library, I can get a few pence providing I've registered that book in the scheme.

And that is what writer's groups provide - not only support and friendships, but the exchange of knowledge.

Through friends I met at the RNA, I joined the group who later became the Novelistas. Our meetings usually take the form of a round robin, over a pub lunch, so that each of us can share where we're up to. Between us there is such a wealth of experience in the publishing industry that no matter what the topic brought to the table - from difficult edits to choosing an agent - there will be someone amongst us with valuable advice. Or at the very least an opinion! And if we have something special to celebrate, like a new book publication, there's very often cake.

As a writer for Mills & Boon, I've also joined the Association of Mills & Boon Authors (known as AMBA). We have an online forum where we can share industry news and chat, and meet up once a year for a lovely lunch in a swanky location in London. Since many of the members also belong to the RNA, that meeting takes place the day after the RNA a.g.m. so that people who live a long way from London can make an overnight stop and attend both meetings.

As I write historical romance for Harlequin Mills & Boon I've also joined an online chapter specifically for writers of Historical romance. They are a really knowledgeable and talented bunch of ladies. It doesn't matter what the question anyone asks, someone is bound to know the answer, or be able to point to a research resource where we can find the answer. I have found research so much easier since getting in contact with the Harlequin Hussies (as we call ourselves), as there is always someone who knows exactly where I can find the specific historical detail I want to get right.

Because the romance market is so big in America, I recently joined the RWA (Romance Writers of America). Although I have only managed to get to two conferences, they both really opened my eyes to the way things are done in the States. Plus, I got to meet up with the Hussies over breakfast.

The RWA magazine (which I get online) contains a mine of useful information about the craft and business of writing romance, which I can't wait to devour monthly as it drops into my inbox.

And finally, through the RNA, I learned the importance of joining the Society of Authors. (http://www.societyofauthors.org/) This is an organization for UK based authors of both fiction and non-fiction. They provide things like tax advice, legal protection, and will look over contracts before an author signs anything that might be detrimental to their rights.

So, I've gone from being a bit of a hermit, to someone who has plenty of friends, both real and virtual - all from joining writing groups.

Every month, I've has been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer. And dealing with themes in alphabetical order. This month, I've reached V...which I've decided should stand for Voice.

In some ways, this article continues from the one I posted last month, about your Unique Selling Point. Because your voice is going to be a part of what makes you unique.

Publisher's websites are always saying they are looking for fresh new voices. But what do they mean by "voice", I've often wondered? And how am I going to get a fresh new one?

Well, having read a lot of articles about it recently, I've discovered that actually it's quite simple. My "voice" is simply the thing that makes readers recognize me as the writer. It is my personality coming through in my writing.

This explains something that happened when I had my first book published. My husband was rather impressed, and agreed to read it. Even though it was a historical romance, and had a cover with a picture of a couple in a clinch, he read it during his daily commute to work on the train. (Which earned him lots of brownie points.)

When I asked what he thought of it, he said, in amazement, that it sounded just like me. Well, of course it sounded like me - I wrote it! When I asked what he meant, exactly, he explained that the things the heroine said were just the sorts of things he could imagine me saying.
(Which was fine, until a couple of chapters later, he mentioned that he thought the heroine was "a stroppy cow". Half the brownie points earned for reading my book at all promptly deducted.)

But there you have it. Your voice is just your personality shining through in your writing. Your attitudes, your take on life, your values. And in my case, my tendency to stroppiness (apparently - though I think I'm very easy-going.)

Another thing which helped me understand what a writer's "voice" is, happened during a writer's workshop I held, in the days when I thought that because I'd had a book published, it qualified me to teach writing as well. I set the students a very simple writing task - to describe their hero. Every single person in that class came up with a wildly different article. Not only their heroes were different, but so were the reasons for picking them, and the way they described them. Each article told me as much about the person who'd written it, as the hero they'd picked.

Every single writer has their own distinct take on the world, because of the way they were brought up, their values, their interests, and so on. If you were to ask six people in the room where you are now, to describe the room, you'd probably get six wildly different accounts. Some of the writers would describe the room in detail, right down to the style of architrave round the door. Others would focus on the other people in the room. Even the ones who wrote about the other people would each come up with something different. Some would be more interested in what the others were wearing, some on what they were doing. Someone might even take the opportunity to have a dig at you for making them do all the work when they'd paid good money to learn how to write.

So, your "voice" is just you. Your way of putting things.

However, when you first start writing, you will probably emulate writers you admire. It can take time, and practice, to gain the confidence to just be yourself, to allow your own, unique voice to come through in your writing.

Unless of course you happen to be naturally stroppy and opinionated.

About once a month I've been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer. And dealing with themes in alphabetical order. This month, I've reached U...which I've decided should stand for Unique.

When I started out as a writer I didn't want to have to do any marketing of myself. In fact, that was one of the reasons I wanted to write for Harlequin Mills & Boon. I thought I would just be sort of absorbed under the umbrella and become part of their brand. I thought I could just concentrate on writing my stories, and my publisher would do all the publicity for me. And to a large extent, they do.

But I write in what is a very crowded market. There seem to be dozens and dozens of other writers producing the same sort of book I do - Regency Romance. And with the rise of self-publishing, the marketplace has become even more competitive. Why should anyone want to pick up my book and read it, when there are so many others on offer? What is going to keep a reader remembering my books, and coming back for more?

According to marketing gurus, what I need to do is offer a Unique Selling Point. Something that will make me stand out from the crowd.

Fortunately for me, Mills & Boon have been brilliant about helping me develop my "brand". When I first started writing for them, they had a reader panel, made up of fans of specific lines, who would send in a questionnaire about what they liked (or didn't) about each month's books, in return for being entered into a draw for free books. This was a great piece of market research which I couldn't possibly have undertaken myself. And eventually my editor contacted me with the news that what readers liked about my books was the humour. One or two people had already told me that they had giggled when reading certain sections of my stories, so when she asked me if I would mind concentrating on that, rather than on what she termed "my dark side" (which made me feel as if I was perilously close to joining forces with Darth Vader) I agreed.

Because every writer needs to fulfil reader expectation. If you pick up a Dick Francis, you expect the hero to be an unassuming chap who thwarts the bad guys within a setting which is something to do with horses. If you read a Dean Koontz, you expect there to be something a bit spooky going on in the background of the thriller. Even I could see, that within the Harlequin Historical line, some writers tended to create "bad girls", those of the demi-monde, who maybe turn to crime to survive. Others are known for getting in a lot of historical detail. Others write extremely tortured heroes, or go for unusual settings.

I'd already had an Amazon review from a reader who was disappointed that the heroine of the book she'd just read by me hadn't been a virgin. And when I looked back at previous books, I saw that this was something else I'd done without really thinking about it. I'd made my heroines virgins, and my readers had come to expect that from me.

So, thanks to the market research done by my publisher, and a disgruntled Amazon reviewer, I'd discovered what readers wanted from my writing, and I started going all out to provide it. It wasn't any hardship...just a slight adjustment to the way I went about thinking up my plots. I can never resist deflating a pompous character, or inviting someone to share in a joke with me, and I'd already been doing that in my stories without really noticing I was doing it.

But then my publishers did a series of webinars on marketing and branding. By this time even I could see it wasn't enough to simply write the best story I could. We've all moved into an era where we have to have an online presence. Which, they said, should be consistent across all platforms. Which meant thinking up a tagline which expressed what we stood for.

Ulp! As if it wasn't enough learning how to write, and write to a deadline and a wordcount, now I had to promote myself too?

Fortunately, I'd recently had a revisions letter from an editor, saying that my current manuscript (at that point) lacked the "trademark Annie Burrows sparkle".

Aha! That was it - that was what I wanted to offer readers, and what readers seemed to want from me - some sparkle. So my tagline became "Sparkling Regency Romance". Now a reader has a clue what they are going to find within the covers of one of my books. Though I do aim for total historical accuracy, which demands a lot of research and double-checking, not a great deal of that actually makes it to the pages. In the end, what I offer my readers is a light-hearted, fun sort of read.

That is my Unique Selling Point - the sparkle.

What is yours?

On the first Friday of every month, I've been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer. And dealing with themes in alphabetical order. This month, I've reached T...so I'll be talking about how I manage my time.

I'm supposed to write two books a year, at 75,000 words each. Every time I get a new deadline, one of the first things I do is to sit down and work out a timetable which will ensure how I get my story in on time.
My last one went something like this:

Due August 31st.
75,000 at 10k per week (or 2 chapters per week) for 1st draft. = 2k per day. Will take 7 and a half weeks.
If start 4th March, should be done by April 30th.

2nd draft - revise 3 chapters per week = 8 weeks (assuming 15 chapters)
should take until June 17th

That should have given me a full two and a half months to do a third draft, which is when I usually have only a few little tweaks to iron out. I was hoping I would be able to get the commissioned story finished, and then spend some time on a book I'd like to self-publish.

But what happened? Well, to start with, my first draft was over 30,000 words short. I'd written all the story I could think of, and the only way I could have put in anything else would have been shameless padding.

Fortunately, the Novelistas helped me with some brainstorming, during which we came up with a new ending. So that my second draft, with a completely new ending, which I managed to finish on June 29th, came in at 64,000 words. Still a bit short, but not too far off for that stage of my drafts, so I was reasonably happy. I still had a full two months before the deadline, although I was by then two weeks behind where I wanted to be.

However, I was going to the Romance Writers of America conference at the end of July, which would mean two weeks off, plus any time necessary to recover from jet lag which always turns my brain to mush. So I thought it would be a good idea to get my 3rd draft done before I flew out.

But then I had an unexpected visitor, who stayed a week. And a teacher husband at home for school holidays underfoot. So by the time I flew out I had achieved practically nothing.

My next entry in my "progress with wip" file reads:
returned to work on August 10th.
Have until 31st to deadline = 3 weeks.
Need to revise 13 chapters = min 1 chapter per day.

I finally submitted the book on September 4th, having spent the previous week hunched over my laptop feverishly typing. And ended up with back spasm, followed by a migraine.

So what had gone wrong with my brilliant plan? Ok - I knew there would be a couple of weeks out at the end of July for the trip to New York, but I shouldn't have had to end up frantically trying to finish by the deadline. I'd worked out that I'd have plenty of free time - I'd even hoped I could work on that self-published book that has been on the back burner for what feels like forever. And this isn't the first time it's happened either. The last few books I have produced have all gone the same way. I've started off with a brilliant timetable, which appears to give me plenty of time, and end up begging my editor for an extension. I'm on my 21st book at the moment, so you'd think by now I would have learned how to write a bit faster than I did to start off with.

So this time, on the recommendation of a blog I read that suggested I should be able to write 10,000 words a day if I followed their advice (cue hollow laughter) I kept a writing diary. To see if I could pick out patterns. Which would show me where I was going wrong. Wasn't I spending enough time at my laptop? I certainly felt as if I was working as hard as I could. So perhaps I was taking too many days off to gallivant - although time spent with the Novelistas wouldn't count, I promised myself. I frequently need their input. (And the home-made cake).

Anyway, what I discovered when I read through my writing diary was this deadly phrase:
Revisions landed.

And everything made sense. Because, when I counted how much time I'd spent on revisions to my previous book, when I should have been ploughing forward with my next one, it came to a shocking total of 6 weeks.

The revisions came in two rounds, the first of which took me four weeks, and the second, two.

Even when I did get back to my wip, I found phrases in my writing diary like:
Spent an hour in afternoon just trying to get my head round chapter 10 again
and
All gone to hell in a handcart coz of revisions. Now need to re date all targets

So, it's revisions that are the culprit. If I hadn't had those revisions, my book would have been submitted in plenty of time, and I could have worked on my own personal project.

So, clearly, when I'm making my timetable for my next book, I'm going to have to factor in those 6 weeks for revisions. And next time, hopefully my writing diary won't have comments like:

Change of plan -
So now I am officially only 1 week behind revised schedule.
Wow. It's going to be tight.

On the first Friday of every month, I've been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer. And dealing with themes in alphabetical order. This month, I've reached S...so I'll be talking about whether to write Series or Stand alone.

I have taken part in a couple of series, where each book has been written by a different author, but never, so far, created one of my own.

Harlequin quite often create mini-series, where each author is assigned a small part of a longer, over arching plot, whilst also writing a story which can stand alone. And I've been involved in a couple for the Historical line. I was responsible for part 5 of the Regency Silk and Scandal series, in which a couple of aristocratic families search for the man responsible for a murder committed in the previous generation. My instalment, The Viscount and the Virgin, dealt with the fate of the Murdered Man's daughter. I found it tremendous fun brainstorming the murder mystery plot, which became the backdrop for 8 individual love stories, with the other authors involved. We drew up a complicated family tree, and created spreadsheets galore to keep track of who was doing what, when, and with whom.

There's a tremendous amount of extra work involved in taking part in such a series, and both times I've done one, although I've really enjoyed it, I've also found it a bit of a relief to coming back to writing just one story, about just one couple.

However, I often find that a minor character in one book will wander into another one. And that the more often they appear, the more real they become, until I have to give them their own story. Captain Fawley, for example, first appeared in "His Cinderella Bride" at a ball. Then took a larger role in "The Earl's Untouched Bride." So large a part, in fact, that my editor at the time made me cut him back severely. But I did get permission to write his story (even though he had only one eye, one arm, and a wooden leg!)

A similar thing happened with Lord Havelock. He appeared as a minor character in a Christmas novella, where he strode into a men's club and set the cat among the pigeons by asking them to help him draw up a list of qualities they thought would make a perfect wife. I didn't know, then, why he needed such a list, but I couldn't stop wondering. And eventually I had to write him a book to explain his odd behaviour - Lord Havelock's List. The book I'm writing now is the story of one of the other men who helped him compile the list - the one who said his wife would have to be intelligent, because he couldn't bear the thought of giving up his bachelor freedoms only to beget a brood of idiots.

But anyway, earlier this year I went down to London to visit the new London offices of my publisher, Harlequin UK, and to have a serious chat with my editor.
I'd just been awarded a four book contract, you see, but only had one full length book and one novella completely outlined and agreed upon. I had a lot of vague ideas...dramatic meetings between characters who had tortured back stories...but no real idea of where to take them.

I sent these rough outlines to my editor and during lunch, (during which some wine may have been consumed), she gave me the most insightful feedback. In one of the rough outline openings, I'd suggested that the hero pursue the heroine as part of a wager between himself and a group of his friends. And she asked me whether I'd considered writing stories about these friends, and tying them together as a trilogy.
The moment she made the suggestion it became obvious how other snippets that I'd had floating about in the back of my mind for a while could become parts 2 and 3 of a trilogy. It would probably have happened naturally, the way it's happened before. But this time, as I set out to deliberately write a set of linked stories, I can actually plan my own overarching story which will tie them together more firmly, rather than having the loose connections I've come up with before.

And, more importantly, I can actually let readers know in advance that it's going be a trilogy.

Do you know, I feel as if I'm finally getting my writing life organized!
(It has only taken me until S!)

When I was at the Romance Writers of America conference in New York last summer, one of the highlights, for me, was attending the Harlequin booksigning.

In spite of what anyone may say, Harlequin romances are still incredibly popular. Sales may be down, but a lot of people were extremely keen to get their hands on the books that were being given away, to judge from the queue outside the door to get in.

I signed and gave away copies of my Waterloo book, A Mistress for Major Bartlett, almost continually for the two hours the event went on.

The only bit of the event I didn't enjoy was when a film crew came along to interview me. (I'm not alone in that - the other authors ducked behind their stacks of books, then sighed in relief when the crew pounced on me, because I'd been too busy chatting to a fan to notice them sneaking up)

Anyway, they cleared a space round my bit of the table, thrust a microphone at me, and said, in what I felt was a rather challenging manner, "Why do you love romance?"

My mind immediately went as blank as the first sheet of paper in a brand new notebook. After umming and erring for a while, I came up with something inane along the lines of (I think) "What's not to like? Doesn't everything in life mean more when you have someone to share it with?"

The reason I can't recall what I answered then, is because the crew went off into a huddle for a bit, then came back to me and said, "Could you say all that again, only this time look into the camera?"

Silly me, I'd answered the girl who asked the question, not the guy standing over to the side with half a ton of equipment strapped to his shoulder.

Anyway, by this time I was somewhat irritated. Because I still couldn't come up with a clever, witty, answer off the top of my head. And I felt a bit resentful that I had to defend my position as a writer of romance. And as anyone who's ever tried to take a photo of me will confirm, I have an extremely expressive face. So I don't think the second attempt to get a soundbite from me would have been any good either. Not to judge by the tight smiles on their faces as they shuffled away, anyhow.

It was three months later, before I finally decided what I should have said. (Not that I'd been lying awake at night going over and over how stupid I must have looked or anything)

All you have to do, I should have said, is to turn on the radio, to hear that love and romance is on just about everyone else's mind too. There may be the occasional song that reaches a top slot in the charts about Medicinal Compound, or digging a hole in the ground, but the vast majority of popular songs are about love and romance. Even the most cynical of news hounds would have to admit that finding a soul mate, that special someone who will understand you, support you, and share all life's trials with you, is extremely important to a lot of people. And that without that special someone, life can feel bleak and pointless.

Programmes like the X factor or Pop Idol rely on the fact that huge numbers of young people want to get up on stage and sing about how much they long for the object of their affection to notice them, or to bewail the fact that their heart has been badly broken.

Has anyone gone up to Adele, or Sam Smith, and asked them why they sing about romance? And made them defend their choice to do so? And imply that they would somehow be more worthy if they sang about crime, or the human condition? I don't think so.

So why is writing stories about romance regarded by the press, so often, as being somehow a bit silly, when singing about love and romance is not?

If I could write poetry, or hold a tune in a bucket, maybe I'd be up there singing about how wonderful it is to fall in love, or how badly it hurts when it all goes pear shaped. (Or if I could stand being in front of a camera!) Instead, I write about people going through the entire process of striving to find their happy ever after, in prose.

And what's wrong (to quote Sir Paul McCartney) with that?

If you'd like to see how ridiculous I looked in that interview, you can view the video here:
https://www.facebook.com/HarlequinBoo...

They stuck me right at the end. (I don't blame them!)

About once every month, I've been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer. And dealing with themes in alphabetical order. This month, I've reached Q which is for Quality. Or Quantity?

Firstly, apologies to anyone who came looking for a new blog post from me in January. I blame Christmas!

Anyway, the idea for this blog came from the RWA conference I attended in New York in summer 2015.
Because one of the workshops I really wanted to attend was intriguingly called "Writing a novel in 30 days - tips tricks and cautions." In 30 days? I'd be thrilled if I could produce a book in less than 6 months. Lots of other writers seem to be able to do it. So why can't I?

One of the ladies giving the workshop opened by saying the fastest she had ever written a novel was 7 days. When challenged as to its length, she told us it was 95,000 words. There were gasps all round. The second lady on the panel claimed 75,000 words in 3 weeks, and the third 60,000 in 6 weeks. And they were all from start to submission. They weren't talking about first drafts!

However, one thing they all agreed on was that they do good first drafts, which don't need much re-writing. They didn't do a lot of plotting either, as they considered it a waste of time. In short, they all just sat down and wrote.

By this time I was feeling very inadequate. My first drafts are generally a total mess and need going over several times before I feel confident about sending them off to my editor. I can sit down and write a story in 4/5 weeks, but it isn't fit for human consumption! My revisions take ages and ages. And ages.

I was starting to wonder if I'm being too pernickety. Perhaps I should just bash out a draft and send it off...
But no. I can't do it. I can't let anyone see my work until I'm sure it's of a certain standard. And my first drafts definitely aren't.

However, as the workshop progressed, and people started asking how exactly these three women managed to write so fast, and still have a life, it became apparent that actually, they didn't. Have much of a life outside writing, when they were going at that pace, that is. One started writing from 8am until 5 pm when she became an empty-nester. One had a husband who worked in a high profile job which meant he wasn't home until 11 pm. And all three admitted that their health suffered. And that they have had to cut back a lot.

Their conclusion was that you have to write the best book you can and don't beat yourself up if it isn't done quickly. In other words, go for Quality, not Quantity. I'd been getting worked up over all the advice I keep reading lately, that I need to bring out books really frequently to keep readers coming back. But they're not going to come back if my book isn't any good, are they, no matter how quickly I manage to get it out there?

I came away from that workshop with the feeling that it isn't just quality of writing that's important, either, but quality of life.

If I lived alone, and needed to fill up my hours with something, then maybe I too could write from 8 in the morning until 11 at night, and produce 4 books a year I could be proud of instead of 2.

But I have a husband, two grown up children, and a borrowed dog to take into consideration. And elderly parents who live at the far end of the country. And I don't want to turn into a heap of blancmange racked through with aching bones from sitting hunched over my computer all day and into the night. I want to get outside with the borrowed dog and go for walks to keep myself relatively healthy. Keep my house the sort of place my husband will look forward to coming home to every night, and for my kids to want to visit from their far-flung homes.

I want quality of life, as well as feeling I've written books I can be proud of.

So it looks as though I'm doomed to only ever turning out 2 books a year - 2 books I can get excited about, that is.

And I must be doing something right. My most recent royalty statement shows that I have now had over one million sales world wide since I started writing full time in 2008.

I am having 2 books released in 2016. In Bed with the Duke is a full length released in May, and there will be a novella in as yet unnamed anthology coming out at Christmas.