Earlier this week, I achieved an ambition. Romantic Times chose my November release Bedded by The Greek Billionaire as one of their Top Picks for the month. I was on the phone to my dh at the time that I discovered this and I’m sure that everyone in his office at work must have heard my shriek of delight as a result. I’ve had some really good reviews from RT before – The Twelve Month Mistress was also shortlisted for Best Presents in 2005 – but I’ve never had a Top Pick. Now I have.
It’s a great feeling, both because of the accolade that it is but also because it marks another new development, a change, an achievement that keeps me – an my writing fresh. I’ve been writing Romance now for over twenty years. I’ve published over 50 books with more on the way. And one of the questions I keep being asked is how do I keep coming up with ideas, how do I keep interested – because if I don’t keep interested, then how can I expect to interest my readers?
In the previous blog, Annie West wrote about finding new ideas and stories to write. I remember that at her stage of my career the ideas came thick and fast . There were so many different things I wanted to write. There still are. The problem is that with a backlist of books behind you, as you start to write what you think is a new idea, you suddenly remember ‘But I did this in book 23 . . . or book 16 …’ We all know that there are not that many different plots in writing romance, so it’s pretty difficult to be totally original. But I really don’t want to be writing just the same books all over again.
But later, when I thought about it, I realised that what keeps me going – and keeps me from writing the same stories over and over again is that I don’t see my books not as ‘love stories’, not as plots and themes, but they are first and foremost relationship stories. Stories of how two people work through the problems, the differences, the emotional conflicts that keep them apart so that they can have a wonderful future together.
Because I write for Harlequin Presents I’m often accused of writing pure fantasy – after all, the line is crammed full, wall to wall, with billionaires, sheikhs or Greek tycoons. But the point is that a billionaire, or a sheikh, or a tycoon, is still a man. And the problems that I give my heroes are the problems that any man could have, whether he was a billionaire tycoon, or the local plumber. Because they are emotional problems. And we all know how difficult they are to deal with. Emotional problems can only be dealt with emotionally. And so these billionaires find that the problems they have to face are the sort that they can throw all the money in the world into solving them and it just won’t work. They have to come up with an emotional solution.
And that’s because these guys are dealing with two other problems – a woman – and the sort of love that they’ve never experienced before. Suddenly Mr Alpha Male is not as sure of himself in this part of his life as he is in all the rest of it. He has to learn to think in a different way, act in a different way. It’s the emotional journey that he makes that matters, not the world he lives in or how much money he has. It’s how he– and his heroine deal with those emotional questions that makes the story of the novel.
And that’s why this job never becomes boring. Difficult sometimes, challenging yes, but not boring. Because each hero and each heroine is a new person, someone I’ve never ‘met’ before. Someone who has a different background, a different personality, different experiences from all heroes or heroines who have gone before. I don’t know these people at the start, but I get to know them and I get to learn about their story. And then I tell their story so that readers can learn about it too and, hopefully enjoy it.
Back in 2000 I wrote my very first Greek hero – Constantine Alexiakis in Constantine’s Revenge. He was a very different man from Angelos,the Dark Angel, the hero of Bedded By the Greek Billionaire. They both come back into their heroine’s lives after some years away, both are looking for revenge for what happened between them and their heroines in the past. But that past story for Angelos was nothing like the past story for Angelos. And so their present day story couldn’t be anything like the same when I sat down to write it. That’s the challenge. If my new Greek hero wasn’t different, he’d be no fun to write – certainly not in the least interesting to write.
Writing romance is all about the people in the books. It’s about the heroes and the heroines, who they are, what they do, how they react to each other, how they behave. That’s what makes the important part of the story, the real heart of the novel. Critics say that romances are ‘all the same’ – but they can’t be reading them properly if they think that. You might as well say human beings are all the same when we all know that there is an infinite variety and that every single person is distinct from everyone else.
It’s the same with my books, People fascinate me and I love to learn their stories. That’s why I read newspapers, magazines, watch interviews on chat shows – OK, I admit it, listen in to conversations I can overhear on the train or in a restaurant. And the people I create are fascinating too so that I love to discover their personal stories, their emotional journeys so that I can write them down and tell them to you – the readers.
So what about you? Is it the people who keep bringing you back to reading Presents – the heroes perhaps? Or is it the international settings, the passion – or something else? I’d love to know and I have a signed copy of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire to giveaway to someone. Just post in the comments and as I always do, I’ll get Sid the Cat to pick a winner in a couple of days time.
Kate’s current release, Bedded By the Greek Billionaire, is available now in the UK and Australia and will be released in November in America. . You can find out more on her website at http://www.kate-walker.com or her blog http://kate-walker.blogspot.com. An excerpt is posted at the UK Mills and Boon (Harlequin) site and will soon be available on the eHarlequin web site too. Kate’s bestselling trilogy The Alcolar Family is also available as a 3 in 1 By Request collection, either in print or ebook form, and as an ebook Bundle – check out her web site for details.
Kate is also the author of the award-winning 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance and her next novel, Cordero’s Forced Bride will be published in Harlequin Presents in February 2009.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I guess it is all those things you mentioned that keep me reading Presents: the heroes and heroines; the conflict and how it gets solved(probably the most important to me); the settings (when they are not totally made up); and of course the HEA ending.
Ellen, for me it’s the interaction between the characters. I love to see the struggle and then ultimate victory between the hero and heroine that keeps me reading.
In Presents, I’ve always thought the authors had a to master the art of balancing the hero out. It’s a line that has always had to show that there’s a fine line between the hero being an overbearing jerk and just a little more aggressive in getting what he wants.
Having read A LOT of Kate’s wonderful books (if you haven’t read one, you have to and then you’ll know why she’s a master storyteller!) I can tell you she honestly knows how to make the hero strong without being overpowering to the heroine. You have to always see that spark of humility, of vulnerability in the hero (or so I believe) to make you feel good about him being with the heroine.
=)
Heather R.
Hi, all!
Kate this is a great post. Congratulations on the RT Top Pick! I can’t wait to read Bedded by the Greek Billionaire.
Heather R., I so agree that there’s a fine line. I like my heroes to sweep the heroines away without pushing them around. There are enough jerks out there without having them in our fantasies!
Off to the day job…
Hi everyone
If my editor asks, you haven’t seen me – I’m supposed to send in my latest book – er – yesterday! I’m on the last chapter right now so I’ll just about do it!
So this is just a holding message to say that I’ll come back and chat properly just as soon as I’m done – so please keep the comments coming and I’ll be able to answer properly then
(And I’ll go back to my writing so much more easily after reading the lovely comments – thank you Heather and Alyson
Back soon – when I can relax
Kate
Oh, yeah! I’ve waited for this Blogathon since Heather mentioned it!
I’m a huge Kate fan (as you’ll see if you read any of my reviews!). I’m also very fortunate to have been assigned Bedded by the Greek Billionaire to review! Yea for me! I’m nearly done and should have a review done within a day or so. It’s spectacular so far!
While you’re here Kate I wanted to ask a few questions that I’ve been wondering about for some time. Do you read many Presents books yourself? And how do you keep all your stories straight? I find myself recalling things that happen in the various books I’ve read and wonder how on earth they can all seem so different with similar themes!
I’ll check back soon!
AJ
You are so right. Romances are about the people, not the plot or even the situation, although these things will no doubt have great impact on the story, simply because these things impact the characters so greatly.
I’ve read several of your books and I’ve never thought I was reading the same book. I will admit that I’ve read some authors who have characters who aren’t as different from the characters in a previous book as I’d like and those books do tend to read the same.
I was a huge fan of the Alcolar Trilogy, and I also loved the book with Skye and Theo.
I think I mentioned in another comment (Sandra Marton’s post maybe) that it is definitely the heroes that are my favorite part of Presents. No other lines do them so well!
Hi everyone – I’m back! And with the new book safely delivered to my editor I’m finally free to chat. Sorry for the delay
So thank you for your comments Ellen. I so agree with you about the way that the conflict gets solved – that’s so important in reading a Presents story. Becuase the conflicts can be so intense and emotional, if the way that it’s sorted between the hero and the heroine isn’t satisfactory then the book feel unfinished. A lighter conflict doesn’t need to much working through – but we Presents authors like to put our characters through such turmoil that it needs to be resolved well!
Kate
Hi Heather – and thanks for invitig me on WWR to blog. And thank you too for the wonderful compliments you’ve paid me – I’ve been blushing over here in the UK and they got me through the final stages of writig this book – the endings are always difficult. Probably because there is so much to be resolved.
That interaction between the hero and heroine is what it’s all about and you are so right – there is a fine line to be drawn between making the hero a strong and forceful male character and letting him appear like an overbearing jerk. That’s all down to the motivation. I always try for motivation that a reader, no matter who, can believe in. If the hero (and the heroine too but particularly the hero ) has very good reasons for behaving as he does then he’s convincing as a good man (which a hero has to be or he’s no hero) who is just reacting very strongly to a difficult set of circumstances. For me, I can’t believe that a man who, for example, treats women appallingly, or lies to her throughout a book, then sudddenly has a transformation at the end, can be believed when he says he loves her and he’s changed. It’s easy to say but it’s actions that show that it’s real.
So, yes there needs to be that spark of vulenrability and humility in him to make him a hero
Kate
Hi Larissa
If you’ve read my reply to Heather you’ll know that I totally agree with you. There is a fine line to draw between forceful and wrongful behaviour. That’s why I always say that my heroes have to have a strong code of honour that they act on. Without honour a man isn’t a hero in my book – and very definitely jerks need not apply ;-D
Kate
Alyson – one of my favourite reviewers! I’m so pleased to know that you’re enjoying Bedded by The Greek Billionaire. Thank you in advance for reviewing it.
You asked an interesting question – one that’s not that easy to answer because it comes down to that difficult to define thing known as voice. We all know that there are only so many different plots possible for roamnce writers to use so it’s very difficult for any author to be amazingly original but the thing that makes them unique is the individual way they tell a story.
So yes, I do read quite a lot of Presents books. Not as many as I would like but enough to keep me up to date with what’s happening, particularly with the new authors and getting to know their styles and voices. And when I do read them I’m always intrigued to see how each auhtor can take the same theme and write it so very differently that it is a totally different book.
For example, the other two authors blogging here so far – Annie West and Sandra Marton – both have sheikh books out but their two heroes couldn’t be more different and the way they tell a story is unique too. I think I could probably tell one from the other from just a page. ( The late, great Charlotte Lamb really could do that with any of the auhtors she read!)
And then of course it all comes down the what I wrote about in my blog – that it’s the characters who matter and so even though one Greek hero might just get labelled a ‘Greek Tycoon’ or a Greek Billionaire in the title, when they are well written, the individual characters are just that ‘individual’ that you remember their book and their story.
Kate
Hey, Kate!
I’m on the last few chapters of your upcoming November release then I’ll be on to post and chat.
Later,
Heather R.
Hi Terescia – great to ‘see’ you here.
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my books and found that the characters are different. That is something I try to work on and it’s not always easy. But I want to give my readers the best book I can so I believe that making characters individual is part of that. I’d have to agree with you that in some romances it doesn’t always work that way. I look at it this way – the plot is what happens between the two charactrs so it has to come from within those characters, who they are and how they react to each other.
Sometimes I read books that seem to work the opposite way – with the plot decided on first and then the characters made to behave in ways that fit it. Then perhaps the characters don’t get enough chance to develop as strongly as they should.
You talked about The Alcolar Family books (I’m so glad you enjoyed those!) They were an example of how I try to work to make my characters so different – even though 3 of those heroes (if you include the original short story) were Spanish, they all had very different backgrounds and so different characters – and that meant they chose very different women as their heroines.
Oh yes – and I’m with you and the Presents hero. That’s the main reason I read the books as well as write them. I love the heroes! And they are such fun to write
Kate
Kate, thanks for responding! I’ve always loved the Presents heroes and heroines. The situations are a lot stronger than those you’d find in some of the other lines. Even today, I think the Presents books are so distinct from the other Harlequin lines… I’ve never had trouble telling them apart from the rest. If I had to choose only one kind of book I could read for the next year, I would be very happy with Presents. The shorter format makes for very fast-paced reading but the high tension keeps me riveted. The stories and locations are so varied. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Aussie books. Some of my favorite authors wrote for Presents. Emma Goldrick and Leigh Michaels were always favorites. And I’ve loved your books too! I love the variety, for sure. :-)