Margaret Mayo, Guest Blogger :: The Road to Presents

When people discover that I’m a writer I’m always asked two questions. How did I become a writer? Where do I get my ideas from?

As far as the ideas question is concerned, I’m sure it’s the same for most authors of romance, they come from odd snippets of information/conversation, old movies, articles in newspapers or magazines, anything that triggers off a train of thought – and usually it ends up nothing like that first bit of inspiration.

Today, though, I’m going to focus on how I became a writer. Unlike most authors who say that writing is something they’ve always wanted to do, I had never, ever, seriously considered becoming a writer. If I’d thought about it at all it was how had anyone got the patience to write all those thousands of words? How did they think up the stories? I loved reading, I’d always got my nose stuck in a book – but actually writing one? No way! Not in a million years.

I still find it hard to believe that it’s what I do for a living. That people read what I write and actually enjoy it. It’s such a thrill.

This is how it happened. When my two children were at the respectable ages of ten and eight – I went back out to work as secretary to the UK Manager of a Danish company – but even so money was still tight so I decided to go to college and learn languages, with the intention of getting a job as a bi-lingual secretary. I was going to learn German and French – in that order. But after two years studying German the whole class failed their exam. And they sacked the teacher!

So much for thinking I’d get a better paid job!

I’d discovered that to be a bi-lingual secretary I needed qualifications in the English language as well and as I’d left school without any I went to English classes alongside the German ones. I enjoyed writing essays and it was while I was taking these classes that I had an idea for a short story. I simply woke up one morning with it in my mind – goodness knows where it came from – and I began writing it that very day – at the office!

It wasn’t a very busy office – I’d been told when I began to work there that so long as my work was done I could read or keep myself occupied in any way I liked. I did think about taking my ironing but I’m not sure that would have gone down very well! The manager, the rep and the engineers were nearly always out and for long hours at a time I was on my own.

My short story grew and grew until I could see that it was turning into a full scale novel – and the trouble was I didn’t know what to do with it. I really knew nothing at all about writing. I wrote to my local paper to see if anyone there knew someone qualified to criticise my work. They said I had a writer’s circle right on my doorstep. In my ignorance I didn’t even know there were such things.

And so I joined. I caused a bit of a stir when I turned up with half a novel. Most people were writing short stories or poetry. Fortune favoured me. The lady who ran the circle, Norrey Ford, was a Mills & Boon writer (unfortunately no longer with us) and she took me under her wing.

I hadn’t aimed this story at the HM&B market – I’d not even thought about publishers or markets, to me it was just a story with a bit of romance thrown in. But under Norrey’s guidance I wrote and I re-wrote and fifteen months later, I had a passable novel. She told me to parcel it up and send it off to Mills & Boon.

Actually she must have known that it wasn’t really suitable. Oddly enough I’d always read them, as had my mother before me, but I hadn’t even thought about aiming this book specifically at their market. Nevertheless I waited in nervous anticipation – only to be told that it wasn’t suitable for their list. However they did encourage me by saying that they liked my writing and would be pleased to read anything else that I wrote.

Straight away I started another book, having read an armful of M&B books in the meantime to see exactly what it was they wanted. After five months of blood sweat and tears I sent it off. And while I was waiting to hear I began another – the bug had really bitten. This one took me three months and as I still hadn’t heard from them I sent this off as well. Would anyone dare do that today?

Then I went on a two week holiday. When I came back there was a letter waiting for me from Mills & Boon. I was almost afraid to open it. And when I did I cried. But they were tears of happiness.

IT WAS AN ACCEPTANCE LETTER!

It was very brief, simply saying that they would like to publish both books – but to me it was like all my birthdays and Christmases come together. I grabbed hold of my husband and we danced around the room and the kids thought we were mad because they didn’t know what was going on. It was truly the most wonderful day of my life.

But then reality struck. If I wanted to be successful I had to keep this up. I had to write more books. Could I do it?

I think I’ve proved that I can but the road hasn’t been easy. I’ve had rejections – not many – well, three actually, but even so they hurt. And revisions? Don’t mention revisions! In the early days I never had any so when they started coming in I was really worried. I didn’t have a computer in those days, no internet, no one to talk to about it, and I thought I was losing the plot. Now revisions are the norm. But it doesn’t mean that I enjoy doing them. I find them harder than actually writing the book in the first place.

Following publication of my first novel, Destiny Paradise, I was interviewed by our local evening newspaper – sitting on the steps which led up to my first floor office. Talk about embarrassing! Lord knows what my boss thought. Although when I did give up my job to become a full time writer, two years and eight books later, he said that he had expected it. It’s a dream profession. Admittedly there are days when I think I’ll never be able to write again, when the ideas won’t come, when the words refuse to gel, but overall I’m never happier than when I’m sitting at my desk writing.

In the early days some of my books went into the Presents series – or Harlequin Romance as it was called then, and some into Mills & Boon Modern – which was also called Romance. It all depended on the amount of passion and sensuality in them. Eventually though I was told that they’d like me to write purely for the Presents/Modern series. So in effect Presents chose me. For which I’m eternally grateful.

So what does writing for Presents mean for me? It means I get to fall in love with the most stunningly attractive, breathtakingly charismatic, enviably rich guys in the world. To write well you need to live the story, and, boy, do I do that. I have such an amazing time – without ever leaving my desk. Is it any wonder that at the end of a working day I throw myself down on the settee and declare that I’m worn out?

Not forgetting that I’m the heroine in all these stories. That I have reservations about this guy – despite his looks and wealth. I’m wary of him though intensely attracted at the same time. I’m young and pretty and hungry for love. This man’s like a magnet, He pulls me in but each time I resist – until finally I have no strength left and he makes me his.

Do you fall in love with all the heroes you read about? Are you sorry when the book is finished? Or should the question be, who gets the most pleasure, the reader or the writer?

I wasn’t going to mention this, but I can’t keep it to myself, I’ve just finished writing my 75th book. OK, it won’t be published until later next year – but the joy is bubbling away inside me. Who would have thought when I woke up with that idea for a short story I would be where I am today?

Tagged as: becoming a writer, Harlequin Presents, margaret mayo, Mills & Boon