Reflections on 22 Years of Writing
by Michelle Reid
I was checking out what everyone was saying over here about the Presents bloggers bundle when I came across a comment our wonderful Heather made, which made me blink in surprise… I’ve been writing for 22 years…? I knew I came here to keep up with all the Romance info, but I never expected to discover things about myself I didn’t know!
22 years … and it feels like only last week that I received “the call” from Mills & Boon to tell me they wanted to buy my first book. True to the ideals of romantic fiction that call came late afternoon on Christmas Eve! I had just arrived home from a last minute shopping binge with my daughters. Flopped like a rag doll in the closest chair, it was left to my eldest daughter to answer the telephone. ‘Mum,’ she said in a breath
less little voice that scared the life out of me, ‘It’s Mills and Boon…’ Top that for the best Christmas present ever.
Since then there have been several landmarks in those 22 years. The first one was seeing my debut book A Question of Pride in print. The next one was receiving the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for No Way to Begin and 
Passion Becomes You. 2 books I’m still very proud of. Then there was The Hot Blooded Husbands mini series, in which all 4 books seemed to grow naturally out of The Sheik’s Chosen Wife, as if I had nothing to do with what was happening inside my own head! The next big landmark was The Brazilian’s Blackmailed Bride and all that went in to the book’s creation.
The original idea to write a trilogy in collaboration with 2 other Presents authors from different corners of the world, came from the wonderful Sandra Marton. Sandra contacted Emma Darcy in Australia and myself here in the UK, to ask what we thought about the idea and before we knew it we were neck deep in brainstorming emails, from which The Ramirez Brides trilogy was conceived. Never having written in 
collaboration with anyone before the experience was exciting and inspiring. I thoroughly enjoyed building our hot blooded half-brothers then giving them heroines to match their passion and fire. Like a world-sized triangle with their wealthy playboy/rake father Enrique Ramirez in the centre, the trick was to draw all three mai
n players together in that centre by the end of book 3 when the brother’s would meet for the first time. Great! Easy! After all that brainstorming of course we know what we’re doing! So off we went to write our books – and learnt the hard way that it wasn’t that simple! But we had a really great time achieving what we’d set out to do.
I hope you find The Brazilian’s Blackmailed Bride as exciting to read as I found writing it!
Warm regards
Michelle
on January 25th, 2010
Michelle,
I think it’s fabulous that you’ve been writing for as long as you have! It’s a great accomplishment that you should definitely be proud of!
Heather R.
on January 25th, 2010
Marion, I loved working with you on The Ramirez Brides trilogy!
Love,
Sandra
on January 26th, 2010
I just dropped by to say Hi to Michelle and congratulate her on 22 years as a published author. From the start of those 22 years she’s been one of my favourite Presents authors – one of my favourite authors, full stop – and I’ve loved every book she’s written.
I was also going to say the only problem is that she doesn’t write fast enough but I’m going to have to leave that out as I’m also here to explain that Michelle is having computer problems – yet again! She thought they’d been sorted out but she’d just rung me to let me know things are messed up again. So I’m sending her apologies for her if she doesn’t get in here to answer any comments for a while. As soon as things are sorted out she’d hope to be here herself.
on January 26th, 2010
What an accomplishment. Congratulations!
on January 26th, 2010
I love your books, Michelle. You remind me of what it’s like to dream of love and finally find it with each story. It’s so great that you’re reaching the 25th year milestone. Not many people can say that about any job. :-)
on January 26th, 2010
Congrats.
on January 26th, 2010
I’m interested to know how you can come up with fresh stories after so long. Don’t they all run together? Have you ever found you’re bored with writing the same hero or heroine over and over? I love romance novels, but here lately I’m wondering if I’ve outgrown the series books as they nearly always seem to be the same. I will admit there are a few gems here and there, but…
on January 28th, 2010
Hi Heather, Sandra and Kate, Lovely to see you here.
Sorry about the computer glitch which prevented me from joining in sooner. I’m still having big problems with my nice posh new computer, so I’ve had to take the antique pc out of retirement and put it back to work!
Thanks Kate, for stepping in and explaining why I could not be around.
Larissa, what you said about “what it’s like to dream of love and finally find it with each story” kind of covers what writing romance is about, only I do all of that from my hero and heroines point of view!
Nan and Marissa – thanks for the congratulations!
Zoe, you asked, do I ever get bored with writing romance? No, never bored – and the one thing I hope don’t to do is write the same hero and heroine over and over. People are people no matter who they are or what walk of life they come from and everyone has there own individual story to tell about the rocky road to love. Same thing with writers all being different – take the authors in this bundle for example; Kate Walker, Ann McAllister, Margaret Mayo, Michelle Reid. If we were each given the same basic plot to follow, we would go off and create four completely different takes on that plot. Fascinating really…
OK, clunky old computer, let’s see if you will let me post this…
warm regards
Michelle
on January 28th, 2010
Congratulations…..22 years…..wonderful!
on February 28th, 2010
Theyre right on top of us, and Savous and Hyle are both on the surface. As he did so, he saw the men on the ground moving toward each other. To a raedjour, that could be as effective as a douse of icy cold water. Didnt matter that only Lanthan was touching her. She wanted to lash out, but she was having trouble finding a focus. Now she understood and finally saw the nightmare shed been as a student. Much of her time was spent with Radin, learning how to use her powers. Gala teased, tossing a floor pillow at him. The room was in partial disarray, furniture turned in odd angles. Anything but admit she was wrong, even if she now knew she had been. She felt more than saw Tykir at her side. He waited until her brain caught up, and she blinked dumbly up at him. I said a lot of things. He growled, lips slanting over hers as he thrust again. he growled into her ear. Delight sparked in his eyes when she drew up to her knees. She considered lighting one or two of the lamps but discarded the idea. A page had been called to provide service for a hasty nineday. His strange eyes grew intent. How could I deny such a lovely request?