Portia Da Costa, Guest Blogger :: If At First You Don’t Succeed…

IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED…

Portia Da Costa

Once upon a time, I had a dream of becoming a published romance author, and writing books for Mills & Boon…

I always wanted to write romance, and my ever first attempt at writing was a short erotic love story about a handsome zombie and the mortal woman who fell for him. Even though there was no brain-eating involved, it was still colossally stupid, and probably one of the worst stories ever written, but I was so thrilled to have just written something that I didn’t care. And it was romantic. Sort of.

A few years passed, and I wrote more of these stories, just for my own amusement. Gradually, it got a bit easier, and the stories were slightly less stupid, and I started to dream of writing books, and being published. My day job was librarianship, and though I read in all different genres, what I really adored were Mills & Boon romances. As many as I could lay my hands on, especially by great authors like Sophie Weston, Sara Craven and Kate Walker. So obviously, my goal was to emulate these writers and become a Mills & Boon author. Foolishly, I hoped I could succeed quite quickly, and in 1988, I started submitting manuscripts. And submitting them and submitting them and submitting them…

I think I subbed about six or seven times in those early days, and even though I loved my stories and my characters, I see now that those first efforts were silly and self-indulgent with paper thin plots and zero emotional conflict. They had slightly more going for them than the zombie story, but there was still a big difference between what I was writing, and the high quality of the romances I was reading.

But then, fate took a hand, and I got shunted onto a slightly different writing track. A writers’ advisor took a look at one of my manuscripts, and amongst all the terrible plotting and the flimsy romantic conflict, she picked up on something I seemed to be pretty good at. Writing sex scenes. She advised me to try writing erotica, as that was an easier market to break into at the time. I took her advice, and with a speed that still surprises me today, I had a book accepted. And some stories. Pretty soon I started writing for Virgin’s famous Black Lace imprint, and I’ve been writing Black Lace novels ever since. My latest IN TOO DEEP, came out in November 2008, and KISS IT BETTER, my 15th title [including novellas] comes out in August 2009.

But despite this success and despite the fact that I absolutely adore writing for Black Lace, and have the best fun with it, I still longed to write romance for Mills & Boon. I was a passion that never went away, even though now I was thinking globally and my dream publisher was Harlequin. And I kept on trying and failing, and trying and failing. I had a couple of sweeter novels published by other, smaller houses, but my eyes were still on the glittering prize.

Then, just over a year ago, I discovered Harlequin’s Spice Briefs line. I’d been aware of it for some time, but I think I’d been afraid to submit anything. Afraid of disappointment, I suppose. Afraid that my erotic writing still wouldn’t be right for the publisher of my dreams. But a good friend encouraged me to stop being a ninny, and to send something. And despite my insecurities, pretty soon, I got a Spice Brief accepted! To say I was elated is putting it mildly. I leapt into the air and shouted – literally – when I got the news that my story CHANCE OF A LIFETIME was going to be published. Finally, after all my years of yearning, I was going to be a Harlequin author, and write erotic romance for the genre’s best loved publisher.

CHANCE OF A LIFETIME is the story of Rose, a young woman who takes a temporary job at the dilapidated country house of a very modern and very quirky aristocrat. He’s a sexy guy with kinky tastes, but pretty soon, Rose realises she not only shares those tastes, but she’s in love with him too. It was eventually published in November 2008, and it’s been one of the fastest selling Spice Briefs, and a top Harlequin erotica title at Fictionwise since it first came out. And happily not too long after my first acceptance, I sold several more ideas to Spice Briefs too. A GENTLEWOMAN’S PREDICAMENT is a saucy, rather tongue in cheek Victorian piece about a wealthy widow who takes a rather daring course of action in order to satisfy urges that society might deem unseemly. It’s a rather unconventional romance, but in the end, she does find her soul mate. RISQUÉ REUNIONS is a trio of three linked stories about the former pupils of a posh private high school, who all return for a school reunion and find passion and romance in their former seat of learning. In TWICE THE PLEASURE, the heroine discovers that not one but two beaux have been carrying a decade-long torch for her. In SECOND TIME AROUND, a divorced couple are reunited and find that they both share a kinky preference they were never aware of during their marriage. And in NO LONGER FORBIDDEN, a former pupil who loved her handsome young teacher from afar at nineteen, realises that at twenty nine there’s nothing go stop her getting closer than close to him.

So, the moral of all this for writers – or indeed anybody – is ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.’

If I can eventually become an author for my dream publisher, with persistence it could happen to you too. And I’ll bet it won’t take you twenty years achieve it! LOL!

Editor’s Note :: Stop The Press Announcement!

Portia emailed just last evening with some pretty spectacular news! She has just heard from Harlequin and has had two more Harlequin Spice Briefs accepted! Yea! The two are: ANOTHER CHANCE [linked to CHANCE OF A LIFETIME] and A GENTLEWOMAN’S RAVISHMENT [linked to A GENTLEWOMAN'S PREDICAMENT]. That’s seven Spice Briefs she’s had accepted now, one published and six in the pipeline. You’ll want to keep checking in here or at her site as we’ll keep you updated on when they’re going to be released. Congratulations, Portia! We love your books, so it’s no surprise for us!

Tagged as: Black Lace Author, Chance of a Lifetime, erotic romance author, Harlequin, Harlequin News, Harlequin Spice, Harlequin Spice Briefs, In too Deep, Kiss it Better, Mills and Boon, Portia Da Costa, writing for Harlequin