WWR: You've just passed your twenty-year writing anniversary. What an accomplishment! But it's also likely been a chance for you to step back and evaluate twenty years of writing. Are you satisfied with where your career is today?
Kate: I find it so hard to believe that I've actually been writing that long. It's true what they say about time flying when you're having fun - but it also flies when you're working hard and concentrating on things! And I've been doing all of those.
You're right - after 20 years is a good time to step back and see where I am and how I feel about my career up to now. Am I satisfied? Well, the answer to that question has to be yes and no.
What am I happy with - well, I'm really pleased to be published in Presents, which is one of the very best selling romance lines all over the world. I'm published in so many countries and languages that I've lost count - and - a great thrill for me - I'm published along with - and now count as friends - some of the true greats of romance writing. Writers like Michelle Reid, Emma Darcy, Anne McAllister, Sandra Marton . . . I could keep adding to the list for ever. My books sell well - they're almost always on the Waldenbooks top ten list - and through the internet I get lots of wonderful letters from readers which is just special. I've just completed my 44th title. I look back to the time when I dreamed of having just one book accepted and see how far I've come. And there is always the new challenge of writing another book, of creating new characters, and sending that story out into the world for readers to (hopefully) enjoy.
Yes, I'm happy - but 'satisfied' - ah, that's a very different matter! You see, I think if you start being satisfied then you start easing up and perhaps taking things a little too much for granted - and maybe even coasting along. I wouldn't want to do that. I want to feel that I'm meeting new challenges. And there are plenty of challenges to be found. There's keeping my writing up to date, creating new characters. Writing about themes and ideas that are current and that interest the readers I have today - some of who are so very different from the ones I had twenty years ago. And, believe it or not, there is always that edge of tension that comes with wondering whether each book is what my editor and then my readers want. I want to go on writing the best books I can and that's a very satisfying way to be - but if satisfied means that I think I've gone as far as I can go, then I sincerely hope not! I'm happy with what I've achieved - but in a way I hope I'll never be satisfied - so that I can always keep reaching.
WWR: What's been the most memorable moment of your writing career?
Kate: Well, the obvious answer to that is the moment when I had my very first acceptance. In those days - way back 20 years ago! - editors didn't make 'the call'. Instead, I arrived home from shopping to find a big white envelope on the mat and the Harlequin Mills & Boon rose on one side of it. I could hardly open it because my hands were shaking so much. The letter was about my third submission to Mills & Boon - telling me that the editor who had read my book had liked it - and inviting me to go to London to discuss it. My husband and son were with me and all I can remember is half laughing, half crying and making no sense at all so that they had to read the letter for themselves.
The acceptance had a very special importance for me at that time because it gave me a chance to tell my mother about my success. I had been keeping my writing a secret because everyone had told me that I would never ever get published and I would do better to concentrate on a 'sensible' job - so I did but I wrote as well. Sadly, we had just discovered that my mother had inoperable cancer. She died before my first book came out in print - but she knew that it had been accepted and that made it very special for me.
WWR: Which of your many books is your personal favorite and why? If you don't have a favorite, will you tell us why not?
Kate: Oh dear - the truth is that I don't have a favourite because as soon as I say - oh, I love this book, I think - but I love that book as well. There are some that I'm more proud of and some that I love because they sold and sold - but there isn't one that I could single out above all the others.
I could say that I love Constantine's Revenge - because that was the first book I wrote with a Mediterranean hero in it and so many of my readers seem to have loved that book too. Or I'm proud of A Sicilian Husband because I love the character of the hero - Gio - he's suffered the loss of the woman he believed was the love of his life and can't believe he will ever love again. Or there's The Hired Husband - when I decided to write a marriage of convenience book with a difference - where the heroine proposes instead of the hero.
And I'd have to say that I'm really happy with the trilogy I just wrote ( The Alcolar Family) because that's the first time I set out to write three closely linked books in which all the characters appear in all the stories.
See - that's what happens when you ask an author which is her favourite book - it's like asking a mother which is her favourite child. I just can't choose. I love them all - I wouldn't have written them if I didn't. And of course I have to have a very special warm spot in my writer's heart for The Chalk Line because that was the first book I had accepted and that started this career of mine.
WWR: Your latest release, Their Secret Baby, revolves around Caitlin and Rhys and the baby he believes Caitlin has been hiding from him. You successfully draw readers in with highly charged, emotional writing. Do you feel drained when you finish a book like this, or are you always ready to writing something new?
Kate: Firstly - thank you for the compliment - 'highly charged, emotional writing' is just what I aim for. I try to write about deep and intense feelings, feelings that create problems in relationships, and those problems aren't easy to resolve. My great friend and a wonderful writer Michelle Reid always says that we don't write 'romances' we write 'relationship' novels, and I totally agree with her.
I want to write books in which I can tackle conflicts and situations that can be dark and emotionally dangerous. The conflicts that I'm dealing with could ruin people's lives, drive couples apart, end relationships, and create heartbreak. So when I'm writing I have to feel those emotions, get involved in those conflicts as much as my hero and heroine do. Because of this, I'm not a carefully disciplined author who writes, say 1000 words a day and then does something else. I'm an all or nothing writer - some days I will write from early in the morning until late at night when my mood is right and the words are flowing - which means that I've got inside my characters' heads and I'm feeling along with them.
So yes, when I finish a story, I'm usually totally drained and often exhausted. I never find it easy to switch to the next plot, the next set of characters, not until I've really said goodbye to the ones I've been involved with. So I always take a little time in between books to catch up on the practical things - letter, emails, accounts . . . until I'm ready to dive into that emotional pool all over again.
WWR: You've been writing for Harlequin Presents for many years now. Do you ever feel like you're about to run out of fresh ideas?
Kate: Well, now I have to go back to that word I used in my answer to question one - challenge. There are a lot of people who think that writing category romance is easy - there's that deep rooted myth that there is a 'formula' for it and once you find that formula then you've got it made.
I wish!
The big challenge in writing category is to keep the stories real and interesting - even though the real truth is that it is very very difficult - if not impossible - to come up with any really new and original ideas. There have been so many wonderful romances written in the past and still being written today and many of the plots are 'tried and true' - they are popular because they're much loved. But because they are so popular it can seem as if you're writing the same old thing again and again.
The way I keep fresh is by seeing each book not in terms of plot or theme - not a 'secret baby' book or an 'amnesia story' - but looking at the as the story of my two characters. The hero and heroine are individuals and their story is unique to them. It might have elements in it that make it similar to other characters' stories - but the problems they face and the way they solve those problems are caught up in their characters and so unique to them.
One of the reasons I'm a writer is because I find people endlessly fascinating. And because I write about people, as soon as I have the characters then I find I can write their story. And I hope that as long as I can find interesting characters, then I'll be able to keep coming up with their stories and telling them.
WWR: On a related note, where do you get ideas for your books? Do you ever feel stifled by the limits series romance puts on its authors?
Kate: On the Presents authors' web site, the monthly discussion topic recently was - where do you get your ideas? And the answers were really all the same - you get ideas from anywhere and everywhere, just as long as you're looking for them. You watch a TV drama and think about different ways you could treat that plot. You read about a celebrity marriage and the strains that caused a divorce and wonder what could have happened if they met up again years later. When people know you're a writer, they're always keen to tell you stories they think will be interesting - and you can take a bit from one and another piece from a second. . until you have a whole new idea.
One of the things I like to do is to take a tried and tested plot and see if I can approach it from a different angle - like I did with The Hired Husband. Or another book I wrote called Captive Lover which was a kidnap plot but instead of the hero kidnapping the heroine, she kidnapped him!
After 44 books, it's really a challenge to find new ideas - though as I said, each new couple - the hero and heroine - make their own story, even if it has elements of a previous one.
But do I feel stifled by writing series romance - well the answer to that is no. You see, I've never really come up against any serious limits in what I write at all. I think that's to do with writing for Presents. The subjects that I can deal with as a writer in Presents can be as challenging as I'd like. I've never had an editor say 'please don't go there . . .' She's more likely to say 'Give me more'. That's what I like best about Presents - I can deal in real emotional problems and intense emotional conflicts. I can write dark and worrying stories with relationship difficulties that real people have to face. Often readers believe that Presents are totally fantasy based - that the heroes are always billionaires and the settings are glamorous and the cities sophisticated - so they think the stories must be totally unrealistic and over the top too. But what I love to write in my books are situations that can affect any real couple - those 'relationship novels' not just romances. I write about problems and conflicts that you could throw all the money in the world at them but it wouldn't solve them. Because I write about affairs of the heart and the human heart, the problems that can come into a love relationship - the passion and the emotion that result from that can be really complex and difficult to solve. So I've never yet come up against anything I really wanted to write that I haven't been let do.
I think perhaps the only thing I've ever had to hesitate over has been the fact that in Presents the hero has to be so wealthy. I would like to explore the changes that would happen if a rich, powerful successful man suddenly was on the verge on bankruptcy and lost all his wealth. I've touched on the in The Hired Husband just a bit.
WWR: What (or who) inspired you to write romance fiction? Have you ever considered writing in another genre?
Kate: I've always loved books where the man/woman relationship is at the centre of the story and everything I've read that I've really loved has had that at its centre. In classic literature I loved the Bronte sisters' novels - Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. I love reading detective novels, but for me the best ones are where the detectives' relationships are shown - books like Elizabeth George's stories. I love historical novels and Dorothy Dunnett writes some of my favourites there - again, her books have lots and lots of historical details and events - but the 'romance' is at the heart of them. Even when I read non fiction - I loved a biography of Nicholas and Alexandra of Russia for example. It's the same with films I love to watch too.
So I supposed I'm just fascinated by the way that men and women interact together. And I've always loved a dark, rather mysterious - and ambiguous - hero. Wuthering Heights was one of my first favourites as I said. When I wanted to write professionally I looked back at all the things I'd tried to write already. I'd written historical stories, short stories, books for children - but they all had that relationship element and that dark, brooding hero.
And then I remembered a friend of my mother - a lady called Margaret Baumann who wrote for Mills & Boon and who had taken an interest in my writing when I was much younger. I hadn't read any romances for some years as I'd been studying at university, so now I read some of the newer ones and it was like coming home. The books concentrated on that central relationship that I'd always loved and I wanted to read more - and to see if I could write them too. I read some wonderful books - discovering new authors like Penny Jordan, Emma Darcy, Carole Mortimer, Robyn Donald, Sally Wentworth, Anne Mather, and I found they were all writing the sorts of books I wanted to read and enjoy and that I really wanted to write too.
Since I've been published in Presents I've been really happy writing for them. It's a challenge to keep my books up to date and to keep pleasing the readers. So I've not had the inclination - or the time! - to write anything else! I no longer want to write historical stories as I thought I did when I was younger - I wouldn't want to do that unless I could do it really well - having read Dorothy Dunnett, I know what really good historical book is! But I do have one story in my head that would probably be too big and complicated for a series romance - too many characters and a plot that would take longer to work through. I hope that one day I will be able to write this book and hopefully get it published.
WWR: We love to hear about the journey to publication. Would you tell us about your journey? How many years did you spend writing before you had your first sale?
Kate: Well, the truth is that I was always, always writing even before I thought about trying to get published. I wrote my first 'book'; (all 40 pages of it!) when I was twelve. So I was writing for years but mostly in secret and mostly just for myself.
Then when I was at university I sold a couple of romantic short stories to some women's magazines but didn't have much other success. I also lost touch with my writing while I was studying and then working as a children's librarian. But when I had my son and I left work to care for him, I revived my own dreams of being a writer. At the same time, I was rediscovering the pleasure of reading romances - and remembering my mother's friend who had written for Mills & Boon when she was at home with 2 young children. So I decided that now was my chance to concentrate on writing seriously and see if I could get accepted.
When my son was at nursery school two mornings a week, I wrote a book in that spare time - it took me months! - and sent it to Mills & Boon. It was rejected and I'm not surprised! I keep it to remind myself of how bad I once was! But now I was more determined so I wrote another one - and this one didn't just get a rejection slip. I get a letter of comments - telling me what was wrong with the book (as for most people - it 'lacked the emotional punch' they were looking for) But this letter also told me some good things about my writing and asked me to try again.
So I wrote a third story called The Chalk Line and sent that off. I remember that some months later I came home from doing the shopping and there on the door mat was a big white envelope. As I said earlier, editors didn't make 'the call' then - they wrote to you! This letter told me that an editor had enjoyed my book and would I be prepared to discuss a few revisions! I could hardly believe what I was reading and had to get my husband to read it all again for me to make sure I'd got it right. I went to London, met my first editor. The revisions were only small ones and by the end of the year I had my very first contract!
So although, as I say, I'd been writing for years first, in the end it was only about 18 months from when I first submitted my really bad book to the acceptance of The Chalk Line.
WWR: Please, give us the titles and dates of your upcoming releases, and if you can, tell us a little something about your current work(s) in progress!
Kate: Upcoming books - well, for me this is exciting because the books that are coming up in Presents in America are the three books in my first trilogy- The Alcolar Family, and this will be coming out in 2005.
This trilogy started when I wrote an online story for the eHarlequin web site. The story came out in 2003 and it was called Wife For Real. You can still read it in the OnLine reads Library on eHarlequin.com
http://www.eharlequin.com/cms/onlinereads/readsIntro.jhtml?pageID=030121rh01001
The hero in that story - Alex Alcolar had two brothers and a sister and the trilogy tells their stories. The books are
The Twelve-Month Mistress - The story of Joaquin, the eldest brother
The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife - Ramon's story. Ramon is Juan Alcolar's illegitimate son and Joaquin's half-brother
Bound By Blackmail - the story of the only daughter - Mercedes
I've been asking my editor to let me know just when the books would be coming out and she started by saying 'June/July/August' then she said 'July/August/September'. When I spoke to her just before Christmas, she said that the dates of publication had been changed and I'm waiting to hear from her exactly when they are coming out - so I'll let you know just as soon as I hear!
If you want to learn a little more about The Alcolar Family - the UK editions of the first two books are up on my web site so you can see the covers and the synopsis - of course the Presents editions will have different covers
As for the current work in progress - I've just written my 44th book - its working title is The Antonakos Bride - but I expect that will change when my editor gets to decide on it! This one has a Greek hero and my hero and heroine meet for one passionate night in London. Then they meet up again somewhere very different and they discover that . . .
But I mustn't tell you too much or I'll spoil it for you. You'll have to read it for yourself!
WWR: If you could give someone only one piece of advice about writing romance for publication, what would it be?
Kate: The advice I always give is - read, read, read.
The problem with writing romance is that there are so many books in so many lines in the shops every month. They all look the same, many of them are by the same publishers and I know that as a result a lot of people think that the books are all the same.
There are also a lot of myths about romance writing - the idea that there is an easy 'formula' for example. Or, as I often find that people think that in Presents you just have to have a brutish hero and a real wimp of a heroine - that they argue and argue all through the book and then he says 'I love you' and it's all resolved!
Any real reader of romance knows that this is just not the case. And of course the editors of each line know exactly what they are looking for. They understand the subtle but distinct differences between each line, what sort of stories they are looking for, what sorts of heroes and heroines they want to see.
And the only way to get to know this for yourself is to read the lines, Read widely and carefully. Read critically and read with concentration. Reading gives you the real 'flavour' of a line. It gives you the tone that is distinct to that line - and the 'tone' of a Presents book for example is very different from the tone of a Romance or an Intimate Moments.
Reading also shows you how a plot develops, how dialogue is used, how the conflict grows, changes and is finally resolved.
If you want to be a writer or romance then you need to be a reader. The best writers are usually people who have loved the romance genre for years and have learned a lot from their reading.
You can read all the How To Write books you can buy and study them, but unless you can relate what they are saying to the sort of books that the romance publishers are putting out and see what it means, what is really happening in the publishing world - and what the readers are buying and enjoying - you're not likely to be successful very easily.
Of course I could also add that you could buy my 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance. I'm thrilled to say that this book won the Cata Romance Reviewers' Choice Award for the Best Book For Writers 2004. It's the second how to book I've written and I'm very proud of it.
BUT - I still stick to my original answer - to write romance you need to understand and enjoy it yourself - and to understand romance you have to read it! Then when you know what you want to write - the how to books can help.
WWR: Kate, thanks so much for spending time with us! We appreciate you taking the time to answer our questions!
Kate: Thank you for a fascinating interview - the questions made me think!
