TRRC
welcomes New Zealand author Daphne Clair/Laurey
Bright as a September
Author of the Month. Daphne Clair has a wonderful
Harlequin Presents, THE
MARRIAGE DEBT, out this month. Be sure to check out
our review!
Debora: Please tell us a little bit about
yourself.
Daphne Clair: I'm a third generation New Zealander,
living in the
"winterless north" of the country with my
husband, where we run a writers' retreat and as well as writing 3-5 books a year. I
teach romance writing
with my friend Robyn Donald. I've written since I
was eight, was first
published at seventeen with a romantic short story.
Later I wrote short stories
and articles for magazines, and my first longer
romance was a novella for
the English Women's Weekly Library. Then I began
writing for Mills &
Boon, London, whose books were reprinted by
Harlequin for the North
American market. I still write for them, and also
for Silhouette as Laurey Bright, across several lines.
Debora: What's your writing process like? Do you
come up with your
characters first or the plot?
DC: For me it can be anything - character, plot,
setting, or a vague idea
of subject, perhaps a newspaper article or a chance
remark I happen to
overhear or an incident someone relates to me. One
element may float in
my mind for a time until something else seems to fit
in with it, although
I may not know why. Gradually they come together in
the writing. For
instance, SUMMER SEDUCTION came about after I saw a
TV program about a
mathematician, and was interested enough to buy a
book about him and his
work. About that time I need to start a new book and
was looking through
a file of pictures of people I keep, and found one
of a very pretty-faced
girl. What would it be like, I wondered, to be so
pretty. And what would
she do - perhaps grow flowers? Lavender? Or
sunflowers? Now, in my
mathematical reading I discovered that sunflowers
fascinate mathematicians
because they adhere to certain mathematical
principles. So this sunflower
grower would have a mathematician hero. The book
grew from there. I
called it SUNFLOWER SEASON and in my mind that's
what it is, but the
publisher thought SUMMER SEDUCTION was a better
title. I don't know who
the story is about or what's going to happen until I
begin to write. I
write to find out what happens next to whom. That's
why I hate to do a
synopsis - if there is nothing left to find out I
lose interest in the
story.
Debora: What do you specifically enjoy about
writing for Presents? For
Silhouette? Do you ever feel like you have multiple
personalities in writing for these different romance lines? Do
you write outside the
romance genre as well?
DC: I like writing Presents because they are short,
adrenaline-rush books with great pace and intense emotion, very focused,
and they force a writer
to concentrate and write very tightly. Every word
counts, and the skills
learned in the line spill over into my other work. I
liken the short form
to poetry, which has a similar need for condensation
and no room for
waffling or padding. I enjoy other people's books in
the line and hope to
produce the same spine-tingling experience for my
readers. For Silhouette
I often write in the longer lines, where there is
more room to expand
subplots, explore backgrounds and have fun with
minor characters although
I still try to maintain a good pace and ensure every
word is relevant and
as powerful as it can be. In the shorter Silhouette
Romance line, the
pace and tension can be just as important as in
Presents, although the
sexual element is less explicit. I enjoyed writing
LIFE WITH RILEY which
was light and gently humorous, as a change from the
more intense stories,
I was so thrilled when it won the category section
of the More Than Magic
contest of Romance Writers Ink.
I joke about having multiple personalities, but it
seems to come easily to
me to change from one line to another. Usually I can
tailor the style
subtly to whichever line I'm writing for, but
occasionally a story insists
on being something other than what I thought it
would be, and ends up in a
different line from the one I had planned. LIFE WITH
RILEY was supposed to
have been a Presents, but I knew as I wrote it that
Riley and Benedict
didn't belong there, and were determined to do their
own thing. After
running it by my MIlls &Boon editor I sent it to
Silhouette Romance
instead where they were much happier.
I enjoy variety and trying different styles, lengths
and types. I find
each one a challenge. For the same reasons I write
outside romance - I
have had poetry and many short stories published in
collections and
anthologies as well as magazines, and have won
prizes for non-fiction as
well as fiction. Between writing romance I also
worked for years on a
historical novel that was published by HarperCollins
in New
Zealand. (Gather the Wind by Daphne de Jong.)
Debora: How do people react when they learn you
write romantic fiction?
DC: Most react positively. They are interested,
intrigued, although often
surprised and sometimes I have to explain that it's
not just a matter of
changing the names and writing the same story over
and over. Some literary
people still look down their noses, but because I
also write prizewinning
short ("literary") fiction, the New
Zealand literary community has accepted
me as a peculiar animal rather like Dr. Dolittle's
Two-headed
Push-me-pull-u. When I published a book of short
fiction (Crossing The
Bar), I thought the critics would slay me but the
critics were very
generous in its praise. And only one reacted
negatively to my historical
novel.
Debora: What's the best thing about being a
writer of romantic fiction?
DC: Writing positive stories about women for women
featuring their
strength and intelligence in adversity. Knowing that
although I may on
occasion make my readers cry, I won't send them away
thoroughly depressed
or suicidal at the end, but may give them hope that
like the characters in
the books they will be able to overcome their
problems and look forward to
fulfilling lives. Hearing from readers that they
have enjoyed a particular
book or books, and sometimes that a book has helped
them over a difficult
period in their lives or given them hope for the
future. And meeting
other writes who have an optimistic view of the
world and believe in the
possibility of lasting love, and are almost without
exception kind and
generous and interesting people.
Debora: The worst thing?
DC: There isn't one.
Debora: Do you have a favorite Daphne Clair and
Laurey Bright book? THE
RICCIONI PREGNANCY is one of my favorite Daphne
Clair's, and MARRYING
MARCUS by Laurey Bright is just wonderful!
DC: Thank you! MARRYING MARCUS has been one of my
most popular books. I
think that readers react positively to the idea of a
"surrogate big
brother" figure like Marcus and the
"friends into lovers" scenario. I'm
told that the story has a lot of underlying sexual
tension too. And
really that's what romance, no matter how sweet or
low-key, is
quintessentially about (although it's about a lot of
other things too). As
for favorites, that's hard to pinpoint. I still like
a very old Daphne
Clair, A WILDER SHORE, for the tension in the story.
I'm fond of Simon
who was a lovely hero in DARK DREAM, from a Dutch
background like my
husband. And I like AND THEN CAME MORNING because
Joel, the artist hero
was different from most of my earlier heroes. I
really had fun writing
LIFE WITH RILEY, and in my next Silhouette Intimate
Moments, DANGEROUS WATERS (due for release in December) I particularly
enjoyed Rogue's (the
hero's) relationship with his brother, as well as
with the heroine. In a
way the current book is always the favorite because
one always hopes this
will turn out to the perfect one! At the same time
its the least
favorite because whenever I hit the middle it's like
carving stone with
my teeth for a chapter or two and that's when I
wonder why on earth anyone
in their right mind would choose to do this job!
Debora: You've written a book on how to write
romance, and offer romance
writing workshops in New Zealand. What do you feel
is the most important
thing an aspiring romance writer should know before
putting pen to paper?
DC: The most important thing is to love romance and
know what it is at gut
level. For most people that means having read and
enjoyed a lot of it.
Debora: When you have the time to read, who are
your favorite authors?
DC: Too many to mention - it all depends on my mood
at the time. But my
all-time favorite book is JANE EYRE.
Lately I've had all too little time to read.
Something I hope will change
soon, because writers need to read a lot.
Debora: Can you tell us about any future books?
DC: In September Harlequin Presents will publish THE
MARRIAGE DEBT by Daphne
Clair. For those who love Presents, this is a
traditional reunion story
where the film director/producer heroine needs money
from her billionaire
ex-husband to make a film, but he wants in return to
renew their
marriage. Sometimes it's interesting to see if I can
make a very old plot
device work in the context of today's society.
Readers will decide if I
succeeded. In the UK, THE DETERMINED VIRGIN will be
released in
September also by Mills & Boon. Not my title,
and don't expect it to be relevant to the
plot, but the editors assure me this title will
ensure the book will walk
off the shelves entirely unaided. (If you have views
about the titles of
the books you read, again please write to the
publisher!) Rhiannon is a
mosaic artist, and this book made me wonder if
themes and subjects
influence the way a writer puts together a book,
because it drove me crazy,
trying to fit the plot elements in so that they made
sense, just like
making a mosaic. I'm not sure of the NA release date
but watch for it.
Silhouette will publish DANGEROUS WATERS, my first
Treasure Hunters book,
in December in their Intimate Moments line. Rogue
Broderick is a diver
hunting for lost treasure after his father is killed
in mysterious
circumstances. A natural rover, he doesn't believe
he's cut out for
marriage, and when he meets Camille, who was
abandoned by her adventurer
father, neither of them wants to fall in love, but
the inevitable happens!
Debora: Is there anything you'd like to say to a
first-time Daphne
Clair/Laurey Bright reader? To all your fans?
DC: To answer back-to-front, to all my fans, thank
you, thank you for reading
and liking my books, and I hope you will continue to
buy them so I can
continue to write them. And please write to the
publishers and tell them what
you like about any author's books that you enjoy.
Many people are moved to
write about what they dislike, not so many will put
pen to paper to express
their appreciation, and it does help the publisher
to have some positive
feedback and know what people do enjoy. It also
helps the writer tremendously,
particularly if she has done something
"different" from the norm, because
that makes a publisher nervous. If all the people
who verbally
complimented me about MARRIAGE UNDER FIRE, had
written to the publisher
they would have outweighed those who wrote in
complaining, but the
publisher doesn't know that!
To first-time readers, I hope you will want to read
more of my books. I
suppose I should say, expect the unexpected, because
although I don't
deliberately look to push the envelope, and just
write what interests me,
the most common comment on my books is that readers
don't know what to
expect when they open one, because each is
"different." Tastes differ and if my
style doesn't touch your heart, I'm sure you will
find other authors whose voices speak to you.
Debora: Thank you, Daphne, for taking the time
from your busy schedule to
talk with us. Readers may visit Daphne Clair's
website at: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/dclair/
(Click
here for review of THE MARRIAGE DEBT)
(Click
here for review of WITH HIS KISS)
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