Lilian Darcy

Interview by Anne Gracie

Lilian Darcy has written more than 50 romances, for Mills and Boon's "Medical" line and more recently for Silhouette Romance. Her first Silhouette romance made the US Waldenbooks Series Romance Bestsellers list two weeks in a row. Her others have continued to do well. This year two of her books are finalists in Romance Writers of America's RITA Award.

Lilian, how did you feel when you heard two of your books had finaled this year in the RITA?

I was absolutely stunned, and walking on air. I kept saying, "I'm a double Rita finalist!" until the kids started telling me, "Okay, we know that Mummy." The first call came on a Sunday morning, and when the phone rang again the next morning, too early for most of our regular callers, I thought, "No, it couldn't be..." But it was!

I really lost almost two weeks writing time because of it - just couldn't get close enough to the ground to sit in front of my computer.

I know! The over-riding emotion, there, was actually a huge sense of victory for all the Medical authors, rather than a sense of personal achievement. It is such a fabulous line. We've known it all along, and I felt this nomination was proof that our books could compete with anything that's out there.

We just want that North American retail release! It would bring us the financial return that most other lines take for granted, as well as the higher profile - the readers, which is what it's all about. Marion Lennox put it very well when she said that we've been the Cinderella of the Harlequin Silhouette lines, and maybe this nomination will get us our invitation to the ball. Harlequin seems to be dipping its toe ever deeper in the water. We do get steady direct market release in North America, now, and the books are being promoted pretty well on eHarlequin. They have a special series of books with emergency settings coming out at retail in August, October and December.

They're also doing some experiments with releasing individual books in different lines. For example, a book I wrote in 1997, "Incurably Isabelle" is coming out in the US and Canada in November as a Harlequin Presents.

Mills and Boon are actively looking for new medical writers -- do you have any tips for writers wishing to break into medicals?

It's no different to aiming for any other line. Read the books, think about what works and what doesn't. Do the research, but don't wad it into your story like extracts from a textbook. You have to make your medical facts and atmosphere count on an emotional level. Above all, you have to love what the line offers - warm, emotional, realistic stories. And good luck to anyone who's aiming for Medicals! We'd love to have you join us!

When you were first contracted to Mills and Boon, you were their youngest writer -- how old were you?

Twelve. No, just kidding. I have to start saying twelve, though, because otherwise people will do the maths and realise that I'm older than I want to be. Is that pathetic or what? It's not a vanity thing, it's just... I've still got so much to do! I have to be only 34, or I'm going to run out of time! No, my first book came out when I was 23, more than twenty years ago. To be honest, there are probably more downsides than upsides to being published so young. All my early mistakes are out there in on view, instead of being safely tucked away in a very dark drawer.

What do you like about writing romance?

Knowing the pleasure I'm giving to readers. On a hard day, when I retreat to a hot bath with a cup of tea and a romance, and lie back and just go, "Ahhh...!" and emerge feeling relaxed and strong and happy and wrinkly skinned an hour later... Well, I think about my books giving that necessary time-out to thousands of women around the world and, you know, that's a worthwhile thing to do. It really makes me angry that predominantly male forms of escapism like watching football on TV are accorded such serious attention and respect, while our predominantly female form of escapism, romance fiction, which offers very similar benefits, is ridiculed or ignored. Please don't ever put me in the same room with someone who has no need for escapism in their life! They're not human.

Okay, I've gone off the point. What else do I like about writing romance? It's interesting. It's solitary - yes, that's a plus - I love people, but I overdose on them easily, and need lots of downtime. I get to live in the world of my imagination, where I'd be living anyway, even if I wasn't getting paid for it.

You're a very hard-working and prolific writer, and not just in romance. What other things have you written?

I have a sort of chick-lit-ish novel I've just rewritten and starting sending to agents. It's a thoughtful sort of book, more about breaking up than getting together. I don't know if anyone will ever want it, though its really my fifth child, I've been living with it for so long and am so close to it. Also have a *huge* book I've been working on, in my few spare moments, for nearly seven years. Ouch! That long? I absolutely love that one, but it still needs a lot of work. Don't hold your breath.

Yes, but we don't talk about that, because it would involve revealing my real name, and I like to keep that separate. Partly by choice and partly thanks to the direction my life took on its own, I'm no longer working in that area. Fiction was always my first love, in any case.

And tell us about your work in TV.

Ditto for the TV. The great thing about working in those more collaborative areas, though, is that I'm a lot more comfortable with editorial changes, etc. than a lot of writers. You want me to kill off Loretta? Fine, I'll kill off Loretta. After seeing one of my TV babies mutilated beyond all recognition (I'm not going to name the mini-series, and there were good reasons for the mutilation, but when my mother-in-law watched the tapes of it a couple of years ago, I felt so queasy I had to leave the room), killing the hero's first wife in a romance is easy.

Because I'm a historical writer, people always ask me about the research I have to do. I've always maintained that contemporary writers need to do research too -- tell us about some of the things you've researched, (and not just for medicals.)

I absolutely agree with you about research. And people have a strange definition of what research is, too, don't you think? Sure, it's about facts, but it's also about smells and textures and sounds and tastes. What does an operating theatre smell like? What sounds are made during surgery? How do doctors, or eighteen century courtesans, *feel*? That's why you can't just get it from books. Or if you have to just get it from books, you have to do an enormous amount of work with your imagination - this would be really true for you, Anne, and any historical writer - to bring those facts off the page and translate them into senses and feelings. I've set books, both Medicals and Silhouettes, in places I haven't been, and you have to look at photos and feel yourself into them, etc. You're hunting for clues in every detail. There are big rocks in that picture, sitting in the sunshine. Do they feel hot to the heroine's touch? Do they appear a different colour in the early morning light?

People say, "Write what you know." I say, "You know more than you think." And also, if you stick purely to what you know, even if you've had a very varied and interesting life, you'll run out of settings and situations after a few books. You *have* to do research!

Right, I haven't answered the question, have I? Um, I've visited lots of hospital wards, operating theatres, doctors' offices. For a TV project once, I spent a night out on a fishing trawler with a very scary skipper who took lots of drugs to keep awake. There was no toilet. I got seasick. Received a marriage proposal. Turned it down. Very memorable!

The first medical I read of yours was Demi's Diagnosis, and I recall it just blew me away. I was almost in tears in the first chapter and I remember finishing the book with a big happy satisfied sigh. You became an auto-buy for me after that and I haven't been disappointed.

Thank you! That sort of feedback is so important, because writing is the kind of thing that you never *know* you can do. In some ways, you almost need the insecurity to keep motivated. Have I just been faking it, all along? Will the well suddenly run dry? Is my editor the only person in the world who actually likes my stuff? If there's anyone else out there besides Anne Gracie who likes my writing, will they please speak up?

Recently you started writing for Silhouette, so tell me, do you approach the two lines very differently?

Yes, I do, and it's one of the things that keeps me fresh. Writing for Silhouette initially gave me a huge fresh burst of enthusiasm for Medicals, and continues to do so. There are differences in settings, plots, characters.

Conceivably, you could use exactly the same basic premise in either line, but you'd still end up with two completely different books. Silhouette Romance has always been about modern fairy tales, and the new senior editor of the line, Mavis Allen, seems to be going even more strongly in that direction. Medicals are more grounded. Medicals are for people who think, "How ridiculous! That could never happen!" when they read some of the more extreme premises in other lines. I love both the extreme premises and the grounded stories. I love being able to move between the two.

I loved your "Cinderella" series for Silhouette. Do you have more linked books planned?

I'd like to, but nothing for Silhouette Romance at the moment. I have a big linked series in mind for Silhouette Special Edition that's in the very, very early mulling stage, and I don't know if my editor will like it. My next four Medicals involve a set of four women friends living in a large country town. A sort of city-girls-in-the-country with a medical setting. The first two of those will be out here early next year, and they're called "The Midwife's Courage" and "The Honourable Midwife."

You also did a fantasy series, didn't you?

I did the final book in a four-book series featuring mer people and an undersea kingdom. It was fabulous to write!

I never would have done mermaids on my own, but got right into it, loved it, and the American covers for all four books were gorgeous! Unfortunately, there was a glitch in the communication between New York and Sydney, and the Sydney Harlequin office wasn't able to pick up that it was a linked series. So they put mine out in one summer read, and book two, by the wonderful Melissa McClone, in another summer read, and book three, by Sandra Paul, another lovely author, as a Sweet romance, and book one never came out here at all. For any of you who may have come across any of those, yes, it was confusing and it wasn't intentional, and they're taking steps to make sure it won't happen again. I'm trying to convince Sydney that they need to put all four books out again, as a package, with those gorgeous American covers.

You have a Silhouette Special Edition coming up in July -- what's that about?

It's an emotional story, which starts off with a fairly extreme premise and follows up with what I hope is a very warm, grounded and believable treatment of it. A single mother and a widowed father, living seven hundred miles apart in different US cities, discover by chance that the Vietnamese babies they've adopted are actually identical twins, separated shortly after birth and adopted at different times. I'm hoping to do more Special Editions, which means it would be great if this book sold very well, so please everyone go out and buy it! It should be out here later in the year, and it's called "Balancing Act."

Purely as a career-enhancing strategy, not because I was nuts about him or anything, I cunningly married an American. Is that clever, or what? We lived there, in New Jersey and Ohio, for over seven years, and we go back whenever we can to visit his family. My husband reads everything I write, and has really good instincts about romance fiction. He's also the role model for all my heroes, and his mother is the reason most of my heroes have lovely mothers!

I remember on September 11th you were actually in New York. What was that like?

Not what we'd expected! We'd left the kids with their grandmother, mentioned above, and were supposed to have two romantic nights on our own in a New York hotel. We casually turned on the TV after our first night, just after the second plane hit, and spent the rest of the day in shock, like everyone else in the city, just a couple of miles from where it happened. When we looked north on Fifth Avenue, we saw a beautiful blue autumn sky, and when we looked south, just billowing black smoke. The stores all closed. The only traffic was police cars and fire trucks, and fighter jets kept flying over the city. Streams of people were walking north all day from their office jobs in lower Manhattan. We couldn't get home, but at least still had the hotel for another night. We tried to give blood, but the hospitals were all inundated with volunteers, and then of course none of it was needed. We had a doctor friend on call, and it was actually very hard for medical people. They *wanted* to be needed. They wanted to be frantic and exhausted, treating casualties. But there were no casualties. People either walked out intact, or they didn't walk out at all. My husband is a native New Yorker, and spent years going through the World Trade Center subway station every day on his way to work and back. We knew several people who were lucky to escape with their lives that day.

Have you been back since?

We actually returned to the city later that month for another night, because the mayor was asking people to come and spend money in New York, get the city back on its feet. We had dinner at Le Cirque, which is one of those hip New York restaurants where you normally have to book three months in advance. We phoned three days ahead and got a seven-thirty reservation with no problem. That's how spooked everyone still was, then.

We're planning another US trip in September, with the whole family.

You'll be going to the RWA conference in NY -- all the very best of luck for it.

Thanks, Anne. It should be great. If there are any more RWAust members going (other than the ones I already know about) please come up and say hi, particularly at the Literacy Autographing on Wednesday evening.

Home

Romance Writers of Australia