Haworth author to hold workshop at Keighley Library

The global leader in romance publishing has titles in 34 languages and publishes more than 110 books each month.

And these days it’s not all dashing dukes and breathless servant girls. The books cover a wide cross-section of romantic fiction, with heroes ranging from sexy vampires to hunky sports stars.

Sarah Mallory is a best-selling author who has written eight titles for Mills & Boon. This weekend she’s holding a workshop at Keighley Library, offering an insight into the craft of romance writing, from building passionate storylines to creating sexy heroes.

“I’ll be going through the key points of how to write a romantic novel, including character, plot, setting and pace. I’ll be offering one-to-one advice to get creative juices flowing so people can come up with their own stories,” says Sarah.

The workshop is part of So You Think You Can Write, a literary contest offering aspiring writers chance to create their own romantic story, and try to win a publishing contract with Mills & Boon and Harlequin.

Participants will initially be required to submit a 100-word pitch and a first chapter for an online public vote, narrowing them down to 25. Mills & Boon and Harlequin editors will then select three finalists whose manuscripts will again go to an online vote to choose a winner. The closing date is October 26, following a series of workshops throughout the UK.

An online conference, taking place between September 17 and 21 at soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com, will allow aspiring authors to spend a week with editors from London, New York and Toronto, communicating through podcasts, videos, blogs, live discussions and Twitter. Participants will attend a virtual romance-writing ‘boot camp’ preparing manuscripts for the contest.

Sarah has had more than 20 novels published, most of them as Melinda Hammond. She writes as Sarah Mallory for Mills & Boon. “I thought if I wrote something sexy I wouldn’t want my parents to know it was me,” she smiles.

Her books are described as romantic adventures. With titles such as The Dangerous Lord Darrington, Snowbound With The Notorious Rake and Wicked Captain, Wayward Wife, they’ve already seduced the reader before the first page has been opened.

Sarah says the secret to writing a good Mills & Boon book is “a hero, a heroine and a happy ending”.

“It’s just a case of getting to that happy ending. There’s no rigid formula, like ‘you must have a love scene on page 46’,” she adds.

With the runaway success of erotic novel Fifty Shades Of Grey, and even Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre getting a ‘mummy porn’-style makeover, are readers’ tastes veering towards the racier end of romantic fiction?

“I think there’s room for all genres,” says Sarah. “Mills & Boon titles range from tender love stories to the steamier stuff. Mine are somewhere in between.

“People have enjoyed romances for a long time, and historic romances in particular are booming right now. When times are hard we seek escapism. During a good day’s writing I travel back 200 years to a world that’s nice to visit for a while, before returning to reality. My characters are like children to me, I feel protective of them.”

This year Sarah won the hotly-contested RONA Rose award from the Romantic Novelists’ Association for her book The Dangerous Lord Darrington.

But she has the rather unromantic experience of a broken ankle to thank for her literary success.

“As a child I loved history and adventure. I had a fantastic history teacher who enthralled us with the juicy bits,” she says. “I got into authors like Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer and scribbled stories as a teenager. When I was at home with my first child I had some published.

“Then I stepped off a kerb, broke one ankle and sprained the other, and was laid up on the sofa for 12 weeks. I used the time to write, and it went from there. In 2008 I met Mills & Boon editors, and they liked what I wrote.”

Sarah, who lives near Haworth with her husband and children, is inspired by the moorland that shaped the Brontes’ writing more than 150 years ago.

“I’m from the West Country but when we moved here I fell in love with the Pennine landscapes . Nothing clears the head, or gets the imagination going, like a walk on the moors,” she says. “I’ve drawn on the landscape for inspiration. There are so many bridleways here and a lot are the same as when they were 18th century tracks.

“I’ve set quite a few books in Yorkshire, including a Mills & Boon title, To Catch A Husband.”

With a passion for history, Sarah makes sure her period settings are accurate. “All my Mills & Boon books are set in the Georgian and Regency period,” she says. “I get ideas from reading history; I’ll often have a ‘what if’ moment about someone.”

Her next novel is part of a Regency-set series called Castonbury Park. “It’s a collaboration with eight Mills & Boon writers from different countries. We’ve been communicating online, sending thousands of e-mails, and each of us has written a book in the series,” she says. “Mine’s called The Illegitimate Montegue – we don’t come up with the titles – and is out in December.

“It’s a Downton Abbey-inspired series about not just the lords and ladies upstairs, but the servants downstairs too. There’s lots of scandal.”

Sarah tries to write every day, but not for her the Barbara Cartland method of reclining on a chaise lounge, dictating bodice-ripping yarns to a secretary.

“On a good day I’ll write 5,000 words at my keyboard,” says Sarah. “If a plot’s sticking I’ll curl up with a pad and paper, or take them outside if the weather’s nice.”

And her advice to aspiring romance writers? “Just get it written,” she says. “It’s very difficult to write 100,000 words but if you can, finish off the whole book. Very few publishers these days will take on anything on the strength of a few chapters.”

Sarah Mallory’s workshop is at Keighley Library on Saturday at 2pm. For more information and to book, ring (01535) 618212 or e-mail Keighley.library@bradford.gov.uk. For more about So You Think You Can Write, visit soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com.