by Jane Porter, author of King of the Desert, Captive Bride and The Sheikh’s Chosen Queen
I got my first sale in January 2000 to Harlequin Presents after writing for nearly fifteen years and completing over thirteen rejected books. Since making that first sale in 2000, I’ve written twenty-four books for Harlequin Presents as well as five novels for GCP, my fiction publisher. My women’s fiction is very successful, and one of my novels, Flirting with Forty, has been made into a Lifetime movie that will air on Lifetime this December starring Heather Locklear. But despite my success in straight fiction, I can’t imagine giving up writing for Harlequin Presents. Presents is an extraordinary line with extraordinary characters and plots. It’s also a huge challenge as the intense and sensual Presents premise isn’t easy to pull off. To sustain intensity, to render a fierce alpha hero vulnerable, to make opposites fall in love…is a skill, a passion, and endless dedication.
One of my favorite aspects to writing Presents is the international flavor. I love writing setting as setting is practically a secondary character in our books. The Italian Groom wouldn’t work anywhere but Napa, just as The Spaniard’s Passion had to be set at Iguazu Falls in Brazil. An Argentine count is different from an Italian aristocrat and a Greek bodyguard wouldn’t be a Texan.
But to write these foreign heroes, and to properly write these foreign settings, I don’t just make up stuff, or glance at a travel book, I really immerse myself in the country and culture I’m writing about. I read everything from travelogues to cookbooks, historical accounts like journals and diaries to poetry in translation. I pour over maps. I sample recipes. I’m always trying to find out what a place means…what its geography represents. How do people feel about their country and their culture? And ultimately, how does that culture impact the countries and cultures around it?
I really embrace cultural differences and think it’s wonderful to be able to fall in love with different people from different places. I’m lucky to be who I am and live where I do but I’m passionate about the world and want to see as much of it as I can. The intrepid adventurer in me means I’m forever tucking intriguing countries into my stories, if only for a couple chapters. I’m sure I’ve given my editor, Kim, fits with my Zambia film location in Hollywood Husband, Contract Bride and the Egypt setting in King of the Desert, Captive Bride, but because I harbor this secret fantasy that Presents readers crave, well, fantasies, I do it anyway, mindful though that the Presents passion and intensity and seduction must come before anything else.
But this for me is the appeal of writing for Presents. Where else could I write stories about kings and sheikhs? Rock stars, MI6 agents, Greek mafia, gauchos? Where else could wonderful women be so strong, so interesting, so complex? The emotions might be real in a Presents, but everything else gets to be mythic, larger than life and that excites both the reader and writer in me.
Ultimately, writing for Presents makes me sensitive to the world and reminds me to think globally, not locally. Writing for a line that is published in thirty some different countries teaches humility, compassion, and tolerance. It reveals that all people are basically good and all value systems worthy of respect. It reinforces the belief that everyone shares the same need to be valued and loved. Love ties us to each other. We can’t possibly survive without love, and I don’t know that I could survive without Harlequin Presents.
Hi Jane
What you have written above is exactly what I believe. Everything you say about Presents being an extraordinary line, I agree with you completely, it is.
There is no where else in the publishing world, where you can read about love, hope, over-coming tragedy, and ultimately, finding true love. If you are lucky enough to have experienced true love, I envy you. The only place I’ve found it, are amongst the pages of an M&B. (Don’t feel sorry for me now, I’m quite happy, honest!)
I spent two days in Venice last summer, and imagined myself in India Grey’s novel, The Italian’s Defiant Mistress! I was Eve Middlesmiss! I swore blind to my mum that I had found Raphael’s Palazzo. I’m not joking! That’s how these novels affect me. Later we visited Florence, I stood on the Ponte Vecchio Bridge, like Eve and Raphael did, well, needless to say I was in heaven.
Presents do enable you to travel all over the world, perhaps not even having to leave your favourite arm-chair.
We all need to be thinking globally, especially with whats happening at the moment. I need these books to take me travelling to far flung places, and if those places are inhabited by M16 agents or Sheikh’s, well bring them on I say.
Best Wishes
xx Karen
Not only is Jane beautiful and very kind (thank you for letting me have the last sandwiches at the Presents Tea this year at RWA. I was very hungry.), but she’s given me something new to think about — reading and writing Presents makes us better global citizens.
“Writing for a line that is published in thirty some different countries teaches humility, compassion, and tolerance. It reveals that all people are basically good and all value systems worthy of respect.”
Amen. A very good lesson for us all.
Jane! So wonderful to see you here!
I must say, what I love about Jane is her from the heart–gut honesty in her books. The passion, the thrill, the heart . . . well, everything! Jane is my hero/heroine not only for being such a talented writer, but a beautiful person inside and out as well! Jane’s Presents (all her books, really) are an automatic buy in my book, and will always be!
Jane’s an author you can trust to deliver what we Presents readers love love love!
Thanks for being you, Jane, always generous and kind! You’re such a sweetheart!
Hugs!
MARIAN
Jane, it’s so great to see you here!
I love your books, all of them. You are such an inspiration in every way–your passion for your work just shines through in everything you do. I’m so happy you plan to write Presents forever, no matter how many movies are made of your women’s fiction books. I can’t imagine a world with no Jane Porter Presents novels! (Although I have to add that I can’t wait for the movie either. Flirting with Forty was my favorite book of 2006!)
*hugs*
Jennie
Jane, wonderful to see you here and your post so represents what I feel when I read a Harlequin Presents. And I second what Jennie said, as a reader I can’t imagine Presents without you!
Whether it be a Presents or M&B, I have visited some places I’ve never travelled while reading HP which makes it only more necessary that I see more of this beautiful world.
Hope you’re taking good care of yourself!
I absolutely agree – I love the idea that regardless of wealth, power, culture etc etc that form the fantasy of Presents, the hero and heroine still grapple with very real emotions that are shared by us all. Fabulous!
Hi, Jane, I am thrilled to see you post as I had meant to write you about how much I love your books! King of the Desert, Captive Bride was my favorite “sheikh” book of all time & I kept it. What I have loved about your writing is your love of cultures as it shows in your writing.
I watch nearly all those Lifetime movies & will be looking out for the movie. Thanks for taking so much time to write such quality books for Presents. I look forward to your releases & always grab them 1st.
Congratulations to you on your success.
your Fan.
redlightning
Jane,
I agree, absolutely! To me Presents books are so much more than a story of two lovers. There is so much built into them, passion and intense emotion and wonderful locations and a chance to meet people I never would in my normal life, and not just because I don’t mix with the jetset! One of the reasons I got hooked on these stories in the first place was the wonderful places they took me. Often glamorous, always exotic, absolutely fascinating. I travelled the world in these stories and I still do. It’s one of the wonderful aspects of reading (and writing) Presents books.
I’m fascinated to hear you’ve been reading poetry and cooking local specialities to immerse yourself in the culture. Food is a great way in to finding out about people and their place, isn’t it? The taste of a place as well as its history, geography and other customs make it so vivid.
Thanks for the lovely post which makes me proud to be a Presents reader and author. Thanks too for the wonderful books which I love!
Annie
Hi Jane! I too love the foreign settings in Presents – indeed I went to Zanzibar in my early twenties purely because of a M&B I’d read as a teenager called ‘They Met in Zanzibar’ – I didn’t meet ‘him’ there tho – but I had a wonderful time all the same… And yes, the food, the food, the food – it’s at least half the fun of travelling, right?!
Now that I’m not in a position to travel as much, I love it that I still get to go exotic anyway with Harlequin Presents!!!
I’m late coming to the party, but Jane you are one of the reasons I wanted to write Presents. I love Jane Porter stories, and meeting you and hanging out in Hawaii really showed me that a smart, articulate woman can love these kinds of romances and advocate for them without somehow becoming less of a modern woman. I came back to Presents in part because of you and your passion for them. And I’m soooo glad I did! I rediscovered my own passion for them and pursued the dream to write them.
And I loved Flirting with Forty!! Can’t wait for the movie. Can’t wait to see Hawaii in it. I miss the Aloha State from time to time.
Jane,
Great post! I love reading your books and am always looking to see when the next one will be published.
Jane I’m so glad you are still going to write for HP. I adore your books!! Will you ever write books for the other siblings in Hollywood Husband, Contract Wife? You need to add some happiness and glamour to the widower Ranch husband with the kids!!!