Yes. There is no other way.

Yes, I completely agree, Phillipa. And I think this is proven by the fact that I suddenly couldn’t write romcom anymore because the heart is king and you have to follow. And it wouldn’t surprise me if one day it leads me back to the comedy. Who knows.

And PS, I answer to myself, first and last. Every time.

Thanks, Sam, as I was about to reply, saying pretty much the same thing to Terry. I totally understood what you mean in your article. I have a big publisher and they are fantastic to work for and I never feel pushed to write something I don’t want to. I certainly never ‘churn” anything out and I’m writing what *I want to* and I’d like to see the ‘required formula’ – not that it ever existed, certainly not for me..I write for a Big 5, and I follow MY heart and write with passion and dedication. Commercial novels – and I have to say that your cover, title and theme look just as commercial as any of your others just in a different way – are as hard to write as any book of the heart because they ARE a book of the heart. Mine are, anyway and I’d hate anyone to have the misconception that commercially successful means selling your soul.

Thanks for popping by, Melissa! Yes, I think it is too easy to label ourselves as well – “I am a romance author”, “I write thrillers” – at the base of it we are just writers and shouldn’t limit ourselves. Good luck to you to! xx

Thanks so much, Morton!

Thanks very much, Terry – although I think you have misunderstood part of my blog post… there is a misconception, perhaps, that writing for a big publisher and writing romance/romcoms means writing to a set formula. This is not the case at all. All of those books of mine were written from the heart, and inspired by themes very important to me and they cover lgbt, being disabled, addiction… all sorts of themes. And they have certainly never been *churned* out. There is no such thing as a formula in a contract and editors – at least in my experience – are not prescriptive. I have only ever heard of this in certain areas of Mills & Boon, in the past, which used to be a very specific brand but is also changing and is certainly not representative of all the other romance publishers – Orion, Aria, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Penguin etc etc . (And having said that I see nothing wrong with that brand being prescriptive if the authors and readers are happy – those books still require great skill to be written and sell in their thousands!) The only way in which my mindset has changed is that I can’t write comedy at the moment.And I think anyone can fall out of love with their genre for a while, be it thrillers, romance, fantasy, whatever – although I still love the romcom genre and have huge respect for it and might return one day! Like you so rightly say, we change and therefore so does our art, so it’s great that today it is easier to be more flexible. Wishing you continued success with your amazing career, Terry! x

Thanks so much, Caroline, and thanks for popping by x