Emma Darcy author
Emma Darcy is the bestselling Harlequin Mills and Boon author who sets all her novels in modern Australia.
The name Emma Darcy is actually a pen name - the books were originally a collaboration between a husband and wife couple Wendy and Frank Brennan, with Wendy being "Emma" and Frank being "Darcy".
Wendy Brennan was an English teacher and Honours graduate in latin. In an interview in 1990, she says that initially she had no ambition to be an author, she was simply an avid reader of novels. But she became frustrated at the poor quality of novels being published and certain she could do better, she set out to write one.
Her first attempt at a novel was a political thriller, which promptly got rejected by publishers. After her husband told her that her political thriller was "hopeless", she picked up a Mills and Boon romance, and because it seemed simple, she decided to try writing one.
She purchased over 100 Mills and Boon novels from a second hand book shop and analysed them to find out what worked and what didn't. She then wrote her novel, which was accepted on the proviso that she re-write a large part of it. And then her foot was in the door. Their first Mills and Boon novel was published in 1983.
They wrote as a couple - Wendy would write the novels and Frank would provide critical feedback, on a daily basis, so the work was being critiqued and changed as it was written,. he also handled all correspondence and the business side of things. Both had input into coming up with the idea and theme for the novel. They developed their own way of polishing a book before submission, sending it out to a trusted team of readers for criticism before amended it and submitting it to Mills and Boon.
Related pages
- Miranda Lee author
Miranda Lee is a best-selling Harlequin Mills and Boon author. Born in New South Wales, she is the youngest of four children who worked as a computer programmer before she started writing romance novels.... - Harlequin Mills and Boon romances - a history
Harlequin Mills and Boon are a publishing house that specialises in publishing romantic novels. This is the story of how they came to dominate the world of romnace novel publication.
In 1995 they created the Emma Darcy Award Contest to encourage new authors to finish their books, with a $2000 prize and a guarantee that the book would be seen by a publisher. One of the authors they inspired was Wendy's sister, who writes for Mills and Boon as Miranda Lee.
Tragically Frank Brennan died in 1995, and Wendy has continued writing ever since on her own. She lives in new South Wales near her three sons. She has also branched out and started to write crime novels, as well as a non-fiction guide to writing, How to Be A Successful Romance Writer.
She has now written over 100 novels. Click here to read some Emma Darcy Book Reviews.
