Heart-throbs and happy endings - the local writerkeeping romance alive

Most of us are familiar with the popular novels; and if we haven’t read any of them ourselves, we can be sure that our mothers and grandmothers probably have.

These stories represent romantic fanaticism at its purest; heroine meets hero, often disguised as handsome rogue with less than desirable qualities, hero pursues heroine relentlessly, heroine resists at first, before eventually succumbing to his allure, and falling into his open arms, ready and willing to embrace the happy ever after.

But as Lynne, now 59 and the proud author of no less than 100 Mills & Boon titles, stresses, beneath the romantic gloss, the basic concept of these iconic stories reflects normal life and normal relationships, in that at the heart of the story is a “man and a woman coming together and resolving whatever differences they have.”

And the mother-of-five adds: “I think all relationships are a balance of compromise and negotiating and that’s something I try to show in my books.”

As the author who has sold an incredible 35 million books over the course of her career with Mills & Boon - that’s more than the famous classic Gone With The Wind - Lynne knows what she’s talking about.

Last month saw the release of her 100th novel, enticingly entitled Bought for the Greek’s Revenge.

She was also the bestselling author on the Mills & Boon website three years running - 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Her debut novel, Bittersweet Passion, was published in 1987, and she went on to write a host of other titles, including The Desert Bride, The Vengeful Husband and Angel of Darkness.

“I’m delighted to have reached such an important landmark in my career,” admits the modest Co Antrim woman, who is actually quite shy and reluctant to give too much away about her self, in spite of her remarkable success.

“I’ve always been passionate about writing and I’m so lucky to be able to make a living from doing what I love most. Working with the fantastic team at Mills & Boon has been a dream and I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped me reach this point!”

Lynne grew up in Ballymena, and met her future husband when she was just 14 years old.

The couple got married after she finished her studies at Edinburgh University, and have five children, having adopted four from Sri Lanka and Guatemala.

“Now they’re all grown up and starting families of their own,” says Lynne, whose own parents are Scottish, and moved to the Belfast area when she was a child.

Ten years ago, her family moved to Ballymena, and today she is a proud granny to “three wonderful grandchildren.”

As a youngster herself, Lynne was constantly putting pen to paper.

“I was always writing,” she reveals. “Of course they were stories about small animals back then, but in my

teens I began to write about people and their relationships. I always wrote – but the confidence to reach out to Mills & Boon to become an author certainly came with age.”

She says that she started to write properly mainly to entertain herself when she was at home with her first child, who was a toddler at the time.

“It felt at first as if I was just writing stories, but as they began to mount up I began to think seriously about getting published,” she continues.

“It took several years and several rejections, but I was determined to write for Mills & Boon. The desire to write was always there even from a young age, it was just something I revisited when I was at home with my eldest child.”

Seeing her first Mills & Boon novel in print was an “absolutely thrilling” moment, she says.

“The first time I saw it was in a newspaper shop in the local village and I didn’t even have the guts to pick it up!”

When it comes to actually getting her ideas and plot lines on paper, Lynne says her writing processed has evolved over the years.

“I think that the longer you write, the more you learn your craft. When I first started writing, I just couldn’t let go of my characters. If she went on a journey, I’d describe the whole journey rather than just getting her there. But over the years and with editors I’ve cultivated my craft. Now, when I sit down to write I start early in the morning at 9am and I don’t finish until 5pm. I have a room in my house that is solely mine and it’s where I work. It’s lined with bookshelves almost double stacked!

“The only family members allowed in are my three dogs who are invaluable if I get stuck on a plot point. I’ll take them out in the garden and by the time I come back to my desk, I’ll have figured it all out.

“I also constantly re-edit. Normally before I start writing each day, I edit the work I did the day before. But sometimes, if I feel there’s something wrong, it’s not as straightforward as that. You have to work out what’s wrong and identify what needs to change before you can move on.”