USA Today Bestselling author Annie West loves writing passionate, intense love stories. She has devoted her life to an in depth study of tall, dark, charismatic heroes who cause the best kind of trouble in the lives of their heroines. Creating heroines who are a perfect match for those strong, stubborn men is one of her all time favourite things. As a sideline she’s also researched dreamy locations for romance, from vibrant cities to desert encampments and fairytale castles.

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Transcript:

Sarah Williams:             Today I’m chatting to Annie West. Thanks for joining me Annie.

Annie West:                  Thanks very much for inviting me, Sarah, it’s a pleasure.

Sarah Williams:             Awesome. So, you’ve got a very long and esteemed career behind you, and I’m really interested to talk to you today.

Annie West:                  Thank you.

Sarah Williams:             Can you tell us how you got into writing, and your journey so far?

Annie West:                  Yeah, sure. I’m a writer because I’m a reader. One of my earliest memories is my dad reading to me while I was lying in bed as a kid. Books have been an absolute joy all my life. I wasn’t one of those kids who … I did actually write a book at the age of 12, now I think about it, but I wasn’t one of those kids who thought she was going to be an author. I thought I was going to do something else, like being an archaeologist or whatever. It was only when I had kids of my own that I really thought perhaps that dream might come true.

Annie West:                  It was always a thought, it would be really nice to be able to write, and I could have this big desk with a lovely view and I could type out my books, or write with my hand, with a quill pen or something, and lots and lots of people would read them and love them. I never thought that it would come true, so I had another career. Then when I had young children I thought, oh I could give it a go.

Annie West:                  I took some time off my day job and joined Romance Writers of Australia, and that fortunately gave me the knowhow to complete a manuscript and to send it off. And I’d got to the stage where I’d been reading lots of romances and loved them, but occasionally I’d read them and the ending wasn’t so satisfying, and thinking, oh I’d really like to do my own. Then I started trying for several years to do that. With the help of my friends, who are other aspiring authors, got my first book contract.

Annie West:                  My first book came out in 2000, with a small press, after a few rejections and a few short stories with New Idea, and Woman’s Day, and things like that, which was really exciting, because there were people who actually wanted to read my stories. Sadly, the small press I was with then went out of business, not [inaudible 00:02:31] because of my story. This was the days before the ebook revolution, and they had major difficulties getting distribution rights. The books just … I couldn’t get paperbacks into the stores. So it went down the gurgler so I was left for the next five years or so, writing and trying again with Mills and Boon Publication, which is where I had sent my first terrible manuscript. When I’d sent it, it was about … Instead of being 50,000 words they wanted, it was about 95,000. It was a very self-indulgent manuscript.

Annie West:                  They sent a lovely letter to me saying,