Grace Burrowes started writing as an antidote to empty nest and soon found it an antidote to life in general. Now with 73, mostly historical novels, under her belt, she shows no sign of slowing down.

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Transcript:

Sarah Williams:            G’day and welcome to Write With Love. Today, I’m chatting to New York Times best-selling and five time retail award finalist Grace Burrowes. Thanks for joining me today, Grace.

Grace Burrowes:           It’s wonderful to be here.

Sarah Williams:            Brilliant. Of course, we’re talking to you from Maryland and the United States, so it’s always great to talk to an American. Please tell us your story and share with us how you got into this writing career.

Grace Burrowes:           I have always been a writer, whether it’s keeping a journal or corresponding with a large family, excuse me, but it never occurred to me that I would be a published author. I read romance voraciously as I was going through college and law school. Then, single parenting romance was very much my guilty pleasure because as a single mom you can get tired and isolated and overwhelmed, and there’s nothing like a happily ever after to put the world back in perspective.

Grace Burrowes:           Eventually, my daughter grew up and I had time, I had I guess confidence. One night, I was sitting in the law office working on a deadline document, some motion was due tomorrow, and it was cold. I had reached the point where my productivity had really slowed down and I’d been at it too long. I told myself, I’ll take a break and I always have a book with me, I’ll just read one chapter, and then recharge I will come back and knock out this motion.

Grace Burrowes:           Well, it was not an author, I was all that familiar with but I must have hit her off the book, the book that just you know maybe the deadline overcame the author or whatever, but it hit me wrong. I had a pernicious thought that many an author has. I’ve been I could write one of these. I just started writing and boom first few scenes came out and that was fun, and I didn’t want to work on that motion. But I did and got in on time, but I had started writing would eventually be name Gareth, the first of my lonely lords. I just wrote for fun, I just wrote because it was a happy place, I was raised without television, and I raised my kid without a television in the house. I still don’t have a television in the house. This frees up an awful lot of time.

Sarah Williams:            It does.

Grace Burrowes:           So I just started writing and it didn’t occur to me to get the books published, but I have six brothers and sisters. They began to say to me things like, “When are you going to get that stuff published?” This would have been in 2008, 2009 self-publishing was not really a thing yet. They meant, when you just pluck a contract out of the sky, and I know publishing is difficult particularly traditional Russian. Somebody said, you’re more likely to get hit by lightning until a traditional contract.

Grace Burrowes:           I also know that there is this organization RWA and I had heard they will help you perfect your craft. They will help you get published. I went to an RWA chapter conference and I wish I didn’t know anybody, and this was one of those conferences that happens over the weekend and the first thing you do on Friday night is an agent and editor panel. All of these very knowledgeable competent people were sitting in the fr...