Carly Phillips Interview

Hi Carly, I want to thank you for taking the time for this interview. This is just going to be a short interview mainly about THE BACHELOR and a more in depth interview in December.

Q. Can you tell us a little about yourself? How your career started?

A. I'm a reader turned lawyer turned mom turned romance writer. I no longer practice law, I'm a mom at home with my girls age 10 and 6, and I'm still a reader and always will be. My time's just much more limited now. When my first child was one, I'd been reading romance for about a year - it saved me during the colic months - and I decided to try writing. I bought a "how to write romance" book and outlined the entire thing (the neurotic lawyer in me (g)) and then set out to write. Seven years and ten completed manuscripts later (umtpeenth rejections and more stories than you can count on both hands about my unpublished experiences), I sold to Harlequin Temptation. And that's in a nutshell. (g)

Q. I loved THE BACHELOR. How did the trilogy come about? And how did you decide Roman's story would be the first to write?

A. Thank you! The trilogy came about because of an editor who believed in a fairly new writer. She loved one of my Temptations and talked with my agent about an idea she had for a single title trilogy about three bachelor brothers and their mother who wanted grandchildren. That was basically all she gave me and I ran with the rest. I consider myself so lucky and fortunate the way things played out for me. For some reason, writing Roman, the youngest brother first always appealed to me, perhaps because I thought he'd be the most carefree, the one who really got away from home and had to deal with the idea of coming back when his mother "fell sick". He just jumped off the page first.

Q. Did the Chandler trilogy start off as a submission to Harlequin? Or did you know it would not fit into their guidelines and started looking for a publisher for them?

A. No, the Chandler trilogy started and ended as a Warner submission. The concept was brainstormed from the beginning with an editor looking to adapt my voice into single title. Like I said, I was very, very fortunate to be given the opportunity and I'm loving every minute of writing these stories.

Q. How much of a difference was writing THE BACHELOR different from writing for Temptation or Blaze? Was it harder to write the single title or is a Temptation or Blaze harder?

A. Good question. I think every book has its own set of challenges. THE BACHELOR felt a little less difficult because it was a brand new experience and I had no prior expectations to work off of. I sat down and just wrote. But since it was my first book, the revision process was extensive. A single title does give you more avenues to explore secondary character, depth, and other things. For example, the panty thief angle added an element of humor that was so much fun to write and helped move the story along. Then I wrote THE PLAYBOY, which was a little more difficult to write, not for any particular reason, and my editor loved the story, practically no revisions. I never know what I'm going to face when I start to write a story. Now I'm working on THE LONER and it's going very well. Fingers crossed it keeps on that way!

I hope to grow with each book I write and so I face new difficulties and challenges. If a story writes itself with no problems like THE BACHELOR did, I consider myself lucky and take it as a gift! Temptations and Blazes also can go either way for me but one thing remains constant. I always enjoy the writing process but I'll never claim it's simple or easy. I wouldn't want it to be. This way I know I'm growing as a writer.

Q. THE BACHELOR is not your first single title, you have written a couple single titles as Karen Drogin. Was THE BACHELOR any different from writing the other single titles?

Technically the Karen Drogin books, written for Zebra Bouquet, were longer category books. Two of them were completely written before they were bought by Zebra and so they had what I'd call a Special Edition category flavor. The same with the third, SOLITARY MAN, which I wrote from the beginning for the Bouquet line.

The Chandler books for Warner are nothing like the Karen Drogin books and everything like what my readers have come to expect from Carly Phillips in tone, flavor, sexuality, sensuality, etc. Interestingly, I find that with each consecutive Warner, the books get hotter. THE LONER, the last of the Chandler books out in May 2003 starts with a hot, hot love scene in chapter two. I love all three brothers and each of their stories is something unique and different.

Thank you Carly for you time. I can not wait until THE PLAYBOY comes out in December.

Thank you, Pam. I'm had a good time doing this interview. I'd like to remind readers they can visit my website at: www.carlyphillips.com where there are excerpts, hot contests, and frequently updated information. And for THE BACHELOR goodies, send an SASE with two stamps to: Carly Phillips, P.O. Box 483, Dept. 302, Purchase, NY 10577.