Penny Jordan
Penny Jordan
Penelope "Penny" Halsallwas a best-selling and prolific English writer of over 200 romance novels. She started writing regency romances as Caroline Courtney, and wrote contemporary romances as Penny Jordan and historical romances as Annie Groves. She also wrote novels as Melinda Wright and Lydia Hitchcock. Her books have sold over 70 million copies worldwide and been translated into many languages...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth24 November 1946
affect books challenge change characters dramatic great happy life people smaller
What I like writing about are people's relationships, not necessarily great big dramatic things but the smaller things in life and how they affect characters and challenge and change the people that they are. I do like a happy ending, so my books have to have a happy ending.
ask characters takes
There are two questions that you ask yourself as a writer, and one of them is, 'But why?' The question that takes the book forward is, 'What if? What if x y or z happened? How would those characters react?'
certainly people saw typewriter
It's not very glamorous. People certainly wouldn't think so if they saw me sitting in my woolly socks at the kitchen table. Many times I sit at the typewriter and think, 'Why am I doing this?'
afraid ashamed caused characters confide convince finding helped inability lost marriage others overcome problems relationships success ways work wound
I was too ashamed and afraid to confide in friends, and wanted to convince others and myself that my marriage was a success. I lost myself in my writing. Finding ways for my characters to overcome their problems and make their relationships work helped plaster over the wound caused by my inability to make things right at home.
job occurred
I was always a keen reader. I jotted down one or two things, but it never occurred to me to think of a job in writing. I thought that writers were like demi-gods. I don't know what I thought.
books boon four mills produce scale taught teaches time
Writing for Mills and Boon taught me a lot of discipline. You have to produce books in a short time scale and four a year, and it teaches you a lot.
appeal love
The appeal of romance is love. And that's universal.
best chose love romance
I chose to write the kind of romance I love best - one with a sheikh hero.
bedside bought bouquet brought cup huge means morning thoughtful
A thoughtful cup of tea brought to your bedside each morning means more to me than the huge bouquet of flowers bought once a year.
avid boon favourites grab local mills reader romances store work
I was still an avid reader of Mills & Boon romances - on publication day, I used to rush out of work to get to the local book store to grab my favourites before they all disappeared.