A paperback writer

Andrew Mathieson
BOOKS have consumed Fiona Lowe’s life.
For the Mills and Boon author, they are an insight into a world of fantasy and a break from reality.
The exotic mystique of Papua New Guinea first set the scene for Fiona as a budding author.
But this was reality – not fantasy – for a young girl growing up in the colonial outpost.
Fiona never saw a TV until she was eight and by then her love of reading was already ensconced.
She’d knock back constant offers to go bushwalking just to finish a book.
“I remember one summer at the beach my mother handed me Pride and Prejudice,” Fiona recalls.
“I read it and I loved it.
“I loved the feel-good at the end, you know?”
Books have always been about the feel-good factor for Fiona. The Manifold Heights resident has penned 10 romance novels, always keeping readers wanting more.
According to her publisher, Fiona’s book sales have continued to rise.
She now writes three a year to set deadlines. Seven are already on bookshelves.
But the path to success wasn’t easy.
“It took me 10 years to sell a book,” Fiona reveals.
“I sold my first in 2005 but started writing in 1995, just after the birth of my first child.
“I had just posted off three chapters to Mills and Boon in London when my husband said ‘Let’s go and work in America’ and three weeks later we were there.
“I had no computer – nothing at all – and it took me a year to finish that first book.”
Fiona was quick to learn the trials and tribulations of a frustrated writer.
She also realises how lucky she was.
Mills and Boon receives around 20,000 unsolicited manuscripts a year – and reportedly buys only about five of them.
“I first got a letter back from Mills and Boon saying send the rest of the story but it wasn’t good enough and it was rejected,” Fiona says before muttering, “and so was the second and so was the third.”
Nine months later, Mills and Boon bought her fourth attempt.
Now, Fiona – a qualified nurse – has perfected the medical romance.
“Think of nurses – think Grey’s Anatomy, think ER,” she explains.
“They’re about a central romance but with lots of good medical action.”
Fiona’s third published work – Her Miracle Baby – was nominated for a Romantic Book of the Year award.
It has been translated into seven languages and sold in 107 countries.
“Medical romances are hugely popular in France,” Fiona says in a raunchy voice.
“In fact, France is one of my biggest selling markets.
“It’s all quite fun now because I go to the letterbox and I find I’ve just gone into Swedish or into Norwegian’.”
Fiona has dedicated her new book – A Wedding in Warra-gurra – to her neighbour’s charity, which supports research for a predictive test for ovarian cancer. The cancer hits a secondary character in the book.
Far from spewing out repetitious, cliched lines about passionate embraces or misty-eyed glances, Fiona takes pride in coming up with new ideas.
Battling writers’ block seems more of a problem.
To combat it, she always carries a portable word processor that runs on three AA batteries everywhere and often types out the first thing that pops into her head.
“Sometimes you’ll get this brilliant idea and that’s a gift,” Fiona smiles.
“Other times I spend three weeks with nothing.”
Despite having a doting husband, two happy boys in suburban Geelong, Fiona’s quick to point out that life doesn’t imitate her storybook tales.
“No, I live in the real world,” she laughs, “and I write fiction.”