Ravishingly Romantic Avril Tremayne

2018 RITA Nominee, Avril Tremayne writes fast-paced, witty banter, which can tend toward the screwball, delivered with a strong emotional punch.

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Transcript:

Sarah Williams:            G’day, I’m Sarah Williams, romance author and independent publisher at Serenade Publishing. Today I’m chatting to 2017 Ruby Award Winner and 2018 RITA Finalist Avril Tremayne.

Sarah Williams:            Thanks for joining me, Avril.

Avril Tremayne:            Pleasure to be here.

Sarah Williams:            Now you say in your bio that your hallmark is ‘fast-paced, witty banter which can tend toward the screwball, delivered with a strong emotional punch.’ I love that.

Avril Tremayne:            It’s quite strange to hear it said back, actually, but it is true.

Sarah Williams:            It’s so awesome. So, tell us about how you got into writing and your journey so far.

Avril Tremayne:            Well I think like most writers … Well, I wanted to be a writer my whole life probably. I have a thing about Jane Eyre. When I read that as a teenager it kind of ignited all sorts of strange passions in me, and I’ve been thinking about becoming a writer ever since then, but life often gets in the way.

Avril Tremayne:            I consider my writing career in two tranches. The first one was when I was probably in my 20s, when I had a good go at it, which came to nothing and I have some fairly hideous manuscripts tucked away that will never see the light of day from that period.

Avril Tremayne:            Then my career took off and I had a fairly strenuous, stressful career, and really I kept writing all the way through but I didn’t have my heart and soul into it because I was so preoccupied with work.

Avril Tremayne:            My last corporate job was over in the Middle East, and when I came back to Australia after three years there I found that I had a little bit of time to think about what I would do next and take a breath, and that year was 2013. I entered the Harlequin So You Think You Can Write competition, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Sarah Williams:            That’s awesome.

Avril Tremayne:            I got my first contract. Actually, I entered two books. That was a particular year they had two competitions, one which was for the main competition and one which was for new adult stories. I won the new adult one. I was one of six winners, and I was a top 10 finalist in the other, and I don’t know, I think at that particular time in my life all the lessons I’d learned about writing somehow coalesced and, you know, [inaudible 00:02:40] to me I supposed. I made a deal with my husband that I’d give it a shot for a year and see if I could get a book accepted, and if I did then I really have a crack at it, so that’s it, that’s me. Here I am.

Sarah Williams:            So, it was because you entered that competition that you got the deal through that?

Avril Tremayne:            Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes. I got a publishing contract for one of the books straight off, that was part of the prize, and for the top 10 finalist book, which was my third book, Here Comes The Bridesmaid, a book I still love. That book was a top 10 finalist in the main So You Think You Can Write competition, and I got a contract for that one as well.

Sarah Williams:            Oh, wow.

Avril Tremayne:            And that was it. I think it’s kind of like sometimes you just need a bit of a burst of luck, and I got mine.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah.

Avril Tremayne:            And those books both came out in 2014.

Sarah Williams:            Oh, wow, so did you submit to slush piles before doing that?

Avril Tremayne:            Oh, yeah. Yes, of course. Back in that first go of having written, trying to have a go at it, I submitted quite a few books, quite a few dreadful books, and actually quite a few books that I still don’t mind, but you know. I think I made the chronic mistake of many authors when they first start out in forcing my characters to do things.

Avril Tremayne:            If I go back to those early books and read them now, they’re still well written, they’re still quite good stories, but you know, there’s all sorts of drama going on that’s driven by me, the author, not by the characters, and I can quite plainly see why they didn’t make it.

Avril Tremayne:            A category romance, I’ll tell you, they are the hardest books to write. The hardest. They are the hardest books to write. You have got your hero and heroine on the page almost 100% of the time. Very little room to play. Every word has to count, so what is the reader picking up a romance for? They’re picking it up for the hero and heroine, and in a 50,000-60,000 word book, you are giving them those two and not much else.

Avril Tremayne:            A single title book, you have a little more room to play. You can have a bit of fun with their friends, you know, off the side, as long as it’s still driving the story.

Avril Tremayne:            But the process for me, no. Sometimes it will take me as long to write a 50,000 word book as it takes to write a 95,000 word book. It just depends.

Sarah Williams:            Oh, wow. Oh, gosh.

Sarah Williams:            So, Escaping Mr. Right won the Ruby last year in 2017 for the Romance Writers of Australia. Now, it was really funny because I didn’t know you before that, and I went to conference last year in Brisbane, and I was sitting in a table and everyone like stood up, and they were so excited when you won that.

Avril Tremayne:            I was pretty excited myself. Shocked.

Sarah Williams:            It would have been fantastic, and everyone was turning to me, “Oh, my God, I read that book. It’s so good. She so deserved to win,” and I’m just like, “What? Who’s she?” And they’re like, “You must read that book. If you don’t read anything else, that is the book you have to read.”

Avril Tremayne:            That’s lovely to hear.

Sarah Williams:            So, it was so funny. I said, “Well, if you’re all saying that, I better buy it.” I picked up my phone, Amazon, there you go, buy it.

Sarah Williams:            Oh, fantastic. So, tell us about Escaping Mr. Right. Give us a little insight.

Avril Tremayne:            Okay, well that is a book two in a series. It started life very interestingly as a NaNoWriMo project. There’s the first book in the series, it’s called Wanting Mr. Wrong, a book that came out of one of my last jobs actually, when I got a massive crush on Matthew Macfadyen, who plays Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. My favorite adaptation.

Avril Tremayne:            I am not the type of person to get a crush on a celebrity, but I was absolutely drooling over this guy, and I was so obnoxious about it. My whole team of PR people kept stirring me up a little bit, and giving me photos of him, and helping me cyber stalk, et cetera, so I decided I’d write that book. I actually started that book in one of my last jobs, but didn’t finish it until relatively recently I suppose.

Avril Tremayne:            There were three friends in that book, two girls and a guy, and I always wanted to write three books. The third book’s not out yet. I started the second book as the NaNoWriMo project, and I keep saying to … I mean, was that the first? That’s my first ever time of doing NaNoWriMo.

Avril Tremayne:            For people who don’t know what that is, it’s National Novel Writing Month, and it happens in November, and you write 50,000 words from the 1st to the 30th of November, and it is bloody difficult to do.

Avril Tremayne:            I don’t write by word count, so to me this is excruciating. I finished that month with 50,000 words. They were atrocious words. It was the biggest mess you had ever seen. That was the end of November, and I just had to keep pegging at it, pegging at it. I think I finally submitted it to Penguin Random House probably about March or April, and by then I was really, really happy with it.

Avril Tremayne:            I have an amazing editor at Penguin Random House who suggested a few changes. It was up to around 75,000 words by then, and it was a brilliant, brilliant story, and I don’t know what it is about that book.

Avril Tremayne:            I mean, you know, a lot of people don’t like reading third person stories, so that’s probably one reason why I was so shocked it actually was the Ruby Prize winner because it was book two in a series, it was written in the first person, and it really is a romantic comedy. Now, all my books are romantic comedy, but they finish up with quite a lot of emotional intensity.

Avril Tremayne:            When you think about an award-winning book, it’s not really the first thing that … That kind of combination is not really the first thing that would get you [inaudible 00:09:05], so never to say I was shocked, but it does seem to hit a really good place for many people. That makes me absolutely thrilled.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah, that’s so cool to hear too, that you can’t actually say, “Yeah, that’s why it’s so good.” You know?

Avril Tremayne:            Why is it do good? I don’t know. I mean, I think it’s because it’s kind of like an unusual … Is it an unusual story? It’s set a bit in Australia, and a bit in Manila. It’s got a really tough rugby league playing hero, and the heroine is a journalist who’s pretty, I wouldn’t say uptight. She’s very super controlled as a result of the way she grew up. She likes control and she has an image of perfection, and the hero is not obviously that image.

Avril Tremayne:            There’s a weird kind of love triangle in there, and I don’t know, it’s just … You know, I’m not really a plotter, so when I start writing a book, I just usually start with how the hero and heroine meet, and in this instance, they met a year before the book began, but the meeting of the book starts on a cruise, end of year rugby league cruise, in Sydney Harbor, which to me sounds ghastly to be on, but anyway, there we are.

Avril Tremayne:            What can I say? It all just happened. That’s how my books … You know, usually you go through the first draft and you’re tearing out your hair because it’s so vile, and then suddenly it all comes together. I can’t explain it.

Sarah Williams:            Well, that’s awesome.

Sarah Williams:            So, talk about writing romantic comedy. I mean, you must just be a hilarious person to be able to write. I know I couldn’t do it.

Avril Tremayne:            Well, I have my moments. I have my moments.

Avril Tremayne:            Romantic comedy, what does it take? Okay, you have to really let yourself go, but interestingly enough, the humor doesn’t really happen in the first draft for me. It happens after I’ve gotten to know the characters. Usually on the second draft through, you can start to see some funny stuff. That’s because life is funny, you know?

Avril Tremayne:            When I think about all the great times, and the not so great times, I have with my husband, it’s the times we’re laughing that are the best. For me, you know, people will often ask you, what is it about a man that’s attractive? It’s always someone who makes me laugh.

Avril Tremayne:            Humor is a really intimate thing for me. You know, you don’t really go in off the bat and crack jokes. It’s not about cracking jokes, it’s about humor in the situation, and finding the [inaudible 00:11:54] moments that you can really understand someone. If they’ve got your sense of humor, you know you’re on the same wave length.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah.

Avril Tremayne:            But it’s fun. It’s fun to write. When I’m reading, if I’m not having a laugh, I’m pretty … You know, I have to have a couple of laughs as a reader. Even if the book is not a comedy, I need to have a few laughs going through.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah, that’s really awesome.

Avril Tremayne:            There’s a blog I wrote once called … What was it called? Romantic Comedy and the Black Moment because, you know, in every romance there is a turning point.

Avril Tremayne:            I once saw a play, I think this play is stuck in my mind, and really does, I think, it describes my writing process. It was called The Beauty Queen of Leenane, it’s an Irish play, and it is … You know, I was sitting in there. I mean, this play blew me away. I was sitting in the audience, and I was laughing, and laughing, and laughing, and then there’s this turning point – I’m actually getting chills thinking about it right now – where it’s not funny at all.

Avril Tremayne:            To me, the power of romantic comedy is that it can lull you into something where you think, ‘Oh, that’s kind of light-hearted,’ and then if you twist it, it makes the intensity that much more vibrant. That’s what I try to do in my books.

Sarah Williams:            Oh, wow.

Avril Tremayne:            There’s always a point where it’s not funny anymore, and that’s when they … It can end up funny again, but that’s when the romantic development really kicks in and it gets really serious.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah.

Avril Tremayne:            Oh, my God, I hope I haven’t put anyone off reading my books, but if they are [inaudible 00:13:40].

Sarah Williams:            Thought-provoking, and you know, escapism. I love it.

Sarah Williams:            We should talk about the heat level in case anyone does want to run out there.

Avril Tremayne:            They’re all sexy. All my books have got sex.

Sarah Williams:            Excellent, so sexy, if you’re-

Avril Tremayne:            Some more than others. Oh, I’ve got three Harlequin Dares coming out. They are very, very hot books.

Avril Tremayne:            Aside from those, I’ve got one Harlequin book called The Millionaire’s Proposition, and that is very, very steamy. I think my editor said that when she read that it was the hottest category romance she’s ever read.

Sarah Williams:            Oh, wow.

Avril Tremayne:            So, there you go.

Avril Tremayne:            If you’re looking for a really hot read, that is the one, but there’s also, I have a book with Penguin Random House called Now You’re Mine, which is very, very, very hot.

Avril Tremayne:            You know, they’ve all got sex, but I’m a reader who can actually skip over sex scenes quite easily if they’re not emotional, or fun. If they’re just in there because you have to have a sex scene, there’s no point.

Sarah Williams:            I want to read a funny erotic scene.

Avril Tremayne:            Oh, God. Oh, definitely read, I think The Millionaire’s Proposition is pretty funny. I think Now You’re Mine is pretty funny too. It’s got some very, very funny moments because in Now You’re Mine the heroine, she’s a bit of a smart ass girl from Boston, and she goes to the Middle East. This book is my love song to the Middle East. She goes to review a resort, her first time out of America, and she ends up at the hero’s house. He is, of course, a millionaire living in a palatial, gorgeous abode in the middle of the Abu Dhabi desert. She stumbles upon him and they have this really hot, intense night, and then she goes back to Boston and he follows her.

Avril Tremayne:            I think what people love about that book is that he is so determined. This is something that this book has in common with Escaping Mr. Right, and they both review really well on this point, that the hero knows what he wants, and he is very single-minded in his pursuit of the heroine. Not in a horrible stalking way, but he is very determined that she knows how he feels, and he’s not hiding anything.

Avril Tremayne:            You know, there are other books where you get to the end and the whole big reveal is the fact that the hero tells the heroine he loves her. Well, this is not the case in either of these books. It actually makes for a very steamy time, and a lot of [inaudible 00:16:45].

Sarah Williams:            Yep, excellent. Sounds great.

Sarah Williams:            So, 2018 is a big year for you. You’ve been shortlisted for the RITA, which is the Romance Writers of America big competition, so congratulations.

Avril Tremayne:            Thank you.

Sarah Williams:            That one’s for The Dating Game. Are you going to Denver to see if you win?

Avril Tremayne:            I am indeed. Now, I’m working my way through the RITA, I’m reading all my competitors at the moment. There are some cracking good reads in there, so I’m not going to be depressed if I come home without the trophy because I keep saying to my husband, “Oh, this book could easily win,” and then I jump to the next one, “Oh, this is a great story. This is really going to win.” Anyway, what can you do? There’s fantastic authors I’m in the mix with over there. Fantastic.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah, Aussies have done really well this year in the RITAs. There’s you, there’s Amy Andrews, and you know, it’s a good year for us, so good luck with it, and gosh, that will be just amazing.

Sarah Williams:            So, The Dating Game, tell us about The Dating Game.

Avril Tremayne:            Well, that happens to be my favorite book. A lot of authors won’t tell you this, but I’m pretty upfront about it. I love all my books for various reasons, but The Dating Game, I guess I’ve got two books that flew out of my head onto the page. The first one was Here Comes the Bridesmaid, and The Dating Game is the other one. It is very funny. It is really a romcom. It’s got a romantic comedy plot that would be perfect on the screen. Actually, this came out of one of my jobs too.

Avril Tremayne:            There was a year when I was working in aviation, and I had a really fantastic team working with me, and one of the girls, a beautiful, beautiful, clever woman, she decided she wanted to find her husband. That year she got everyone involved. She decided she was going to say, “Yes,” to every man who asked her out. She is a lovely person as well as a very beautiful one, so she was getting asked out a lot. She had the whole of us working, you know, looking at her emails, how to respond to this guy, should she go out there, critiquing the dates, et cetera, for the whole year.

Avril Tremayne:            That year was absolutely hilarious, and that’s the idea behind The Dating Game, where I’ve got the heroine who is a PR person, she decides that she’s sick of getting dumped every three weeks. That’s what happens on average, so she needs someone to teach her how to date, what is she doing wrong, and so she runs into this hot guy at an art event, I think. It’s an art event, a gallery opening, and they do a deal. He’s a budding artist, she’s shocking with dates, he will teach her how to date properly if she will pose for his painting.

Avril Tremayne:            It’s much more complicated than that, but there is the plot. The plot is them working through this. Of course, there are other things at play. One of her best friends [inaudible 00:20:26] the hero, so she’s got a bit of a girl code thing happening. Sarah, the heroine, her brother hates the hero because her brother is in love with her best friend. I mean, can you see [inaudible 00:20:40], right? There are mixed messages and people in love with each other, and then the hero, he’s really a very experienced man, older than the heroine, and older in life terms as well as in age. He is completely bowled over that he’s falling in love with this girl and does not want a bar of it.

Avril Tremayne:            I’m not doing it justice. It is so funny. One of the early readers of this book said to me, and I will remember this til I drop dead, that this is the first book she’s ever read where she could see them falling in love, and she could completely understand how they would end up together. That doesn’t happen that often. It’s just so unforced. It just rolled out of me, that book. I just love it.

Avril Tremayne:            For it to be a RITA … I mean, like always, I did not expect this to be nominated because it is a pretty zany story, and it’s a book two, and it’s, you know, it’s a romantic comedy. I think it’s the only romantic comedy in the Long Romance section. I’ve got two more to read, so I’m not 100% on that, but it’s just a really light-hearted, rompy kind of a book, but of course, turns intense towards the end.

Avril Tremayne:            I was so thrilled for it to be a finalist, my favorite book. I mean, so thrilled.

Sarah Williams:            Yeah, it sounds absolutely fantastic, and I’m definitely on my phone right here, I’m about to download it now. It sounds awesome.

Avril Tremayne:            I can’t speak highly enough about that book. Look, but just because it’s my favorite, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be everyone else’s, even of my own books, but it was so much fun to write, and I still can read it. I’ve read that book a million times, and I still laugh, and I still bawl my eyes out towards the end.

Sarah Williams:            That’s awesome.

Avril Tremayne:            What can I say?

Sarah Williams:            Well, all the best for that one, and so what’s out next if we’ve already read everything else of yours? Is there something else coming out soon?

Avril Tremayne:            Yeah, well I’ve got my first Harlequin Dare. It’s on the shelves in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. in late July, and it’s everywhere on ebook from the 1st of August. I call that my secret baby story without the secret.

Avril Tremayne:            It is a very hot story. It’s my first friends to lovers story, and it’s the first of a trilogy, which are called The Reunions Series because the basic premise for all three of the books arises from a group of friends who met at college in Washington D.C. 10 years ago, and now they’re kind of meeting up.

Avril Tremayne:            The first story, which is Getting Lucky, as I said, that’s a friends to lovers. Two people who, well, she probably has been hankering for him ever since they met, and he’s pretty stand … Well, he’s not standoffish. He cares about here too much to be involved with her is the basic premise.

Avril Tremayne:            Then the second book, which is Getting Even, that comes out on the 1st of November. It’s super, super hot. That is second chance at love. These two, they get a mention in book one, but they don’t actually appear.

Avril Tremayne:            And then the third book, which I have just submitted, and I’m just about to start revisions on, that book is called Getting Naughty, and is my favorite of the three. That comes out in February, I think. Very, very crazy story, and a little bit different, I think. A little bit [inaudible 00:24:32], opposites attract.

Sarah Williams:            Yep. Oh, that sounds awesome. Well, that’s definitely given us all a lot to read and to download now, so go and do that people.

Sarah Williams:            We can find you online. Your website is?

Avril Tremayne:            Oh, yeah. My website is avriltremayne.com. I think I’m the only Avril Tremayne in the world, so it’s not too hard to find me. Of course, I’m on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and you can get to all those accounts by my website.

Sarah Williams:            Yep, that is awesome.

Sarah Williams:            Well, thank you so much for your time today, Avril. That was really fun.

Avril Tremayne:            My pleasure. Always fun to talk to books.