June 14, 2006
THE PURPLE SHALL GOVERN
How many people can boast a photo taken on the exact day the faint germ of an idea of writing a romance first ever entered their head?
This is mine.
I took it in 1990 from the 10th floor window of my office in Adderly Street, Cape Town on one of those heady, pulsing, volatile days leading up to the release of Nelson Mandela. The street below was usually filled with city traffic, but on this day it was a mass of humanity that had flowed in from outlying suburbs and townships since the dark hours of dawn and seethed up Adderly Street toward the parliament buildings with the most spine-tingling chanting and singing and toy-toying you can ever imagine. They were demanding the release of Mandela. The scent of the crowd was strong in the heat. The tension thick. Helicopters circled above with snipers. Armed police paced nervously behind monstrous coils of razor wire, water cannons at their side.
And from an office base on the fourth floor of ‘my’ building, foreign correspondents from around the world swarmed out with monstrous cameras and flak jackets, their excitement as palpable as the pulsing anger of the crowd.
I’d been down there, part of the crowd, on previous protest marches, but on this occassion,as soon as things started getting too heated, our building was locked down – we were trapped. And, strangely enough, as the hot hours ticked interminably by, and chants of ‘Amandla!‘ reverberated below, and the helos chopped above, one of the reporters in our newsroom looked up suddenly and said: “Hey, do you know how much money you can make writing a Mills and Boon?”
Well, blow me down, I didn’t. None of us did. But as a lark, we started brainstorming what we believed was a romance plot, then, we all sat down, banged out a version of the first chapter, and laughed hysterically while comparing notes.
Buuuut, …. the seed had been sewn, and it niggled away at me. In the next few weeks I bought a few Mills and Boons (all there was available in S.A. at the time), read them, and life went on. I got pregnant again, busy, and we started the process of relocating to Canada. Once here, subsequent years were spent settling, raising kids, earning a living, and just … living. Until one day I sat up, saw the big Four Oh on the horizon and my mind flashed right back to 1990. I wanted to give it a try — a romance novel. So I set about investigating, learning … writing. And I quite simply fell in love — with the books, the business, the people. All of it.
And it’s no coincidence that my heroine in MELTING THE ICE, my first romance novel for Silhouette, was … yep, you got it, a foreign correspondent. There was just something about those folk on the fourth floor 
And as an aside … for the next march, those police filled the water canons with purple dye. If the force of the jets didn’t shove you up against the razor coils, shredding clothes and flesh … you ran off stained purple. And then they came looking. All day long armed men scoured the city in search of purple people. Throughout Cape Town the walls of washrooms, hotels, restaurants, pubs and department stores were smeared purple from those trying to hide the wrath of the minority government. And the slogan was born: The Purple Shall Govern. And so it came to pass … Mandela was released in 1990 after being imprisoned for my entire lifetime.
Purple Rain being spewed from that yellow van, just off Green Market Square outside St George’s Cathedral. I still get an involuntary shudder whenever I see a yellow van.
But hey … my book covers have a purple streak … And before you open your mouth about purple prose … fuhggeddaboud it!
Do you remember when the idea of penning a romance struck — the very first time? Do you recall where you were when you picked up your first romance novel?
Posted by Loreth @ 8:37 pm | THE WRITING LIFE
Meretta Says:
What a dramatic way for a seed to have been planted! Awesome experience, Loreth. LOL. The top picture looked, at first glance, to be a spring snow on a flowerbed…the light standards being little garden lights. Ha ha. Couldn’t have been more wrong!
And when I was a young lass, I started out reading Sweet Valley High and then teen romances. They didn’t hold me long though and I’d graduated to Zebras by the time I was 10 or 11. And I had a standing monthly subscription with Harlequin. Still remember my most favorite story.
I guess that’s the reason why I write it. There’s no better job in the world than one you enjoy!
Loreth Says:
<>
Too true, Meretta
Eve Says:
Sheesh, I start back blogging and she gives me something I have to think about. I’ll come back later to answer the question. (I’m writing a note)
What an experience. I’ve led such a sheltered life. *sigh*
Toni Anderson Says:
I thought it was a fence, a sprinkle of snow and then realized it was actually people down there. I watched all that on the telly Loreth, I can’t imagine what it must have been like to live with it. Makes me worry for my Zim relatives.
I *love* foreign correspondants though have this weird dislike for journalists as a whole–well the British Press are not all nice people :/ and they’re my example. Obviously most reporters are not like those who work for the Sun!!
I first really got the idea to try writing a romance in 1998. I’d discovered Mills & Boon as a young girl, fetching books for my gran. Then I went off them a bit as an older teenager because the books really were all the same at that point (for me) and in Britain there was no decent romances at all. Then we moved to Canada (for the first time) in 1995 and I swear I read a book a day and still worked and played my backside off
Great time! Maybe it was the thought of returning to the UK that made me want to try it, knowing I’d have to rely on Amazon for my fix.
Toni Anderson Says:
oops. Cut myself off!!
Wonderful story–wonderful if terrifying experiences. And at least Mandela was a worthy icon. I remember crying when he was released.
Eve Says:
See, sometimes I read my notes.
Let’s see – mom handed me my first Harlequin when I was 14 and by the time I was almost 16 I thought I could right a Presents
But it wasn’t until the early 90s that I actually believed that I could write. Now I just have to do it.
Loreth Says:
< I remember crying when he was released. > Me too, Toni. Still get worked up when I think about it.
Eve … get cracking! I love your voice — and bet I’d love your books