Meet romance novelist Nancy Warren (BA ’81)
As a leading novelist for Harlequin, the world’s top publisher of romance novels, it is the job of Nancy Warren (BA ’81) to keep readers guessing.
And in an industry that in 2005 alone produced nearly 6,000 titles, that’s not an easy task. Far more than passion, desire, and racy cover art, romance novels are a culmination of a writer’s ingenuity. For Warren, they are a finely honed craft, full of precision.
“Everybody knows the hero and heroine are going to fall in love, so it’s not a big surprise how the book is going to end,” explains Warren, the author of more than 30 novels and novellas. “There has to be a point where readers think, ‘I don’t know how they’re going to pull this off.’
“And that’s really my job — to keep the readers turning the pages even though they know these two will end up together.”
She credits Hamlet for giving her the tools to launch her career.
“Studying Hamlet may not really have a lot to do with Speed Dating (Harlequin: 2007), or The Trouble With Twins (Harlequin: 2006), but it’s surprising how it played a big part in learning how to write and create.”
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, Warren launched herself into a career of professional writing as a reporter with The North Shore News community newspaper. She later took on corporate communications, public relations, and freelance writing — her professional assignments included authoring the engineering newsletters for UBC.
Following a stint in Ottawa, Warren returned to Vancouver in 1996 and considered something entirely different. “I thought to myself, you see those romance novels all the time on the shelves. How hard can it be?” she recalls.
“And so I thought I’d just try one and it took me four years to be able to sell one,” she adds. “It’s much more difficult than you think.”
After submitting her first two novels to Harlequin — one for Duets, a romantic comedy series, and the other for Temptation, the publisher’s steamiest line at the time — Warren recalls feeling discouraged when she did not hear back from editors.
“When you’re first starting out, it’s a dreadful, grim, and soul-destroying process,” she adds. “If you think about it, this is you on the page. It’s much harder than sending a piece of journalism and someone saying that it doesn’t fit their requirements.”
Warren found that editors did not have time to read new material — their priority was to work with existing authors. With romance sales making up 40 per cent of all popular fiction books sold — more than mystery, suspense, and detective novels combined — the genre is the most popular type of fiction in America.
To break into the industry, Warren joined writing groups, worked closely with an editor, and entered contests. She eventually got her break, winning the contest that launched Harlequin’s hottest and sexiest line, Blaze, a series of erotic romance novels.
After knocking on doors for years, seeking comments and feedback from editors, Warren believes she has learned to create and tell the perfect story — one that requires entertaining characters and an intricate plot.
“Every time I start a romance novel, I have somebody that has a problem, whether they really want something, or are running away from something,” Warren says of her characters’ personal issues, evident in the opening chapters of her books.
“If it’s a question of vulnerability or an inability to commit, those elements are going to somehow come through even in the intimate scenes.”
From writing about Shakespeare’s canon to reporting news stories, Warren accumulated a set of skills she believes is “incredibly applicable.”
“For example, interviewing somebody and getting to the heart of the story really helped me in writing romance,” says Warren of her five years as a reporter.
“You get really good at [romance] dialogue because you’re so used to writing down what people are saying. You get used to the rhythms of natural speech rather than a very formal writing style that we come out of university with.
“You have to kind of understand the rules and then break them.”
In penning her often explicit love scenes, Warren enjoys the creative process of delving into her imagination and making up every word.
“I love writing love scenes because they can be really fun,” Warren says, adding she focuses on bringing out the personal connection between each set of different characters.
“And think about it: that’s when you’re completely vulnerable, you’re completely letting go, you’re completely intimate, and so I think that’s the most revealing of who we really are.”
Warren says she equally enjoys the process of what she calls “sparking ideas.”
“Stories and ideas are everywhere,” she says. “Everybody has a story. And I spend a lot of time when I’m out just chatting with people.”
As a novelist with a dedicated readership, Warren has reduced the amount of writing she produces, currently averaging three to four books a year. Along with the flexibility of writing from home, she says she enjoys a yearly publication schedule that is based on her needs.
“I’m very entrepreneurial,” Warren says. “This is my own business. And I’m my own boss.”
She adds: “Writers write. The bottom line is — if you’re not writing, you’re not a writer.”
By Michelle Keong, an English and Classical Studies major. She is in the Arts co-op program.
Three UBC Arts alumni collaborate on film – A Shine of Rainbows
It’s a small world after all: Editor Alison Grace (BA ’71 Film) ,Screenwriter Dennis Foon (MFA ’75 Creative Writing), and Associate Producer John Bolton (BA ’99 Hon. English) collaborated on the recently released and award winning film A Shine of Rainbows. A UBC Arts degree can connect you with talented peers for years after you graduate and take you around the world; in this case, a film set in Ireland.
Meet Robyn Laughlin: Using Psychology and Family Studies in her Ministry of Health co-op job
Through the Arts Co-op Program, Robyn Laughlin spent her summer in 2007 working as a research analyst for the Ministry of Health in Victoria. She says she was able to test all the skills she picked up during her three previous work placements.
Meet Susanne Biro: Learn how this BA Pyschology ’95 grad became a professional life coach
Susie thought that a BA would only ever be stepping stone to more education – a Master’s degree or Law school – so she never expected that her BA alone would land her a great job.
Susie graduated from UBC with a BA in Psychology in 1995 with a wide variety of interests in life, but with no specific idea of what she wanted to do with her degree.
During her four years at university, she worked as a barber apprentice at her mother’s barbershop and joined Phrateries (a club for women), which provided her with a stronger sense of community.
After graduating, she considered applying to a law or counseling program because she thought that a degree in psychology would be a good springboard for either career. After conducting several informational interviews with professionals in both fields, she realized that they were not as appealing as she had imagined.
Instead, she decided to take time off and travel to Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. Both her barbershop and travelling experiences helped her to clarify her career goals and get to know herself better.
When she returned from abroad, she completed a Diploma of Technology program in Marketing and Communications at BCIT, which launched her into a career as an Advertising Account Executive.
Despite the perks that this job offered, ultimately she found it to be unfulfilling work. After hiring a coach to help further clarify what she really wanted out of life and work, Susie finally found work that was meaningful to her.
She experienced such incredible personal and professional value from her coach that she decided she wanted to provide such a service for others. She is now a Certified Professional Coach working with people to discover and achieve what they really want in life.
If you are interested in this line of work, she suggests researching it, hiring your own coach, and reading everything you can get your hands on!
What is your current job title?
Certified Professional Coach
What were your job titles leading up to this one?
Licensed Barber, Advertising Account Executive
How did you find and land your current job?
While I was in advertising I began feeling that my job really didn’t matter in the big picture of life, in spite of being promoted three times and making pretty good money.
I found it all pretty empty and unfulfilling. So I hired myself a professional coach to help me pinpoint what it was I really wanted, and that’s how I discovered coaching as a meaningful profession.
I had started at the ad agency in 1998 and left in 2001, although I actually started coaching clients in 2000 part-time. Actually, it was my coach who challenged me to ask the CEO of my ad agency to pay for an introductory coaching course, which I did. He surprised me by saying ‘yes’, so I was fortunate enough to explore the training without having to invest my own money, and I loved it.
At that point, I thought I’d continue the training more to develop myself as a person – I wasn’t looking at it as a business thing, so I paid for all the remaining courses myself. Eventually it became my full-time occupation and I’m now the sole proprietor of a company of one.
Can you give me an overview of your job description?
I help people:
- Get clear on what it is they really want;
- Uncover the obstacles and self-imposed limitations that stand in their way to achieving what it is they really want and feeling the way they really want to feel, and;
- Get into action to start to create the results they are seeking.
Essentially, coaching is about helping people get out of their own way to get what they most want: achievement, fulfillment, and peace of mind.
Can you give me an overview of the day-to-day tasks that you do?
I answer email, change my phone message, get organized for client sessions, (which are usually between one and five per day – I typically spend half an hour on the phone with each client or if it’s a new client it will be two hours in person), marketing and networking activities, reading, educating myself, and administrative work such as invoicing and maintaining my website information.
In a nutshell, it’s two main things: work with clients and self-educate.
What aspects of your job are most important and satisfying to you?
The one-on-one work with people; expanding human potential is my passion. I love talking, connecting, and helping people to get what they really want out of life.
What aspects are least satisfying to you?
Marketing myself/ self-promoting. I dislike having to get clients, although I can sell anything that isn’t the point – a client’s got to really want to change and be prepared to do the work it takes to change.
Some people mistakenly believe coaching is cheerleading. Currently there are many people out there who are now calling themselves coaches, which is creating some misunderstandings in the market place.
If there’s anything you could change about your job, what would it be?
I’d like to continually have clients; be more stable, more consistent. It’s a slow process – people will hire me when they believe that what I do will bring substantial value to their businesses and lives.
Therefore my number one job right now is to build my reputation so that it precedes me and so my "brand" stands for trust, integrity, and providing outstanding client value.
Before you started did you know what the job what it would be like?
Yes. As a result of having worked with a coach for approx. 1.5 years prior to becoming one, as well as through my courses and formal training, I knew what was basically involved in this career choice.
I was familiar also with being my own boss, because in my advertising job I didn’t have anyone watching me or telling me what to do each day. I am pretty self-motivated and actually prefer to run my own show.
How did you do your research?
The Coaches Training Institute set me up pretty well to not expect an overnight ‘business boom’ – as with any business, it generally takes between three to five years to get established.
From my previous experience of working with a coach, I knew about the lifestyle, and from my background in advertising I knew the importance of having a website and effective promotion. In other words, I knew what needed to be done, which is entrepreneurship.
For me, it’s always been apparent what I need to do to make something work once I’m clear on what I want. I believe that’s true for everyone – the clearer we are, the more successful we are, because we can then effectively harness our time and energy.
What salary range could most BA graduates expect in this field?
That totally depends on what you put into it. The rates range form $50.00 per hour to $350.00 + per hour, but again, it depends on how hard you work, your target niche, and whether your client base is corporate/senior management or private individuals and students.
Also, it depends on your reputation, how people find out about you, and your networking contacts and affiliates. The range can really be anywhere from $20,000 to $300,000 per year.
What would you recommend that students interested in this field do while they’re in school to better their chances of finding work in this field?
Research it and hire your own coach because there’s nothing like direct experience to find out where you want to go.
Also, don’t do it just for money – do it because you love human nature and believe in the potential of people. Read everything you can get your hands on. For a list of books I highly recommend, visit the resource section of my website.
Also, check out the Coaches Training Institute (CTI) community. It meets the third Thursday of every month at the Centre for Peace in Vancouver. Also, the International Coaches Federation (ICF), which is our regulatory body, meets the last Thursday of every month and we bring in speakers, talk about obstacles, our work with clients, and so on.
Why did you choose UBC?
Because of the prestige and recognition a degree from UBC afforded career-opportunity-wise. UBC is a reputable university that I thought would help me to springboard into the next career/educational step.
I also wanted to stay in Vancouver because I had a good job working with my mom in her barbershop in West Vancouver and I needed to work while I was studying.
When did you start your post-secondary education?
I entered UBC’s Faculty of Arts directly after finishing high school in 1991.
When did you graduate from UBC?
1995. I went straight through, taking the summers off to work so that I could pay for school. I also spent one summer on exchange at Laval University in Quebec to learn French.
Did you ever change your mind about your major?
Yes, I really had no idea what I wanted to do. In first and second year I took anything I was interested in: biology, political science, philosophy, psychology.
I spoke to a counselor at UBC at one point too, who suggested I do a General BA because my interests were so broad and I wanted to maximize my opportunities.
However, because psychology and the study of human nature was the only subject that really held my interest, I decided in third year to major in it.
Did you have an idea of what to do career-wise after graduation?
I thought I’d apply to go into law or counseling. I thought that a BA in psychology would be useful as a springboard into law, especially as I had taken more general courses in history and political science as well. And, it would also allow me the option of pursuing a master’s in counseling.
What were your non-academic interests in high school and university?
I danced for years until Grade 11. I even went to a special school in Grade 10 that allowed me to attend school from 8:00 to 11:00 am so that I spent the rest of the day dancing, but I realized that I didn’t want to pursue it further into a career.
Otherwise, working, going to the gym/exercising, and spending time with family and friends were what I did when I wasn’t studying.
My mom trained me as a barber apprentice while I was still in Grade 12. It saved me from having to get student loans as I had a job to work at every Saturday during the school year and then each summer for the entire four months.
Working in my mom’s barbershop was where I learned a lot about business; effective communication skills as well as what is required to create and maintain great relationships with people.
I believe that I learned more about business and building great relationships from the time I spent working in my mom’s barbershop than I did in all my years of schooling.
What extracurricular activities were you involved in while at UBC?
For my first and second year I had no feeling of community at UBC, so I joined Phrateries, which is a club for women, for my third and fourth year.
I had been feeling lonely and like I was missing out on university life, so I took the steps to change this by getting involved with this club. We focused on event planning and raising money, which I enjoyed. And of course, we partied, which I really enjoyed!
Did your involvement help you to gain experience or skills transferable to your current job?
Yes, but I wish I had gotten more involved. Networking and getting to know people is the basis of business.
I still run into some of the people I met at Phrateries. I wish I had gotten to know more people while I was at UBC.
Were you ever worried or afraid about what kind of work was available after graduating with a BA?
Yes, definitely. I worked in my mom’s barbershop after I completed my degree, as I was still unsure of what I was meant to do with my life.
However, at the same time, I knew that a BA would only ever be a stepping stone to more education, a Master’s degree or Law school, so I never expected that my BA alone would land me a great job.
What steps brought you to your current career?
In my fourth year I spoke to several female lawyers, most of whom were not practicing for various reasons, and also to counselors and realized that I did not want to do this profession.
As I mentioned previously, I worked in my mom’s barbershop throughout my university degree and continued for a year after graduation to save money to travel.
I ended up going to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. But prior to leaving on my trip, I had applied to BCIT to enroll in the Diploma of Technology program in Marketing and Communications.
Both the barbershop experience and the travelling helped me to know myself and to focus on some more specific career directions.
Did you plan to be where you are now career-wise?
No, not at all. When I returned home from traveling I wanted to work for an advertising agency because I thought it sounded "cool" and so that’s what I did after I finished my diploma in marketing at BCIT.
I felt I had a natural eye for what works and what doesn’t work in advertising, and I liked the idea of working in a fast paced environment with young people, so it seemed like a good fit.
After being in it for a while, I realized it wasn’t ultimately rewarding, and that realization helped me get to the career I’m in now.
How important were your grades in terms of landing your current job?
Not important. I had around a C+ or a B average. BCIT was really competitive, but I didn’t really care about competing for A’s. I focused more on how to market myself and land the internship I wanted and that paid off much better for me.
What is the worst thing a student could do with respect to working in this field?
Go in it solely to make lots of money.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently while at UBC?
I would definitely have gotten more involved, been more social, taken it easy, relaxed, not been so hard on myself, enjoyed the experience, and definitely not worried so much about ‘having it all figured out.’
Any advice to current students?
Spend time really getting to know yourself; read; take courses you’re interested in, both academic and non-academic; find out what you’re most passionate about, what you most care about in this world, or what you believe matters at the end of the day … and let the rest fall away.
Choose to do what you love, find out what you really care about and go for it: For example, if you really love playing video games, ask yourself "Why do I love video games so much?" and break it down into the finer points. Is it the excitement, the colours, the solitude, the adrenaline, the drive to win, to beat your last record, and/or the focus it takes? Whatever it is, there’s a job for you that fits what you most love. And if you can’t find a job that does, create it for yourself!
Design your life, don’t follow or settle for what you think you can get or from only the options you currently see in front of you. Also, rather than thinking in terms of ‘What am I going to do with the rest of my life?’ – rather, think in terms of "what do I want to do next?" And most of all, have fun! You are young and the world is yours!
Meet Dr. Duanduan Li: Teaching the Chinese language
When Professor Duanduan Li joined UBC from New York City’s Columbia University in 2003, she did so for a specific reason. She had worked as director of Columbia’s Chinese language program and was attracted to UBC because of its large community of heritage language (HL) learners — students with a background, though not necessarily a fluency, in the language being taught.
Meet Professor Mary Chapman: Pioneering American suffrage literature research
Associate Professor Mary Chapman won the 2006 Yasuo Sakakibara Prize from the American Studies Association for an essay on writer Sui Sin Far, believed to be the first Eurasian to publish in Canada and the United States.
The paper is part of a book-in-progress on American suffrage literature, and examines Far’s work during the Progressive Era, a period of reform from the 1890s through the 1920s that saw many Americans push for social justice, general equality, and public safety.
Separated from her two-year-old son for nearly a year, a Chinese mother sacrifices everything to get him back. After spending her life’s savings to hire a lawyer, the woman is reunited with her child. But he no longer remembers her, or their native tongue.
She can’t believe that the government would take away her child in what she thought would be “the land of the free.”
The story — entitled “In the Land of the Free” — was published in 1912 in Mrs. Spring Fragrance, a popular short story collection by Sui Sin Far, pen name of British-born writer Edith Maude Eaton (1865 – 1914).
The story collection reflects the struggles and joys in the daily lives of Chinese families in North America. Far, who lived in Montreal and later moved to San Francisco and Seattle, depicts the anguish of Chinese immigrants, and the suffering inflicted by discriminatory immigration laws.
Associate Professor Mary Chapman, who teaches in the Department of English, recently won the 2006 Yasuo Sakakibara Prize from the American Studies Association for an essay she wrote on the pioneering writer.
Chartered in 1951, the American Studies Association has more than 5,000 members, including teachers and other professionals, concerned with American culture.
Prof. Chapman’s paper is part of a book-in-progress on American suffrage literature, and examines Far’s work during the Progressive Era, a period of reform from the 1890s through the 1920s that saw many Americans push for social justice, general equality, and public safety.
Among other things, the progressive movement called for the humane treatment of mentally ill people, worked for the organization of unions, and gave citizen women in the United States the right to vote by 1920.
Prof. Chapman probes into Far’s awareness of the shortcomings of the Progressive Era and the exclusion of Chinese immigrants from fundamental rights.
“At the very same time that they were advocating greater access to government, and votes for women, they excluded the Chinese from immigrating,” Prof. Chapman says.
Born to a Chinese mother and a British father, Far began her career at The Montreal Star and wrote one of the first public statements in opposition to the Chinese Head Tax in Canada. She wrote numerous articles and stories, which appeared mainly in American newspapers and magazines.
Prof. Chapman has found new material through what she calls intense digging in Far’s life. After searching for works not included in “Mrs. Spring Fragrance,” she has found articles showcasing the writer’s interest in China’s efforts to change outdated laws.
The enfranchisement of women in a Chinese province in 1912, while progressives in the U.S. were still campaigning for women’s right to vote, exposed the limits of American efforts to reform, says Prof. Chapman.
“So all of a sudden, this culture, which even the most progressive-minded Americans had perceived as inferior and backward, had given their votes to women,” she says.
“Far was very supportive of the Chinese reform movement which had, as one of its goals, the enfranchisement of Chinese women,” she adds. “She took great delight in showing how liberated Chinese women were.”
Prof. Chapman believes it was clear to Far that the progressive movement had an exclusive agenda. The writer’s “In the Land of the Free” pinpoints just that.
The story simultaneously captures the humanity of Chinese people while demonstrating the human costs of racist laws. A young boy’s inability to recognize his mother and the loss of his native language at the story’s end signals the costs of cultural assimilation.
“There were so many racist policies that coincided with the progressive movement. So I think Sui Sin Far was a very canny judge of that,” Prof. Chapman says.
As the first Eurasian to publish in Canada and the United States, Far’s writing in prominent magazines such as Good Housekeeping and New England Magazine gave Americans of Chinese ancestry and women a literary voice, notes Prof. Chapman.
“What I’m finding really interesting about her is that she is broadly concerned with questions of mixed race, hybrid cultures, and other races in the broader continental context,” she says.
“Her focus, and her topics go way beyond her interest in the Asian American community, which is what she is well known for.”
The story of a white stenographer in Seattle who, on her wedding day, discovers that her husband has fathered an Alaskan child sheds light on Far’s curiosity, suggests Prof. Chapman.
“Her interest in hybridity goes far beyond the Asian American experience,” she adds.
Prof. Chapman’s current project on American suffrage literature and interest in how women find voices in historical contexts that do not allow them to speak has brought to light the writer’s unique position.
“I was finding that so many of my chapters were focused on white women from the northeast,” she adds, “so I was so happy to find Sui Sin Far’s stories, which offered a very different perspective.”
Prof. Chapman hopes to publish a second collection of Far’s writings to move the writer away from a position that is strictly pro-Chinese, or anti-Progressive.
“There are big gaps in her publication history and I think that most people have just focused on this book that appeared, but the fact is she was an active journalist for at least 15 years,” Prof. Chapman says.
By Michelle Keong, an English and Classical Studies major. She is in the Arts co-op program.
Meet Professor Dawn Currie – An interest in Social Justice
An interest in social justice drives Professor Dawn Currie’s work.
As an academic, it’s taken her to Vietnam, where for the past decade she’s been involved with a project to advance gender equity.
As a feminist scholar, that same interest sparked her latest study, which examines the processes shaping young girls’ sense of who they are.
Currie, who teaches in the Dept. of Sociology, specializes in teaching aspiring sociologists their core research methods as well as the essentials of feminist theory.
“I make the starting assumption that students in sociology are curious about the social world,” she says.
Her own curiosity has — in turn — been fueled by interactions with her students. She says her day-to-day contact with young women exposed her to the issues they face and developed her interest in studying girlhood.
Currie’s most recent book, Girl Talk: Adolescent Magazines and Their Readers (University of Toronto Press: 1999), explores how girls interpret the messages in women’s magazines.
Her current study examines the avenues through which adolescent girls are able to forge new, non-conventional girlhoods. Currie, along with colleague Deirdre Kelly (UBC Faculty of Education) and Shauna Polmerantz (UBC PhD Educational Studies ‘06) are in the final stages of a book on the topic.
This project looks at girls who throw the competition for popularity out the window and reject the notion of trying to dress a certain way and win approval from boys.
Currie and her co-researchers are interested in girls who take up non-conventional activities such as skateboarding, and even studies the games girls play online, looking at the personas they take on in virtual worlds where they can escape the expectations of their everyday peer culture.
On a global level, along with her colleague Huguette Dagenais (Laval University), Currie is mentoring researchers in Vietnam. One study explored what happens when young people, especially girls, migrate from the countryside into the city to find work.
“The group would identify a development issue that they want to work on and then we would tutor them through the different stages of designing a research project,” says Currie, explaining her mentorship role.
She began teaching at UBC in 1988, after earning her PhD at the London School of Economics and working briefly at two other universities.
“Knowledge, especially of something social like gender relations, has to be very specific to the time, the place, and the culture,” she adds.
For this reason, the goal was to assist the Vietnamese investigators through the process of creating their own research, rather than importing the knowledge of gender of others. The same impetus lies behind teaching students in the classroom to conduct research and theorize for themselves, she explains. “Research is the best way to make knowledge relevant,” Currie says.
“The most rewarding thing about teaching, regardless of a student’s final grade, is seeing a student who has real curiosity work through the process of figuring out how to do good inquiry.”
Meet Professor Emerita Jane Coop: Playing the piano
One of Canada’s most celebrated pianists, Coop is head of the keyboard division at the School of Music, where her work earned her the laurels of Distinguished University Scholar in 2003 and, more recently, the 2007 Killam Teaching Prize, which recognizes UBC’s best teachers.
Meet Dr. Alan Richardson: BS and Philosophy
Professor Alan Richardson knew that as soon as he had gotten fan mail for an essay he’d written for a book titled Bullshit and Philosophy that he had reached the status of pop culture philosopher icon.
Meet Dr. Margery Fee: Fostering student engagement
Professor Margery Fee completed her PhD on Canadian literary history at a time when the topic was not as popular as it is today. “People just laughed and said, ‘You want to do a thesis on Canadian literature? Is there any?” Fee says of her years as a graduate student. Since then, Canadian literature has become a legitimate area of study, and Fee has remained committed to giving students “subject matter that they are interested in.”