Brennan, Wendy 1940-
BRENNAN, Wendy 1940-
(Emma Darcy, a joint pseudonym)
PERSONAL: Born November 28, 1940, in Dorrigo, New South Wales, Australia; married Frank Brennan (a writer), 1964 (died, 1995); children: three sons. Education: St. Joseph's College; Sydney Teachers' College, teacher's certificate, 1959. Hobbies and other interests: Amateur acting, painting.
ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Harlequin, P.O. Box 5190, Buffalo, NY 14240-5190.
CAREER: Writer and educator. Department of Education, Wingham, New South Wales, Australia, teacher of French and English, 1960–61; Department of Education, Macksville, New South Wales, Australia, staff member, 1962–63; IBM, Sydney, New South Wales, computer programmer, 1963–66; CAS, Sydney, computer programmer, 1966–67.
WRITINGS:
The Secrets of Successful Romance Writing (nonfiction), Arrow (Milsons Point, New South Wales, Australia), 1995.
ROMANCE NOVELS; WITH HUSBAND, FRANK BRENNAN, UNDER JOINT PSEUDONYM EMMA DARCY
A World Apart, Harlequin (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 1983, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1986.
Twisting Shadows, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1983, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1984.
Tangle of Torment, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1983, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1984.
Don't Play Games, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1985.
Fantasy, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1985.
Song of a Wren, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1985, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1986.
Point of Impact, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1985, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1986.
The Impossible Woman, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1985, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1986.
Woman of Honour, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1986, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1987.
Man in the Park, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1986, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1987.
Blind Date, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1986, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1988.
Don't Ask Me Now, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1986, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1987.
The Wrong Mirror, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1986, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1987.
The Unpredictable Man, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1986, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1987.
Whirlpool of Passion, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1987.
The One That Got Away, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1987, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1988.
Strike at the Heart, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1987, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1988.
The Positive Approach, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1987, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1988.
Mistress of Pillatoro, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1987, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1988.
Always Love, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1988, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1989.
A Priceless Love, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1988, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1989.
The Aloha Bride, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1988, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1989.
The Falcon's Mistress, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1988, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1990.
The Ultimate Choice, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1989, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1990.
The Power and the Passion, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1989, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1990.
Pattern of Deceit, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1989, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1990.
Too Strong to Deny, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 1990, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1991.
One Woman Crusade, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1990, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1991.
The Colour of Desire, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1990, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1991.
Bride of Diamonds, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1990, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1991.
Sunsational,, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1991.
Ride the Storm, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1991, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1992.
Breaking Point, Mills and Boon (London, England), 1992, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1993.
High Risk, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1992.
To Tame a Wild Heart, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1992.
The Wedding, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1992.
The Seduction of Keira, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1992.
The Velvet Tiger, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1992.
Dark Heritage, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1992.
Heart of the Outback, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1993.
The Upstairs Lover, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1993.
An Impossible Dream, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1993.
No Risks, No Prizes, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1993.
A Very Stylish Affair, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1993.
The Last Grand Passion, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1993.
The Sheikh's Revenge, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1993.
A Wedding to Remember, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1994.
In Need of a Wife, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1994.
Burning with Passion, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1995.
The Fatherhood Affair, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1995.
Climax of Passion, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1995.
Last Stop Marriage, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1995.
Mischief and Marriage, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1996.
ROMANCE NOVELS; UNDER PSEUDONYM EMMA DARCY
The Father of Her Child, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1996.
Their Wedding Day, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1996.
Jack's Baby, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1996.
Craving Jamie, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1997.
Seducing the Enemy, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1997.
The Secrets Within, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1997.
Marriage Meltdown, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1997.
Merry Christmas, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1997.
The Sheikh's Seduction, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1998.
(With Jacqueline Baird and Sara Craven) Passion with a Vengeance, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 1998.
Inherited, One Nanny, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1998.
Outback Heat, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1998.
Fatherhood Fever!, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1998.
The Secret Mistress, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1999.
(With Helen Bianchin and Michelle Reid) Conveniently Yours, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 1999.
The Marriage Decider, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1999.
Having Leo's Child, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1999.
A Marriage Betrayed, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1999.
Bride of His Choice, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1999.
(With Annette Broadrick and Ann Major) The Man She Married, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1999.
(With Lynne Graham and Sandra Marton) Desert Heat, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 1999.
(With Lynne Graham and Leigh Michaels) Mothers-to-Be, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 1999.
(With Jacqueline Baird and Sandra Marton) Father and Child, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2000.
The Marriage Risk, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2000.
The Sweetest Revenge, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2001.
The Hot-blooded Groom, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2001.
Claiming His Mistress, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2001.
Mistress to a Tycoon, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2001.
(With Helen Brooks and Mary Lyons) Desert Destinies, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2001.
(With Helen Brooks and Catherine Spencer) A Christmas Seduction, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2001.
(With Miranda Lee and Sophie Weston) Seduced, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2002.
(With Lynne Graham) Latin Liaisons, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2002.
(With Lindsay Armstrong and Miranda Lee) An Australian Christmas, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2002.
(With Sandra Field and Kim Lawrence) Boardroom Baby, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2003.
Red-Hot Passion, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2003.
(With Caroline Anderson and Gayle Wilson) The Pregnancy Surprise, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2003.
The Blind-Date Bride, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2003.
The Billionaire Bridegroom, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2003.
The Bedroom Surrender, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2003.
His Boardroom Mistress, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2003.
The Outback Marriage Ransom, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2004.
The Outback Wedding Takeover, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2004.
The Outback Bridal Rescue, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2004.
(With Marion Lennox and Margaret Way) Australian Tycoons, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2004.
(With Liz Fielding and Sandra Marton) Seduced by a Sultan, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2004.
(With Sandra Field and Carol Marinelli) Pregnant Brides, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2004.
His Bought Mistress, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2005.
The Italian's Stolen Bride, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2005.
The Ramirez Bride, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2005.
(With Sharon Kendrick) Risque Business, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2005.
"JAMES FAMILY" SERIES; WITH FRANK BRENNAN UNDER JOINT PSEUDONYM EMMA DARCY
Ride the Storm, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1991.
Dark Heritage, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1992.
The Shining of Love, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1994.
OMNIBUS VOLUMES; WITH FRANK BRENNAN UNDER JOINT PSEUDONYM EMMA DARCY
The Emma Darcy Duet, Mills and Boon (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 1976.
The Emma Darcy Collection, Mills and Boon (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 1994.
The Ultimate Choice [and] Too Strong to Deny, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 1995.
The Wedding [and] Whirlpool of Passion [and] The One That Got Away, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 1996.
The Collection, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 1998.
OMNIBUS VOLUMES; UNDER PSEUDONYM EMMA DARCY
(With Jacqueline Baird) Father Knows Last: High Risk, Guilty Passion, 1996.
(With Margaret Way and Miranda Lee) Storm over Mandargi [and] The Unpredictable Man; Knight to the Rescue, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 1998.
The Bedroom Surrender; Mistress to a Millionaire, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2003.
Man in the Park; Point, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2004.
Burning with Passion; The Power and the Passion, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2004.
Mistress to a Tycoon; Jack's Baby, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2005.
(With Melanie Milburne) The Greek's Convenient Wife; Mistress to a Tycoon, Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2005.
"KINGS OF THE OUTBACK" SERIES; UNDER PSEUDONYM EMMA DARCY
The Cattle King's Mistress, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2000.
The Playboy King's Wife, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2000.
The Pleasure King's Bride, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2000.
Kings of the Outback (omnibus), Mills and Boon (Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia), 2004.
"KINGS OF AUSTRALIA" SERIES; UNDER PSEUDONYM EMMA DARCY
The Arranged Marriage, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2002.
The Bridal Bargain, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2002.
The Honeymoon Contract, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2002.
"WHO KILLED …?" SERIES; UNDER PSEUDONYM EMMA DARCY
Who Killed Angelique?, Macmillan (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2001.
Who Killed Bianca?, Macmillan (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2004.
Who Killed Camilla?, Macmillan (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2005.
SIDELIGHTS: Wendy Brennan and her husband, Frank Brennan, began writing romance novels together under the joint pseudonym Emma Darcy in the early 1980s. "I had no ambition to be a writer. I was always an avid reader," Wendy told Murdoch University Web site interviewer Albert Moran, explaining how she became an author. At one point, "I read a library book which was so poor that I thought: surely I can tell a better story than that. Out of interest I decided to try to."
At times completing six or more novels a year, the Brennans' writing partnership developed into one of the most prolific in Australia until Frank Brennan passed away in 1995. Both Wendy and Frank worked together to think up ideas for the novels, but once the plot was in place it was Wendy who did most of the actual writing. She worked on the text until early in the morning, then printed the day's work and left it out for Frank to read when he woke up. Since Frank was awake around 5:00 a.m., by the time Wendy arose several hours later he had already read and revised her work from the day before. Since Frank's death, Wendy has continued to write on her own.
"We have tried to create unique, individual books that do not follow traditional story patterns," the Brennans once told Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers. "We have never kept to one or two themes, nor to a highly ordered pattern." Indeed, the plots of the Brennans' books range widely, tackling such topics as infertility and its potential corrosive effects on a marriage in The Wrong Mirror, the difficulty of finding true love when one is rich and famous enough to attract groupies and gold-diggers in Blind Date, and the challenge of revitalizing a dying marriage when one partner seems to have only bitterness in Marriage Meltdown. The Brennans also frequently wrote about liberated career women finding love in the workplace. For example, in His Boardroom Mistress boss Cole Pierson sees coworker Liz in a whole new way when the two prepare together for a trip to Southeast Asia; and a businessman sets out to seduce his personal assistant, whom he has long loved, in The Marriage Decider. The former book has "an appealing storyline and characters that spark interest," Shannon Short wrote in RomanticTimes.com, and the latter features "a strong emotional premise and sizzling sensuality."
Continuing to use the Emma Darcy pseudonym following her husband's death, Brennan began several series, including "Kings of Australia". This three-volume series follows the three grandsons of Isabelle Valeri King as they each find wives. The first book in the trilogy, The Arranged Marriage, features a romance set into motion by a meddling grandmother. Isabelle is the matriarch of a well-to-do family of property, and she has impressed upon her three grandsons that they must marry well-bred girls and raise a new generation to take over the family's holdings. Her eldest grandson, Alessandro, however, has become engaged to a woman whom Isabelle thinks is totally unsuitable: Michelle Banks, although beautiful, seems unlikely to embrace bearing multiple children or helping out with the sometimes dirty work of running the family's sugar cane plantation. When Isabelle meets Gina Terlizzi, a grounded, hard-working widowed mother, she sees in the younger woman a perfect wife for Alessandro and sets about bringing the two together. "For those who love romances with warm vibrant characters and a plot full of surprises," Leena Hyat wrote for the Best Reviews Web site, "The Arranged Marriage is a story that's got to be read!" In the second book in the series, The Bridal Bargain, Isabelle hires a beautiful cook named Hannah O'Neill to tempt grandson Tony, and youngest grandson Matt is set up with writer Nicole Redman in The Honeymoon Contract. The third series installment is "a very fast-paced romance with two strong personalities," Short declared.
Brennan has also branched out into the mystery genre in her "Who Killed …?" series, also written under the Emma Darcy pseudonym. All of the books feature K. C. Gordon, a romance novelist who happens to get caught up in a series of deaths by foul play. In Who Killed Bianca? the dead woman is a hated gossip columnist who is ostensibly murdered by someone who does not want their secrets revealed. Camilla, the title character of the third volume, is a Hollywood diva who is killed, along with her soon-to-be husband Jimmy, on the remote island where they planned to hold their wedding. These books have been as well received as Darcy's romance novels. AussieReviews.com critic Sally Murphy called Who Killed Bianca? "a gripping murder mystery," and a reviewer for the Murder and Mayhem Book Club Web site declared Who Killed Camilla? "easy reading, light and fluffy, with a good plot, 'real' characters, and a believable scenario."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
BOOKS
Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, 3rd edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1994.
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, August 25, 1997, review of The Secrets Within, p. 68.
ONLINE
AussieReviews.com, http://www.aussiereviews.com/ (May 27, 2005), Sally Murphy, review of Who Killed Bianca?
Best Reviews Web site, http://www.thebestreviews.com/ (October 13, 2002), Leena Hyat, review of The Arranged Marriage.
Murder and Mayhem Book Club Web site, http://www.murderandmayhembookclub.com/ (May 27, 2005), review of Who Killed Camilla?
Murdoch University Web site, http://www.mcc.murdoch.edu.au/ (May 27, 2005), Albert Moran, "'No More Virgins': Writing Romance—An Interview with Emma Darcy."
Romance Writers of Australia Web site, http://www.romanceaustralia.com/ (May 27, 2005), "Emma Darcy Award."
Romantic Times Web site, http://www.romantictimes.com/ (May 27, 2005), Shannon Short, reviews of A Marriage Betrayed, Bride of His Choice, Claiming His Mistress, Climax of Passion, Craving Jamie, Fatherhood Fever, Having Leo's Child, His Boardroom Mistress, His Bought Mistress, Inherited: One Nanny, Jack's Baby, Last Stop Marriage, Marriage Meltdown, Merry Christmas, Mischief and Marriage, Seducing the Enemy, The Arranged Marriage, The Bedroom Surrender, The Billionaire Bridegroom, The Blind-Date Bride, The Bridal Bargain, The Cattle King's Mistress, The Father of Her Child, The Fatherhood Affair, The Honeymoon Contract, The Hot-blooded Groom, The Marriage Decider, The Marriage Risk, The Out-back Bridal Rescue, The Outback Marriage Ransom, The Outback Wedding Takeover, The Playboy King's Wife, The Pleasure King's Bride, The Secret Mistress, The Sheikh's Seduction, The Sweetest Revenge, and Their Wedding Day.