I want to be young and wild, and then I want to be middle aged and rich, and then I want to be old and annoy people by pretending that I'm deaf.
Blackadder III


 I've always loved reading - it started with The Famous Five and Nancy Drew. And then when I was older I discovered Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and Georgette Heyer, thus sealing my fate as a romance junkie.

So, although I'll read pretty much anything with words on a page, it's romance I come back to every time, to pick me up, to envelop me in a different world, to make me laugh, to make me sigh.

I've worked many jobs from extra on the TV show, Hercules, to service station attendant (real women do pump gas) and sales rep while putting myself through university studying for a degree in Management (looking back I've never quite figured out why I chose management, although I did have a hankering to wear a suit to work). I then worked in finance in London for a couple of years, and in marketing back home in New Zealand. The novelty of wearing a suit to work didn't last all that long.

I finally had a Eureka! moment when I was home on maternity leave and tried my hand at writing a novel. Imagine the joy of discovering that writing was almost as much fun as reading. After years of not knowing what I wanted to do 'when I grew up' I suddenly knew. 

That knowledge was both a blessing and a curse, yes I finally had a dream but then the hard slog of making it a reality began. 

In 2008 (many years after realizing what I wanted to do) I got a call from my editor-to-be, while I was at the Romance Writers of America National conference in San Francisco to say she wanted to buy my book. I refrained from declaring my undying love, but only just.

Let me tell you, being able to wear pajamas to work if I choose sure beats having to wear a suit.