A collection of the questions I'm asked most often, in interviews, at conference workshops, or whenever I mention that I'm a romance novelist.

I started in 1995 after reading an article in a women's magazine that made writing a romance sound like a walk in the park. Ha! It took five years of studying the craft and reading the books and figuring out what readers looked for, and then it took a large dose of luck: finding an editor who liked my voice and my story. That came after I entered the manuscript in The Clendon Award, a contest run by Romance Writers of New Zealand. I received The Call in February, 2000 and my first book was published in July 2001.

Why not? I love reading romance and I love writing it. I love the positive messages (love, home, family) and the certainty of a happy ending. I love creating a storyworld within my control, where the good guy gets the girl and the girl gets whatever she wants.

How long is a piece of string?  I spend a lot of time thinking, planning, doing research and generally circling around before I ever start to "write".  Once I actually get started, about two months.  If everything goes well.  Including the preparatory work, the deleting and starting all over again, the rewriting and then the polishing afterward, anything up to six months or longer.  Might I add:  I am painfully slow.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Rather than a full outline, I start with the major plot points which provide a framework for the synopsis. Because I write short word-count stories, I need to be precise, to remember my purpose and not to get carried away on tangents. A road map is good.  As I go, I'm always adding/changing/refining the order of points.  Nothing is set in stone and I often find a better way as I'm writing.

At any one time that will be either: the one readers are writing to me about, the one I just finished, or the one I'm about to start and which has filled me with enthusiasm. It is never the one I'm writing.

No. We do suggest scenes for the cover but the experts in art and marketing have the final say. Here's a terrific post about how Harlequin covers are created..

Working from home, in pyjamas. Research. Finding some of the best friends a woman could ever have in fellow romance writers. Finishing a book, seeing that book on the bookshelf, hearing from readers who enjoyed a book.

Absolutely. As a teen I loved Lucy Walker's outback romances, also Georgette Heyer's witty dialogue and the dark passion in classics such as Jane Eyre. Loved Jilly Cooper's "little" romances for their wit and fun and flawed characters. When I started writing I was influenced and motivated by Australian successes such as Emma Darcy, Helen Bianchin, Valerie Parv, Miranda Lee, Alison Kelly and by the breakthrough into Silhouette by NZer Fiona Brand. As a reader I love Barbara Samuel (aka Ruth Wind), Suzanne Brockmann, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jennifer Crusie and in category Jennifer Greene, Leanne Banks, Barbara McCauley, Virginia Kantra, Eileen Wilks. I'm not sure if any have influenced my writing (I can only write in my voice, as the words come out of my head) as much as they've motivated me to write better and to understand what drives the kind of romance I love.

I suffer from perfectionism. Sometimes I simply cannot find the words to convey the scene rolling through my head and that frustration stalls me. Sometimes I can force myself to work on another scene. Sometimes I need to walk away and do something else--reading, watching movies, anything that relaxes me and gets me away from my writing--until I work out the problem. Sometimes that takes a LONG time.

Not a great deal, except I work longer hours and harder at my writing now it's my job. Also I don't feel guilty about the long hours or the conference trips or the research expenses or the books I need to read. That's all part of the job-one of the many fringe benefits.

The obvious first answer is in my choice of settings, which include Australian cities, small towns and the outback. But Australia is a vast land with a huge diversity of environments-using them all will keep me busy for a long time yet. Next influence is on my characters. Australians are characteristically laconic, dry-witted, don't take themselves too seriously, and sports-mad. I suspect some of that comes through in my writing. Then there's my language and word choice, which gives me away as an Aussie even when I'm trying to write "American".

By reading, reading, reading. Read a lot of romances from across the sub-genres and think about what kind of romance you want to write. Will it be sharp and quirky, or warm and funny, or poignant and heart-wrenching, or dark and spooky, or chilly and suspenseful, or hot and wild? Do you prefer real true-to-life characters, larger-than-life archetypes, or fantastical worlds that stretch your imagination? Will your story be set in the past, the present, the future? Do you like traditional hero-heroine relationship books, or do you want another story (a mystery subplot, a secondary relationship, a theme that transcends romance) mixed in? Read until you know the kind of story you want to write, until the ideas are bursting from your mind, and then sit down and start writing. I don't recommend reading a lot of craft and how-to books because they sometimes stifle a newbie's enthusiasm. If you have a story to tell, tell it first and THEN look at the craft and technique issues as you edit that first draft. If you do want some help with structure, I recommend starting with either Valerie Parv's or Kate Walker's or the Robyn Donald/Daphne Claire books. See here for more.