Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written eight contemporary romance books and one crime novel (but we won’t talk about that!). 🙂 Most of my books are set in a small Scottish town so the same characters pop up in each one. Although they are connected, you can read each as a stand alone novel.
Here’s some info about me:
5 random things about me:
1. I accidentally mooned a crowd at a Bolivian wedding.
2. I’ve been chased by a gang of baboons. And I mean gang. They were organised and vicious. All that was missing was their leather jackets and tattoos!
3. I wrote my first novel when I was 22. It was a cross between Star Wars, Monsters Inc. and Tinkerbelle. Funnily enough, no one wanted to publish it. Odd that…
4. I was a portrait artist on the streets of Amsterdam for a time.
5. I worked night shift as a security guard at Stirling Castle in Scotland while I was in college. The castle was on a terrorist hit-list back then. To defend it they gave me a flashlight, a two-way radio that only worked one-way and made me wear a polyester A-line skirt…
Apart from that, I am a Scot, living in New Zealand and married to a Dutch man. I have two little girls, too many animals and a Pepsi-Max addiction.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called Bad Boy – it’s number 5 in my interconnected series of stand alone novels. It’s about a professional footballer who’s injured out of his career and doesn’t know what to do with himself, so he goes home to Scotland. He buys a piece of land next to young widow and single mother, Abby. Then proceeds to make a complete pest of himself! The idea for the book came to me after reading one too many stories about David Beckham. Not that I’m obsessed, or a crazy stalker or anything. I mean everyone has Beckham wallpaper in their bedroom…right?
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write all of my sex scenes to Alive and Kicking by Simple Minds. Don’t ask why. I really don’t know! 🙂
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Susan Elizabeth Phillps is an amazing contemporary romance writer and an early influence on my work. Oh and Janet Evanovich. I remember reading her first Stephanie Plum book when it just came out and thinking it was the funniest thing I’d ever read. It still makes me laugh. Janet is a master of comic timing. Now I love to read Kresley Cole’s books for the humour and the fantastic characters and Nalini Singh because that woman knows how to write!
What are you working on now?
A new off shoot series featuring the men of Benson Security, the firm that’s based in Scotland in my books and run by an ex-SAS guy. And I’m also working on the next in my Invertary series, Caught. Which I think might be the last in that series – there are just so many hot, rich men one town can sustain!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
This one! 🙂 🙂
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be yourself. Work hard. Don’t compare yourself to others. Strive to be better every day and don’t edit the life out of your work!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Writing wise it has to be from Nora Roberts. She says writing is a job, stop waiting for the muse, get your bum in your chair and do your job. 🙂
What are you reading now?
A book on mummies. Seriously! I’m also waiting eagerly for Kresley Cole’s latest book.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The bible – because it has everything, stories, humour, good advice and it’s pretty long so it’d last a while! Judas Child by Carol O’Connell, a terrifying crime novel that’s so well written it makes my heartache with envy. Dream a little dream, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips because it’s an amazing romance, a funny story and has great characters. And War and Peace, because if I’m stuck on a desert island I might actually have the time to get through that book!
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