Frequently Asked Questions

You’ve written over 70 books, many of which feature strong female leads and alpha male protagonists. What draws you to this dynamic in your stories, and how do you keep it fresh across multiple series and genres like romantic suspense and paranormal romance?

I've always said, I write what feels right. Strong female leads and alpha male protagonists who know how to love them feels right to me. It's what I enjoy reading, so I feel at home writing in those genres. It also helps that my own love story is a truly epic one. I have a lot of inspiration to draw on personally, so that keeps my characters' love affairs fresh across the many genres of my different series. 

In Sweet Seduction Sacrifice, Genevieve Cain’s relationship with Dominic Anscombe evolves through intense and suspenseful situations. How do you balance the romance with the suspense elements to maintain the tension throughout the novel?

I'm not sure I have a template as such for writing a balanced romantic suspense, I just let the characters dictate the pace. I tend to live the story as I write it, so the balance between suspense and romance occurs quite naturally to me. When it gets a little too suspenseful, I throw in a romantic moment to change things up. Likewise, when there's been enough smooching, I ramp up the suspense. It's all down to what I like to read, and hopefully that resonates with the readers.

Your Kindred series delves into a complex world of vampires and supernatural beings. What inspired you to create this richly detailed universe, and how do you approach blending paranormal elements with the emotional depth of your characters' relationships?

In my mind, Kindred is a love story that just happens to feature paranormal beings. The love affair between Lucinda and Michel is what makes the story work for me. The fact Michel is a vampire is secondary. I've often joked with my husband that he is really a 500-year-old vampire. He inspired Michel and the rest just followed naturally. I think if you get the character right, the genre-specific elements all fall into place quite easily.

You live in Taupo, New Zealand, surrounded by natural beauty. How does your environment influence your writing, particularly in the settings and atmosphere of your stories? 

Environment is everything when writing a story. I get inspired by my surroundings, by the people I meet and the locations I visit. So much so, that on family holidays I've been known to start writing a new book in the evenings. Taupo features in the Kindred series briefly, but it's Auckland that really steals the show in a lot of my books. I worked as a paramedic for several years in Auckland, so I got to know the inner city intimately. Every scene is somewhere I've been. I can still see it, smell it, and feel it. That comes through in the atmosphere of the story, I believe. 

With such a prolific writing career, how do you manage your writing process? Do you have a set routine, or does inspiration strike spontaneously, guiding your writing sessions?

Discipline is necessary. I write better earlier in the day, so I make sure to start as soon as I've cleared my emails and had my morning coffee. I use a note-taking app to keep track of the multiple series I have running at any one time. It's essential to keeping all the characters, settings and plotlines straight in my head. But the best writing happens when I'm inspired. Combine the above with something inspiring and you've got writing gold. And a very happy author tapping away merrily on her laptop. 

Your novels often feature themes of love, loyalty, and personal sacrifice. How do these themes resonate with you personally, and why do you think they hold such strong appeal for readers of romance and romantic suspense?

My love affair with my husband started it all for me. They say you'll know when you meet the right person. Until I met him, I didn't really get that. It was like being hit with a lightning bolt when we met. It all suddenly made sense. It didn't matter what hurdles were in our way; we had to be together. Writing meaningful romance after that came easily. And, I think, because it happened to me, when I write romance, it reads as real. Because it is real. And if it happened to me, then it can happen to the reader too. That's why they're drawn to it; it's romance winning over hardship and yet so very real.