reviews_and_ramblings | Romance from the Other Side of Paradise

I live in Europe and so, I often read that Europe is classic and America is innovation, at least in literature. But I think this is a very old idea, since now also in America there are authors you can consider "classic". And so where we should go now to find "innovation"? Some years ago it was almost a common though in the movie industry that innovation was in Australia. I remember some small but wonderful movies, like Strictly Ballroom by Baz Luhrmann, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert by Stephen Elliott, with a wonderful Terence Stamp, and Muriel's Wedding by P.J. Hogan. And in Literature? is there innovation also in the fiction, and in particular in the romance fiction? I think that Australian Romance authors have a very personal shade, and if they sets the story in Australia, also an huge and wonderful background. So, let takes a look to the Other Side of Paradise!

Joyce Dingwell : Joyce Dingwell, real name Kate Starr, was born in 1912, and her very first novel, Hum of the Forest, was published in 1931. The motion picture The Winds of Jarrah (1983) was based on her novel The House In The Timberwood. Her work was particularly notable for its use of the Australian land, culture, and people. According to one source, Dingwell passed away many years ago. She started her career as an author for Mills & Boon, with many of her works published by Harlequin as well. As an author for Harlequin Romance, Joyce Dingwell published 59 romance novels. She began writing for the imprint in 1959 and her last book for Harlequin Romance was published in 1980.

First Book: Hum of the Forest (1931)

Dorothy Cork : As an author for Harlequin Romance, Dorothy Cork published 24 romance novels. She wrote ten books for the Silhouette Romance imprint. She no longer appears to be writing.

First Book: The Address Was Noonameena (1965)

Mons Daveson : As an author for Harlequin Romance, Mons Daveson published six novels. Daveson also wrote six novels for Harlequin Romance Subscription.

First Book: The House In The Foorhills (1970)

Margaret Way : Australian author Margaret Way wrote eight romances for Harlequin Presents. Writing for the Harlequin Romance imprint, she published 88 novels.

First Book: King Country (1970)

Kerry Allyne : Kerry Allyne wrote four books for the Harlequin Presents line. As an author for Harlequin Romance, she published 26 romance novels.

First Book: Summer Rainfall (1976)

Colleen McCullough : Colleen McCullough was born in Australia. A neurophysicist, she established the department of neurophysiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, then worked as a researcher and teacher at Yale Medical School for ten years. She is the author of the record-breaking international bestseller The Thorn Birds as well as eleven other novels, and lives on Norfolk Island in the Pacific with her husband.

First Book: The Thorn Birds (1977)

Kathy Lette : Kathy Lette is an Australian author who has written a number of bestselling books. As an adult, Lette became a newspaper columnist and sitcom writer, but returned to the novel form with Girls' Night Out in 1988 and has since written several more successful novels and plays, including Fatal Attraction, Mad Cows (which was made into a film starring Joanna Lumley and Anna Friel) and Dead Sexy.

First Book: Puberty Blues (1979)

Victoria Gordon : Gordon Aalborg was born on February 5, 1942 in Alberta Canada. He began his writing career as a reporter, columnist and bureau chief at The Edmonton Journal in his native Alberta. He wandered off to Australia in the '70s as a freelance journalist and radio/tv broadcaster. The best-selling romance author, Victoria Gordon born in response to the publisher's claim that "no man" could write Harlequin category romance (Gordon is widely believed to be the first man to seriously meet the challenge) , and she survives after more than twenty novels published throughout the world. Gordon Aalborg is married with to mystery writer Denise Dietz, who helped him in his book Finding Bess.

First Book: The Sugar Dragon (1980)

Lindsay Armstrong : Lindsay Armstrong wrote 41 romances for the Harlequin Presents imprint. Writing for Harlequin Romance, Armstrong published eight novels.

First Book: My Dear Innocent (1981)

Lilian Darcy : Lilian Darcy studied linguistics and acted before turning to writing full time. The Australia native has also lived in Europe and the United States. She published her first novel in 1981, Bright Crystals, with Mills & Boon at age 23. She has written over 70 novels for various lines. Her novels Finding Her Prince and The Doctor's Mistress were nominees for the RITA award in 2003. She also finaled in 2006 for her novel The Father Factor. In addition to writing novels, Darcy has also written for television and the theater. As an author for Silhouette Romance, Lilian Darcy published 11 novels.

First Book: Bright Crystals (1981)

Lynsey Stevens : Lynsey Stevens turned to writing after a career as a librarian. Her first published novel was Ryan's Return, published in 1981 as a Mills and Boon title, and in 1982 as a Harlequin Presents book. Lynsey Stevens wrote 9 books for the Harlequin Presents imprint. Writing for the Harlequin Romance line, she published seven novels.

First Book: Ryan's Return (1981)

Valerie Parv : Valerie Parv is an Australia-based romance writer. She has written more than 50 romance novels and several non-fiction books. In 2005, the Romance Writers Of Australia established the Valerie Parv Award. Each year, a winner is chosen on the basis of his or her writing and is mentored by Valerie Parv for a year. Parv is a founding member of the organization, established in 1988. She conducts writing workshops and seminars; her online courses can be accessed through her website. As a Harlequin Presents author, Valerie Parv published three books. Writing for the Harlequin Romance imprint, she has published 17 novels. She wrote 14 books for the Silhouette Romance line. She is also the author of the non-fiction writing guide The Art Of Romance Writing.

First Book: Love's greatest gamble (1982)

Emma Darcy : Emma Darcy is the pseudonym for the husband-and-wife writing team of Frank and Wendy Brennan. The couple sold over 60 million books during a career that spanned from 1983 through 1995. After the death of Frank Brennan, Wendy Brennan continues to write as Emma Darcy. Emma Darcy has written 88 books for the Harlequin Presents imprint. Writing for the Harlequin Romance imprint, Darcy published three titles. Wendy Brennan has also published murder mysteries under the Emma Darcy name. Titles include the mystery Who Killed Camilla, Who Killed Bianca?, and Who Killed Angelique?. The Romance Writers Of Australia established the Emma Darcy award in 1993. With a cash prize and guarantee of getting a manuscript in front of an editor, the prize has acquired great cachet in Australia. Author Tracy Cooper-Posey was the first recipient of the award. Other winners include Bronwyn Jameson, Fiona Brand, Melissa James, and Nalini Singh.

First Book: Tangle of Torment (1983)

Vivienne Wallington : As an author for Harlequin Romance, Elizabeth Duke published four novels. She also writes under her real name, Vivienne Wallington. As an author for Silhouette Romance, Vivienne Wallington published two novels. The former librarian makes her home in Australia and began her writing career in 1985. In addition to writing romance, Wallington has also written children's books.

First Book: Somewhere (1983)

Edwina Shore : Edwina Shore wrote two books for the Harlequin Presents line. Writing for the Harlequin Romance imprint, she published four novels.

First Book: Iron Heart (1985)

Lee Tulloch : Lee Tulloch was born in Melbourne, Australia, a Capricorn with Sagittarius rising and an Aries moon, if you believe in these things. (She's ambivalent.) Perhaps, however, her stars do explain a restless life lived on three continents. A graduate in English Literature from Melbourne University, she made an unexpected foray into federal politics as a researcher before she began writing about fashion and popular culture for Vogue Australia. Since then, she has written extensively on the subject for international publications such as Vogue, Elle, Jalouse, Harper's Bazaar and New York magazine. While still a child, she became the founding editor of Harper's Bazaar Australia but was dismissed after nine issues for being a little too creative. In 1985 she moved from Sydney to New York, where she wrote her first novel, Fabulous Nobodies, which has been published in several countries and to much acclaim. With her photographer husband, Tony Amos, she chose a bohemian life, moving between Australia, New York and Paris for more than a decade with their young daughter, Lolita. In Paris, she began her second novel, Wraith, a gothic tale of a dead supermodel who comes back to haunt her personal assistant. She completed it in New York and it was published in 1999. In 2001 she published her third novel, Two Shanes, a comedy of errors about an Australian surfer on Manhattan. On September 11 2001 she was evacuated from her Tribeca home and left her beloved Manhattan for the relative peace of a Sydney beach. Her fourth novel, The Cutting, a murder mystery set on the Australian coast, was published in 2003. She is a columnist on fashion, beauty and popular culture for The Australian Women's Weekly, the (sydney) magazine and the (melbourne) magazine. Her next work is a collection of her fashion essays, Perfect Pink Polish, and she is completing her fifth novel. She would rather be a torch singer than a writer but she can't sing and that's how it goes. Her favourite frock is a black Azzedine Alaia from 1984, which her daughter Lolita now wears.

First Book: Fabulous Nobodies: A Novel About a Girl Who's in Love with Her Clothes (1989)

Angela Devine : Angela Devine wrote two books for Harlequin Presents. She is an Australia-based writer.

First Book: Family Matters (1990)

Alison Kelly : Alison Kelly is a New South Wales-based author. Among other work, she's written two books for Harlequin Presents.

First Book: Mrs Coade's Stone (1990)

Miranda Lee : Miranda Lee was born at Port Macquarie, a popular seaside town on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, and is the youngest of four children. Her father was a country school teacher and brilliant sportsman. Her mother was a talented dressmaker. When Miranda was ten, her father was transferred to Gosford, another coastal town in the countryside, much closer to Sydney. Not long into her writing career, Miranda committed herself to writing a six-book series entitled, The Hearts of Fire, with a deadline of just nine short months. Bravely, her husband left his executive position to stay home and support Miranda's writing career. He learned to cook and to clean, two invaluable household skills. Numerous successful stories followed, each embodying Miranda's trademark style.

First Book: After the Affair (1990)

Marion Lennox : Marion Lennox won the 2004 RITA® in the Best Traditional Romance category for Her Royal Baby. She also writes under the name Trisha David. Described as "A bookworm when she grew up on a dairy farm at Cobden, near Warrnambool, Ms Lennox said a flair for figures led her to a 20-year career as a statistics and computing lecturer at Ballarat University". With Liu Bingquan and Zhao Xueru, and writing as Linda Brumley, she co-authored a non-fiction work, Fading Links to China: Ballarat's Chinese Gravestones and Associated Records 1854-1955 which was originally published by the History Department, Melbourne University in 1992 but is also available online. As an author for the Harlequin Romance imprint, she has published twelve novels and she has written many more medical romances. She published one novel for the Silhouette Romance line.

First Book: Dare to Love Again (1990)

Lynne Wilding : Lynne Wilding is an Australian author worked in many fields prior to turning to writing. She sang as "Lynne Gaye" in the 1960s. Lynne Wilding published her first novel, The Sheihk, with Silhouette Romance in 1991. She was the first president of the Romance Writers of Australia, and the group created the " The Lynne Wilding Meritorious Service Award" in her honor. As an author for Silhouette Romance, Lynne Wilding published one novel.

First Book: The Sheikh (1991)

Steven Carroll : Steven Carroll was born in Melbourne and grew up in Glenroy. He went to La Trobe University and taught English in high schools before playing in bands in the 1970s. After leaving the music scene he began writing as a playwright and became the theatre critic for The Sunday Age. He has recently given up his lecturing post at RMIT to write full time and lives in Brunswick, Victoria.

First Book: Remember me, Jimmy James (1992)

Stephanie Laurens : Stephanie Laurens has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and worked for many years as a research scientist in the area of cancer research. She currently lives outside Melbourne, Australia with her husband, two daughters and two cats. She has been writing historical romance novels for more than 16 years and is a New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and USA-Today bestseller.

First Book: Tangled Reins (1992)

Tracy Cooper-Posey : Tracy Cooper-Posey is a national award-winning writer. An Australian, she brought her family with her to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1996 to marry. Tracy is a “net citizen”: She met and courted her husband on the Internet, and has coordinated discussion groups and teaching on-line. She teaches popular fiction writing both on-line and at college, and entertains students and the public with anecdotes and insights into one the most antisocial professions in the world, and the peculiar industry it drives. In 1994 Tracy won the Emma Darcy Award for novelists, for her novel Eyes of a Stranger, and repeated her success by placing fourth in the 1998 competition with Diana by the Moon. She has been nominated for the Carol Anne Sorel Encouragement Award for writers, and was awarded the Sherlock Holmes Society of Western Australia’s Best Pastiche Award for her Sherlockian novel Chronicles of the Lost Years -- a Sherlock Holmes Mystery. Diana by the Moon was nominated for Best Original eBook in the prestigious Frankfurt eBook Awards for 2000. Her short stories and articles have appeared in various Canadian and Australian magazines and periodicals, and on the Internet. So far Tracy’s life has encompassed an eighteen month stint on war-ravaged Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea, and at various times she has been a secretary, office clerk, single mother, freelance writer, public speaker, columnist, law student, international traveler, writing teacher, advertising production coordinator (for a national newsmagazine), web-press production coordinator, and the first female cinematograph operator in Western Australia. Most recently she was the editor and managing editor of WHERE Edmonton magazine, and she also teaches creative writing at Grant MacEwan College. She currently lives in Edmonton with her husband and their blended family of three children.

First Book: Eyes of a Stranger (1994)

Anne Gracie : Anne Gracie first wrote for Harlequin/Harlequin Mills & Boon but has found a new publisher, Berkley for her more recent novels. All of her novels have been historicals except for How the Sheriff Was Won, which is a contemporary romantic comedy. In 2007 she was president of the Romance Writers of Australia.

First Book: Gallant Waif (1999)

Barbara Hannay : After being told that a career in journalism wasn't for women, Barbara Hannay began teaching English. She discovered romance novels while teaching a class on popular fiction; she discovered that writing a romance and publishing her work takes time and effort. As an author for Harlequin Romance, Barbara Hannay has published 15 novels. She published one title for the Silhouette Romance imprint.

First Book: Outback Wife and Mother (1999)

Tamara McKinley : Tamara McKinley was born in Launceston, Tasmania, and was forced to come to England with her grandmother to finish her education at an all girls' boarding school in Sussex. Her childhood experiences and the enduring memories of her amazing grandmother and two extraordinary great-aunts, form the back-bone of her novels which are coloured with the red, green and gold of her beloved Australia. Having raised her three children in the Eastbourne area she started to write psychological thrillers before returning to her roots in the form of Australian family sagas set against the backdrop of the outback pioneers. She is now household name in Germany where her books go straight into the bestsellers' list with each title selling around 4 million copies. Her books are also popular in Scandinavia, especially Sweden where her first saga, Matilda's Last Waltz was voted the booksellers novel of the year. In her homeland of Australia she is considered by many to be "Britain's Best Kept Secret". Her six Aussie sagas to date are published in at least 15 different languages and can be found worldwide. Tamara now lives and writes on the south coast of England but travels to her homeland every year to promote her work, carry out research and visit her eldest son and her two grandsons.

First Book: Matilda's Last Waltz (1999)

Keri Arthur : She started writing when she was about twelve. She'd just finished reading one of Elaine Mitchell's Brumby books, and hated the fact the author killed off her favorite character--so she rewrote the book and changed the ending. She haven't stopped writing since, though it's only in the last few years she has seriously thought about getting published. In 1997, she placed second in the Washington Romance Writers Novel Beginnings contest (specialty romance) with Heart of the Hunter. In 2000, she was short-listed in the Random House George Turner Prize with Spook Squad (urban fantasy). Dancing with the Devil is her first published book. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, and she is a dessert and function cook by trade. She is married to a wonderful man who not only supports her writing, but who does all the housework as well. They have one daughter, one dog and a garden full of weeds. When she is not working or writing, she can be found parked in front of the TV watching re-runs of the X-Files or Buffy.

First Book: Dancing with the Devil (2000)

Fiona Brand : Fiona Brand has always wanted to write. After working eight years for the New Zealand Forest Service as a clerk, she decided she could spend at least that much time trying to get a novel published. Luckily it took five years, not eight, before Fiona wrote her first award-winning novel. CULLEN'S BRIDE won the Emma Darcy Award, went on to become a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist, and was subsequently bought and published by Silhouette Books. Now a Waldenbooks and USA Today bestselling author, Fiona has since been nominated for the Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA Award in the romantic suspense and short novella categories. She has won the Australian Romantic Book of the Year award (category section) twice, one of her novels was listed by Romantic Times as one of their all-time top two hundred favorite romance books and she has been featured in Next and She magazines. Fiona lives in a subtropical South Seas paradise called the Bay of Islands with her two sons.

First Book: Cullen's Bride (2000)

Bronwyn Jameson : In 2001 Bronwyn Jameson became the first Australian author published by Harlequin's Silhouette Desire series. In 2006 she was a triple-RITA finalist in the Short Contemporary category with the 3 books making up her Princes of the Outback trilogy.

First Book: In Bed With the Boss's Daughter (2001)

Carol Marinelli : A trained nurse, Carol Marinelli writes medical romances as well other types of romance. Carol Marinelli has written five books for Harlequin Presents.

First Book: The Outback Nurse (2001)

Sara Bennett : Sara Bennett is an Australian who lives in an old house in an old gold rush town in the state of Victoria. She is married to an accountant and they have two children who are growing up all too quickly. The household is ruled by three cats, who all arrived without an invitation and decided to stay, and a dog who believes it's a person. In between writing and driving her children to and fro, Sara enjoys spending time in her garden. She is particularly fond of her collection of old world roses - they have such wonderful names! She also reads a great deal, and although she will read anything - mystery, thrillers and horror - romance is her favorite.

First Book: The Lily and the Sword (2002)

Darcy Maguire : As an author for Harlequin Romance, Darcy Maguire has published seven novels.

First Book: Her Marriage Secret (2002)

Belinda Alexandra : Belinda Alexandra has been published to wide acclaim in Australia and New Zealand, France, Germany, Holland, Poland, Norway and Greece. She is the daughter of a Russian mother and Australian father, and has been an intrepid traveller since her youth. Her love of other cultures and languages is matched by her passion for her home country, Australia, where she is a volunteer rescuer and carer for the NSW Wildlife Information and Rescue Service (WIRES).

First Book: White Gardenia (2003)

Ally Blake : As an author for Harlequin Romance, Ally Blake published nine novels. She wrote two titles for the Silhouette Romance line. She also writes for Mills & Boon. She is a native of Australia. She is an award-winning writer whose first book was nominated as a Romantic Times Best First Series Romance of 2004.

First Book: The Wedding Wish (2003)

Melissa James : As an author for Harlequin Romance, Melissa James has published one novel. She wrote one title for the Silhouette Romance imprint. She is a born and bred Australian.

First Book: Her Galahad (2003)

Melanie Milburne : Melanie Milburne tried nursing and teaching before returning to her first goal of writing romance. She was a finalist for the Emma Darcy Award, and was the first Australian author in ten years to break into the ranks of Presents authors. Melanie Milburne has published eight books with Harlequin Presents.

First Book: His Inconvenient Wife (2003)

Ann Somerville : Ann Somerville is a native of Queensland, Australia and after many years living in London, has returned home and now writes full time. She holds multiple degrees in science, history and literature, and her partner is a zoologist, so her head is full of occasionally useful knowledge about amazingly useless things. She doesn’t want to ever get to the point where writing becomes work, because she’s having way too much fun with it.

First Book: Kei's Gift (2003)

Posie Graeme-Evans : Posie Graeme-Evans was born in England but travelled all over the world with her parents, a novelist and an Australian spitfire fighter pilot. Posie has worked in the Australian film and television industry for the last 25 years as an editor, director and producer on hundreds of prime time television programmes including the number one drama series McLeod'sDaughters and the worldwide pre-school phenomenon Hi-5. Posie has two daughters, both named Emma, and a son Julian. She is currently the Director of Drama for the Nine Network, and lives in Sydney with her husband and creative partner, Andrew Blaxland.

First Book: The Innocent (2004)

Nicola Marsh : As an author for Harlequin Romance and Harlequin Modern Extra, Nicola Marsh has published thirteen novels to date. She wrote one title for the Silhouette Romance imprint. Her first published novel was The Tycoon's Dating Deal.

First Book: The Tycoon's Dating Deal (2004)

Trish Morey : Trish Morey, the unfortunate product of a happy childhood (thereby precluding her from ever winning the Booker Prize), wrote her first book at age of eleven. The print run was, naturally, very limited. Eleven years after her first submission to Harlequin, she finally sold her first book, The Greek Boss's Demand, published first as a Mills and Boon Modern Romance in 2004. This former Golden Heart finalist hails from Down Under. As a Harlequin Presents author, Trish Morey has published five titles.

First Book: The Greek Boss's Demand (2004)

Jennie Adams : Jennie Adams lives in Wagga Wagga, a small inland city in New South Wales, Australia. She is an avid romance reader, particularly of the historical romance genre, although she prefers to write contemporary novels. Jennie Adams lived and worked on a wheat/sheep farm, transplanted with small children to the towering Blue Mountains, played piano at marriage ceremonies, sung in a choral production and worked in jobs ranging from Legal transcription typist, to motor mechanic's office assistant. In 2005, she published her first romance novel for Harlequin Romance, and currently writes for Mills & Boon. Currently, she works 20 hours a week in her outside job in the health care industry, and continues to write stories, articles and short stories which have been published in magazines and periodicals in Australia and overseas. Writing for the Harlequin Romance imprint, she published one novel. She published two title for Silhouette Romance.

First Book: The Boss's Convenient Bride (2005)

Randa Abdel-Fattah : Randa Abdel-Fattah is an Australian-born writer of Palestinian and Egyptian parentage. She has written two novels for young adults, Does My Head Look Big In This? and Ten Things I Hate About Me. Her first book, Does My Head Look Big In This?, is the story of Amal, a 16-year-old Muslim girl who decides to wear the hijab (headscarf) full time. The book deals with the issues of growing up as a headscarf-wearing Muslim-Australian in post-9/11 Australia. It also covers the usual teenage issues of smoking, alcohol, a desire to fit in, and boys. It aims to show that wearing a hijab can be empowering rather than oppressing, and helps to foster religious understanding. Abdel-Fattah is a lawyer, and lives in Sydney with her husband and baby daughter. She is extremely active in the inter-faith community, giving talks at high schools and has been involved in Palestinian human rights campaigns.

First Book: Does My Head Look Big in This? (2006)

Claire Baxter : Australian author Claire Baxter writes for Mills & Boon as well as other Harlequin imprints. As an author for Silhouette Romance, Claire Baxter published one novel.

First Book: Falling for the Frenchman (2006)

Laney Cairo : Laney Cairo is an ex-pat Londoner, who’s settled in very comfortably to the cheaper and warmer Australian lifestyle. She tried monogamy a couple of times and found it problematic, and has been in a polyamorous relationship with another professional writer for seventeen years. During that time she spent twelve years with a wife as well, possibly the ideal arrangement for a queer woman who is fond of company. Her ex-wife, notably, is not a writer. Conventional employment proved as tedious as monogamy, and Laney experimented with several career options, including working as Petals the Fairy. She has also been an artist’s nude model, and many years later people still approach her and say, ‘You look really familiar.’ She and her partner wrote and ran murder mystery dinner parties for a hotel chain in the Nineties, the most lucrative gig possible for a couple of writers. She was once accosted by a Wilderness Society Koala who recognized her from a safe sex workshop she had run. She has managed two bookshops, an employment option otherwise known as ‘subsidised reading.’ Laney is passionate about food, despises bread-making machines as ungodly, makes her own curry paste and is not a vegetarian. She’s politically so far to the left she’s fallen off the edge of the screen. She’s never been arrested, despite years of political activism, and is inordinately proud to be a Sister of Perpetual Indulgence (black veil). She has a spotless driving record, sings atrociously and has a Bachelor of Science. The trials and tribulations of routine employment have palled with time and Laney now writes full-time, belonging to the Dirty Bathrobe School of Writing. She is owned by one small cat.

First Book: Crossing the Line (2006)

Jane Hill : English-born Jane Hill lives in Victoria, Australia, happily alone in a house on 10 acres by the sea. Jane - who lived and worked in Papua New Guinea for 25 years and has travelled widely - is a former radio and print journalist, now writing and editing freelance. Her work, in a variety of genres and forms, has been published and broadcast in several countries. Jane’s first romance novel was King of The Castle, but she has written many short stories with a girl-meets-boy theme, and plans to collect some of them together for a book.

First Book: King Of The Castle (2006)

Kelly Hunter : Australian author Kelly Hunter studied science and then later toured the world, working various unusual jobs. In addition to writing fiction, she continues to work in agriculture-related fields. Kelly Hunter was a 2008 RITA® finalist in the RITA®: Contemporary Series Romance category for her novel Sleeping Partner.

First Book: Wife for a Week (2006)

Annie West : Annie spent her formative years on the east coast of Australia. Her family encouraged a love of books, the bush and travel, and she often managed to combine all three. There was the long trek to the marvellous Finders Ranges of South Australia with Tolkien. Walking in the rugged Grampian Ranges of Victoria with Tolstoy. And reading gothic romances while camped under the snow gums in the Australian Alps. Her chance to write came when she took leave from her job to spend time with her children. Between preschool and school activities she produced her first novel. At the same time she discovered Romance Writers of Australia. Annie lives with her husband and children at Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney.

First Book: A Mistress for the Taking (2006)

Anna Campbell : Anna Campbell was born in Brisbane, Australia, and grew up on an avocado farm with views of Moreton Bay and Stradbroke Island. She got an idea for her first novel: a dark, sexy Regency historical about a duke who wants to marry his mistress, London's most notorious courtesan. And No Ordinary Duchess, which Avon released in April 2007 as Claiming the Courtesan, was born. Since then, Avon has accepted her second book, Untouched, which is a December 2007 release in America. Anna's stories will be released in Italy, Germany, Russia, and Australia. "It's all been such a whirlwind, my feet have hardly touched the ground!"

First Book: Claiming the Courtesan (2007)

Maxine Sullivan : Maxine Sullivan has written 5 books for Silhouette Desire, an imprint of Harlequin. She was the second Australian to be published by this line.

First Book: The Millionaire's Seductive Revenge (2007)