Okay, my turn to do the interview thing. Sorry for being so long-winded, but you guys got me excited with your very cool questions.

First up, Dannette asked: Are there different genres you'd like to write and why?  Within the romance genre, I'd really like to try to write a Regency romance. It's a style I really enjoy and I have a plot I've been nutting out for a few weeks now. When we get back from Europe, I'm going to start researching.

My other big dream is to write a fantasy novel. I have loved fantasy ever since I read The Lord of the Rings when I was about nine or 10 years old. It scared the hell out of me, but I've been hooked on wizards and sword fights ever since . I have a couple of favorite authors that I am absolutely in awe of - George RR Martin and Robin Hobb - and I have two ideas stewing in the back of my brain, one a young adult, the other a big, sprawling epic. I don't feel nearly ready to tackle either of them yet. I am still very much learning my craft, and hopefully I get better with every book, so one day I hope I will have the time and the confidence to start tapping away.

Next, Euri asked: How do TV soap writers come up with so much material every week? Sometimes, I honestly don't know. There are times in the story room when I feel genuinely panicky about filling up two and a half hours of air time every week. Mostly, I look to emotion and character to feed the greedy story monster, as well as putting a lot of myself into the stories. I ask myself how I would react to the same situation, what I might say or do. Sometimes it's helpful to go in the opposite direction to what feels "right" - some very cool story ideas pop up when you turn things on their head like that. The shows I have worked on have been very kitchen-sink drama oriented, much more about teens going off the rails and  husbands cheating on wives than women finding out that they're really the heir to a far off European principality and that assassins are gunning for them.  Teasing out emotional reactions, and having characters say the things that often aren't said in real life usually kicks things along pretty well.  And, of course, sometimes the story room goes insane and comes up with a real stinker of a storyline that makes us all cringe in hindsight. Oh well...

Tracy of the C asked: What is your process for writing, do you outline, free flow, etc.? I am a structuralist through and through - which is hilarious considering how haphazard the rest of my life is. Maybe because of my magazine editing background or perhaps my TV storylining experience, I like to know where I'm going and that I've got enough story fuel to get me there. Generally I start out with a vague idea - hero and heroine and what their conflict might be, a theme, or maybe just a single scene. Then I spend time working out what is going to stop my hero and heroine from getting together.  I like to have external blocks (job or family or some other concern) as well as internal blocks, and I like to peel my characters' layers away for each other as well as the reader as the book progresses.  Usually by the time I've worked out what my characters are afraid of, I've also found the spine of the book since the ins and outs of the plot are going to be whatever pushes those fear buttons hardest. Once I have completed my synopsis (about 5 - 6 pages single spaced), I go through and break it up into chapters. This is an exercise I do just for myself, to reassure myself I have plenty of juice to carry a whole book. Then I delete my chapter headings so it's one big blurb again and send it in and cross my fingers.  Since I know someone will ask this, yes, I do mostly stick to my outline. Sometimes I have to dig deeper for my character's emotional reasons for not being together, and often I will go off on a tangent with a scene that just hits me as I'm writing, but there's always room for a bit of leeway in my outlines. Those "inspired" moments are great fun to write - but I couldn't imagine writing a whole book that way. 

Jenna asked: What gave you your ideas for you next two projects? Okay, the first one is based on a guy I went to high school with. It's a sad story - his mother died when he was just 16, leaving him and his younger sister orphaned. Family were able to stretch to take her in, but not him. So, the parents of a school buddy offered him the guest house in their backyard. A bit like the TV show The OC, I guess. I have always wondered what it must have been like for him, being attached to someone else's family like that... I won't go into any more detail, but that was my starting point. My second idea came to me in a dream. Too much flourless orange cake sitting in my stomach, a restless night, and my brain started building a plot while I was half awake, half asleep. At one stage, I wondered if I should get out of bed and write it all down. I didn't, and thankfully I remembered it all the next day. Better still, it was coherent, and not rambly dream mush. It's got a really fun first sex scene, and I can't wait to write it.

Thanks everyone for your questions. I had a great time answering them, and I promise I will go back to the question pile for my next post and answer some more for you all. In the meantime, if there's anything else you want to ask me, fire away. I'll do my best to satsify your curiosity...