What’s new for me in 2024

You can begin a new year, a new job, a new relationship, a new book or even a new sentence. There can be joy and terror in beginnings, all those tangled emotions of anticipation, excitement, stomach churning nervousness and then … an anticlimax.

Or your new beginning can be the best thing that’s ever happened to you.

I’m starting something new this year. Some people would call it Marketing for Dummies, and I suck at it. But needs must. After all, I’m a published author.

Research—that’s always been my friend, so I’ve been researching different aspects of promoting my books and reaching new readers. I’ve joined chat groups, I’ve nodded my head in agreement and shaken my head in horror at some of the suggestions I’ve found.

I want to be me. Think an Instagram photo where you ditch the makeup, flashy worn-once clothes and the technical enhancements the app designers offer you. What you have left is the pure, unvarnished, authentic me.

Plus I’d rather be writing. To be specific about my new adventures:

Launching a new series:

I’m launching a new series in 2024, with three books set for release in March, July and October. It’s called Choosing Family and is loosely based on Atticus’s words in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird:

“You can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family, an’ they’re still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge ’em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don’t.”

Most people focus on the first half of this quote, where friends can become more important than family. In fact, friends are your family.

My series starts with two sets of identical twins, one male and one female. You meet them all in Masquerade—Book 1, but Book 1 is Kate Turner and Liam Quinn’s story. Book 2 belongs to Niall Quinn, and in Book 3, love finally catches up with Anna Turner.

Book signing:

I’m doing my first major book signing at A Romantic Rendezvous on 10th March in Sydney with the Australian Romance Readers Association (ARRA).

These multi-author signings will be held in four cities Brisbane (9th), Sydney (10th), Melbourne (16th) & Perth (17th) and will feature up to 30 authors at each event. Meet a new author or come along and say hello to someone you know and love. You can find the full list of signing authors here: https://australianromancereaders.com.au/events/arr2024/. Tickets are now on sale: https://www.trybooking.com/1123090

Establishing an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) Group:

ARC readers get advance copies of new releases with the request to post an honest review on one of the major sites, for example, Goodreads, Bookbub, Apple, Amazon, Kobo or Barnes & Noble.

I’m looking for ARC readers for Masquerade—Choosing Family—Book 1. Cover reveal 13 February and release 5 March 2024.

I hope to attract new readers through my membership of Booksprout, a book review service. If you join Booksprout, you have the opportunity to read other authors as well as me.

If you prefer you can contact me directly via the contact link on my website. Let me know a little about yourself. I always post the blurb for my next book on the My Books page of my website, so have a read of that and see if my story is one you think you’ll enjoy.

By agreeing to be part of my ARC team, you are in no way obligated to leave a review on any site, although I’d appreciate it. I welcome all reviews, good or bad, as long as they are honest.

Posting some ads:

I’m dabbling in the fraught world of online ads. Let me know if you come across one of them in your online searches. I love to know what you think of them.

I hope my stories speak to you on some level, that you relate to the characters or the situation or the location. I want you to giggle, and sigh, and give a fist pump because my words speak to you on some level. Grace Burrowes, New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author recently read Planting Hope, my third book. Grace used the words “heat and heart”. I like to think that’s what my stories offer the reader.

My books are available through all major sellers and, if you ask your local librarian, you can borrow them as either an e-book or paperback.

Find me on

You can also contact me directly via the contact page on my website if you have any questions.

And the winner is … 

This blog is to announce that Felicity B won my TICKETPALOOZA for A Romantic Rendezvous, and will join ARRA authors in Brisbane on 9th March 2024.

Congratulations Felicity. I’m sorry I won’t meet you, but I know you’ll have heaps of fun in Brisbane.

A Romantic Rendezvous, hosted by The Australian Romance Readers Association will run across 4 Australian cities in March 2024—Brisbane (9th), Sydney (10th), Melbourne (16th) & Perth (17th).

In January 2023 I reflected:

Not everyone is looking forward to what’s ahead. The world is beset by war, exploitation, inequality and climate disasters impacting unevenly on populations—things I find impossible to ignore.

But on some days I also need to draw breath and take a few hours away from the real world—even optimists need a little escapism from time to time, need to give ourselves a happy ending, even if it’s fleeting. That’s why I read and write romance.

Sadly not much has changed.

I wish you peace, safety and good health as 2023 turns over to 2024.

Find me on:

You can also contact me directly via the contact page on my website if you have any questions.

romantic=conducive to or characterized by the expression of love

rendezvous=a meeting at an agreed time or place

Have you ever had a romantic rendezvous? I’d love to hear about it. What made it special? Was it a first meeting, a meeting after an absence, a farewell?

Romantic fiction often talks about the “cute meet”—the moment when the two (or more) love interests meet for the first time. They might not know it, but the reader guesses pretty fast that there’s something between these people—curiosity, attraction, or blazing lust. It’s fun deciding how to introduce them to each other.

Taylor’s Law—The Anderson Sisters Book 1, July 2022

Romance Writers of New Zealand Koru Awards 2023—Best First Book—Second Place

Eleanor Anderson answers a summons to lawyer Jake Taylor’s office to discuss paternity and possibly custody of her two-year-old niece. Ella’s sister died without revealing the name of her child’s father, so what the hell is going on?

Grace Under Fire—The Anderson Sisters Book 2, February 2023

The staunchly independent dairy farmer Grace Anderson has been avoiding Ryan Wilson for years. Tricky when they’re neighbours. Ryan knows she was his brother’s best friend, knows he let her down when his brother suicided ten years ago, but he’d not been much more than a kid himself, and if he hadn’t locked everyone out, he’d have exploded with rage and grief. Now circumstances have forced Grace to ask for his help. Will he say yes? What does he want in return?

Planting Hope, a standalone contemporary romance, July 2023

Bohemian Holly Cooper arrives exhausted and filthy at her grandmother’s home after driving non-stop for hundreds of kilometres. Her grandmother’s business partner, loner Kit Silverton, fumes that she’s taken her own sweet time arriving to see her injured grandmother. He’s supremely pissed when the pink and green haired vagabond closes the door in his face.

Lela’s Choice, a standalone contemporary romance, December 2023

Lela Vella lands in Malta desperate to discover why her orphaned niece has fled Australia, only to discover her father’s henchman is ahead of her and expects her to follow instructions. Never going to happen. Hamish McDonald expects cooperation, not suspicion, and he has zero patience with guardians and caregivers who weaponise children in a fight between adults. What’s a workable truce look like when they’re both keeping secrets?

Masquerade, Choosing Family Book 1, March 2024 introduces two sets of identical twins.

The Australian Romance Readers Association (ARRA) is hosting A Romantic Rendezvous across 4 Australian cities in March 2024—Brisbane (9th), Sydney (10th), Melbourne (16th) & Perth (17th).

ARRA is inviting fans of romantic fiction in all its guises to gather together to celebrate our shared passion.

I’ll be in Sydney and am looking forward to meeting new and existing readers. I’ll have some paperbacks for sale, but my books are available as e-books from all major booksellers and paperbacks from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Also ask at your library, and if you’ve found my books that way, I’d love you to stop by and say hello.

To discover which authors are appearing at which venues check out the author list

To enter the draw for a free ticket at the venue of your choice just email me using the contact form on this website.

Subscribers, and the winner, will be notified by 23 December 2023—an early present for the New Year.

Find me on:

You can also contact me directly via the contact page on my website if you have any questions.

Lela goes to Malta

I’ve always been aware of Malta, of its history and beauty, largely because of family friends and colleagues, whose parents and grandparents emigrated from Malta to Australia. They’ve returned to Malta on visits, to reconnect with family history or on stopovers between Australia and Europe, staying for a few days or a few weeks. This gave me my setting for Lela’s Choice and the idea of a whirlwind romance.

I chose Malta for another reason. Malta, like Australia, is a signatory to a number of international conventions and treaties. I took a bit of licence with the idea of an Australian lawyer being in Malta to discuss the details of international treaties, although the Australian Attorney General’s Department is involved in negotiations for treaties we sign. But it gave me a legal nerd—Hamish—as my male lead with a legitimate reason for being in Malta.

At the time I started writing this book there were a few big cases—there still are—of children being taken across borders after relationship breakdowns. Australia is a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, the main international agreement that covers international parental child abduction. So is Malta. Not all countries are.

One parent may permanently lose access to their child or children if countries don’t accept the rights of a non-citizen parent, so the notion of the abduction and return of a child was added to my story mix. In NSW, anyone under 18 is legally a child.

Trouble is, a story about total family dysfunction doesn’t lend itself to romance. But what if I had a runaway—with cultural connections in two countries—who fled across a border? What if she’s 17, an adult, but not quite an adult?

That left me needing a female lead. And so I met Lela. Her parents emigrated from Malta to Australia some decades ago. She’s chasing her adored runaway niece. Frantic, Lela catches the first flight from Australia to Malta. On arrival, she discovers her father has co-opted a serious legal eagle, Hamish, to assist in the return of our abductee/runaway, and Hamish is ahead of her.

I mixed families, intergenerational conflict, runaways and meet-in-a-bar-marry-in-Vegas scenarios. Hey presto, I had my book.

Lela and Hamish take it from there—a swoony, combustible romance. I hope you enjoy it.

I write a monthly blog on my website where you can find out what I’m up to. You can also find me on FaceBook and Instagram

You can find my books at major booksellers, or through the My Books page on my website.

  • Lela’s Choice—Release 5 December 2023
  • Taylor’s Law—The Anderson Sisters Book 1 (Second Place Romance Writers of New Zealand Koru Awards 2023—Best First Book)
  • Grace Under Fire—The Anderson Sisters Book 1
  • Planting Hope, a standalone slowburn contemporary romance.

Find me on:

You can also contact me directly via the website if you have any questions.

Hanging out, Hooking Up or Happily Ever After (HEA)

As a romance writer, I’m fascinated by romantic relationships—the way they work, how people meet, what creates a spark or a connection, why one relationship lasts and another fails. However, perceptions of romantic love and how people feel, think, and behave are influenced by culture. I’m an open-minded heterosexual white woman in Australia.

I’m also a mere novice in this game. Psychologists, sexologists and relationship counsellors study relationships, write about relationships and counsel others about relationships. Analysing and advising on relationships are all serious business in today’s world. Looking at a random selection of titles, you can pursue any research direction that takes your fancy:

  • Act with Love: Stop Struggling, Reconcile Differences
  • The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity
  • How to Heal from Heartbreak: A breakup journey
  • Finding Love After Divorce
  • You are the one you’ve been waiting for.

I’m not sure if today’s focus on relationships makes them easier or harder to navigate, although all these books have insights to benefit some readers. I’d also add that this blog isn’t looking specifically at loneliness which plagues people of all ages and genders, including some in settled relationships.

In the olden days—back before social media perhaps—people in western cultures would date. Multiple dates would add up to courtship and relationship building.

A few years ago, I heard a talk by Dr. Jodi McAlister, who studies, among other things, representations of love in popular culture. She has an impressive body of research work, including researching The Bachelor. Jodi is also a romance author. Her topic that day was “the perfect date”, and I’m cherry-picking her words for this blog. For example, you respond with your heart in date 1, with your head in date 2, and with your genitalia in date 3. All sorted!

Jodi observed that many young people today avoid the terms date or dating. There’s a tendency to use non-dating terms: hanging out, talking to each other, seeing each other, getting to know each other. She noted the terms were deliberately non-committal, and groups of young people might hang out together.

There are other shifts. Dating, and its implication of a person being off the market, has been replaced for some by hook-ups and dating aps. There’s a bit of irony in the label—dating aps—when often the intention of one or both partners isn’t to have a monogamous relationship, or even a relationship that lasts longer than a few messages and a meetup. The impact of this trend has also become fertile ground for research.

Jennifer Pinkerton says she wrote Heartland: what is the future of modern love because in a world of dating apps, omnipresent porn and increasingly fluid identities the question becomes: what is the future of modern love? Her book is based on reportage, memoir and research, including 100 interviews with diverse people under 40 hearing about their values, preferences and anxieties about their dating lives. “From transgender Aboriginal sistagirls in the Tiwi Islands to conservative Catholics living in Sydney, this book explores … romantic relationships at a time marked by great expectations and far fewer rules.”

I heard Jennifer Pinkerton interviewed recently. I was struck by her comment that at one point during her interviews for Heartland, she took time out to interview some older couples who had had long and happy relationships and asked them the secret to their success. Three words: respect, reciprocity and equality.

In my romance writing, I’m trying to deliver a believable happily-ever-after as well as a good story with a satisfying smoulder. So for me those three words make a lot of sense, and are central to the characters I create.

You can find my books at major booksellers, or through the My Books page on my website.

  • Taylor’s Law—The Anderson Sisters Book 1 (Romance Writers of New Zealand Koru Awards 2023—Best First Book-Second Place)
  • Grace Under Fire—The Anderson Sisters Book 2
  • Planting Hope, a standalone slowburn contemporary romance
  • Lela’s Choice—Cover reveal & preorders 14 November, Release 5 December 2023.

Find me on

You can also contact me directly via the website if you have any questions.