About Me
Day after day I sit at my computer making up people in my head. So why do I do it? Answer? I love it. My husband gets up in the morning, puts on his suit and heads out into the wind or fog or rain. (Sadly I live in one of the tiny parts of Australia that qualifies as mostly cold.) I make myself coffee, head to my study overlooking the bay, choose the music I want and sit and daydream. And I get paid for doing it. Hooray!
My first attempt at writing romance, 'Dare To Love Again', a Medical Romance, was published by Harlequin Mills and Boon in 1990 - a worthy testament to my family's ability to survive on cheese sandwiches and spaghetti. Since then I've written over 100 romance novels, with more on the drawing board. I've sold over twenty million books, in up to thirty languages and in over a hundred and thirty countries.
You can tell from my books that I come from a farming community, and I've always been drawn to the coast. Magically I now live beside a Ramsar Listed Wetland, on a peninsula stretching toward the Southern Ocean. When I need ideas I float across the bay in my kayak, I walk the beach with my dog and I wander rock pools. The flocks of wading birds have me fascinated - so many face migrations of epic proportions. Infant skates scoot out from under my kayak. Seal pups, migrating whales, and dolphins seem to surface when I most need inspiration. Often I simply sit and watch the wash of water in the mass of rock pools at low tide. It's all magic.
Then comes the hard part. It takes me all the discipline I can muster to sit and write my stories down, but still I love it.
If you're interested in formalities, I hold a commerce degree and a teaching diploma. I have a couple of kids and a big extended family who look on me with affectionate tolerance. Marion? The crazy one who talks to people in her head... I've had twelve nominations for Romance Writers of America's Rita (Best Traditional Romance) winning twice, and twenty three nominations for the Romance Writers of Australia's Romance Book of the Year. After years of thinking of my writing as a hobby I guess I finally now qualify as a `real' writer.
Thank you for taking the trouble to check out my web page. If you try my books we might even have fun together. If you like you can write to me over on my contact page. I'll show my family with pride - `See? Real people do like the things that go in in my head.'