Thanks first to Romance Reader for inviting
me to blog.
For those who don't know me (and I hope
after this more of you will!) I write for Harlequin Mills and Boon's medical
series.
My
first medical romance, Dr Campbell'sSecret Son was published in 2007. I chose to write medicals for two reasons;
firstly because I trained as a nurse and secondly because my husband is a
doctor and I knew it was unlikely that I would run out of medical scenarios any
time soon. However if anyone had told me that five years later I'd be writing
my nineteenth I doubt I would have believed them!
They
say write what you know and that's essentially what I do. Most of the medical
background comes from personal
experience or from my husband who worked as a GP before becoming an obstetrician.
When I left nursing I worked as a manager in children's services as well as a
fertility unit and have written stories set in hospitals, in General Practice,
in private IVF units and Harley Street.
I was brought up in South Africa, and my second
book Her Very Special Boss is set in the place where I lived with my husband
when he worked in a rural hospital. Africa is a country very close to my heart
and three of my other books are, at least in part, set there.
That's
not to say that I haven't written books where I have had no first hand
experience and where I rely on research and my imagination. In Miracle:Marriage Reunited the heroine is a writer and has her own TV show, and in Doctor on the Red Carpet the hero is a
stuntman based in Hollywood.
I
often start with the setting and then put my characters into difficult
emotional situations. I have had heroines with life threatening illnesses,
bereaved heroines, heroines who don't know what to do with their lives and also
traumatised heroes. The book I'm currently writing is partly set in Afghanistan
during the current conflict.
Sometimes
the editors like us to write a book as part of a series. For example my latest
US release, St Piran's:Daredevil, Doctor ...Dad is part of a series based around
the fictional hospital of St Piran's. The series has two characters whose story
runs through all the books, in this case Josh and Megan but my story centres
around Mac a doctor who goes out on Emergency retrievals and Abby who works
with him. I love writing feisty heroines and strong, heroic men and Abby and
Mac certainly fall into this category.
I
could go on- and on but I would prefer it if you would ask me questions. So
please, feel free to ask me anything!
I
look forward to hearing from you
Anne
