Valerie Parv

With 25 million copies of her books sold internationally, including many Waldenbooks bestsellers, it’s no wonder Valerie Parv is known as Australia’s queen of romance and is recognised as the media spokesperson for all things romantic. Already a successful writer of non-fiction, Valerie has made love and romance a career, with over 60 novels to her name. (See Valerie's booklist for a complete list of her books) Valerie’s short fiction is also regularly featured in national magazines A qualified trainer and counsellor, Valerie conducts seminars and workshops on creativity and all aspects of the writing craft based on her best-selling guides for writers: Heart and Craft, (Allen & Unwin, 2009) How do I Love Thee (Valerie Parv editor, Allen & Unwin, December 2009) , The Art of Romance Writing (Allen & Unwin 1993, 2004) and The Idea Factory (Allen & Unwin 1995). Valerie held Australia’s first romance writing workshop in 1988, which led to the founding of Romance Writers of Australia, and she has been a member ever since. In 1994 the State Library of New South Wales, Australia, began to acquire Valerie’s papers for their collection and continues to acquire material from her. "These papers detail the author’s career as one of Australia’s most successful writers in the romance genre and include manuscripts of her works and correspondence." [The State Library Collection, Annual Report] This year Valerie moved to country NSW from Canberra where she was a volunteer guide at the National Zoo and Aquarium for 11 years. She draws on this and other aspects of her life for many of her novels, having spent almost 38 years happily married to her romantic hero, Paul, a former crocodile hunter in Australia’s tropical north, later a cartoonist and illustrator of many of Valerie's nonfiction books Valerie continues to write her page-turning novels because they affirm her belief in love and happy endings. As she says ... "Love gives you wings, romance helps you fly".