Susan Napier

The fact that I was born on St Valentine's day is wonderful PR for a romance writer, but the accident of my birth didn't endow me with any magical sense of destiny. I did, however, always want to be a writer of some kind - any kind, as long as I could make a living at it. I was born and brought up in Auckland - New Zealand's most populous city - and as a child was a voracious reader and writer of stories. I was often criticised for having my 'head in a book' when I could have been out playing in the fresh air. Now I actually get paid for always having my head in a book. What bliss! After I graduated from high school I worked as a journalist on Auckland's leading newspaper (where in fine romantic tradition I met, fell in love with and married the Chief Reporter!) before moving on to a film production company as a script writer/researcher/production assistant. After my two sons were born I decided that the time was ripe to attempt my secret dream - to write a novel. I chose the romance genre because I enjoyed reading romantic fiction myself. It took me two years to write SWEET VIXEN, which was accepted by Mills & Boon in London and published in the U.S. under the Harlequin imprint. So far I have written 33 romances for Harlequin, and my books are published in 21 languages in over 36 countries. My sons are now grown, my wonderful husband is still my archetypal warm and witty, tall, dark and handsome hero (...well, maybe the "dark" bit is now more of a fond memory than a strictly accurate description). We live in the house we bought soon after our marriage, adjacent to a wetland nature reserve in a leafy suburb of Auckland. Extensive renotations have provided for our expanding lives - a book-crammed office for me, sprawling living quarters, and a large, solar-heated swimming pool in the back yard to help off-set the physical effects of a sedentary occupation! As to the future, there are still an awful lot of stories inside me clamoring to be written and I hope to find time to write them all.