First of all, a big thank you to everyone who contacted me about Mungo.  I was so touched by all your kind comments and understanding.  All in all it was a quiet start to the year, not least because it took ages for my hearing to come back, but I got up just a couple of days ago and realised that I was quite suddenly better.  I still have a blocked feeling in ears which means my voice echoes disconcertingly in my head when I talk, but otherwise I’m raring to go again …

It’s probably no coincidence that feeling better has coincided with the planning of my trip to Australia this summer.  The whole venture has grown progressively more elaborate, but is going to be fantastic.  My dates have been creeping forward too, but I have finally fixed mid July to mid August and booked my ticket … and my credit card is likely to be steaming for some time to come!  I have an extraordinarily complicated itinerary which involves criss-crossing Australia on eight internal flights in order to fit everything in.

If nothing else, it will be aversion therapy for my pathetic fear of flying!  I’m the mad-looking, white-knuckled woman sitting next to you on a plane, the one muttering ‘not this time, not this time, oh, please, please, please not this time …’  Years ago, I read that the first and last two minutes of a flight are the most dangerous, so I always keep my eyes squeezed shut until the light pings and the flight attendants get up to serve the drinks (and yes, I know the way to avoid dehydration is to only drink water, but by then I need something a lot stronger than that!) 

My phobia has been creeping up on me gradually for years.  I flew a lot as a child in Africa and New Guinea, and I used to love jumping on and off rackety little planes with one propeller.  I know, I know, the big jets are statistically safer, but if I put my faith in statistics, they tell me that every time I fly, my chances of crashing get higher …

A bit like writing, in fact.  Every time I finish a book, I think, ‘phew, got away with it this time … but what if next time I crash and burn?’ I have been thinking such thoughts a lot recently as I have had my head down working on my ‘time slip’ and I am wa-a-a-a-y out of my comfort zone.  But challenge is good for us, right?  Phin, the hero of Oh-So-Sensible Secretary, certainly believes that.  He makes poor Summer her leave her safe, tidy office and takes her to the rainforest where everything is hot and steamy and tangled and out of her control.  (I think the control issue is a big factor in my fear of flying, to be honest) Summer is determined to hate it, and she foolishly makes a bet with Phin that she won’t change her mind.  She loses, of course, but the price she has to pay isn’t so bad …

I loved writing Summer’s story.  There are bits of her that are a lot like me.  I’m not quite as obsessively tidy as she is, but I have a strong Virgoan streak of list-making, and a liking for order.  Like her, I spend a lot of time fussing over my nails– check out the Summer’s polishes and how they grow progressively brighter! - and I’m fond of a doughnut, too, it has to be said.

But unlike Summer, I leapt at my chance to spend some time in the rainforest.  The African scenes were based on the five months I spent in Cameroon in 1988/9 – one of the best times of my life - and the village in the book is very like this one on the Cross River. (There are more pictures of Cameroon on the Where are you? page)

Oh-So-Sensible Secretary, by the way, is the book I wrote as a result of the Pick Your Own Romance survey we ran as part of the 50 book celebrations.  You chose the type of heroine (sensible) and hero (charming, laid back), the ‘marriage of convenience’ hook and the office setting, while Anne and Monique, who won the contest to name a character, are both duly featured as well.  It was so easy to write that I’m wishing I could run polls like that for every book!   I’m planning to write a royal romantic comedy duet next, so that’s the hook taken care of, at least, but I still have no idea about heroes and heroines … If you’ve got a personal preference, let me know! I’ve got several copies of Oh-So-Sensible Secretary to send out as a thank you, so don’t forget to include an address if you’d like one.