For Nicola, writing has always been a passion, starting at the age of eight when she designed and scripted elaborate "Abba" and "Grease" concerts for family and friends. Being a voracious reader, she devoured every book she came across: back then, her particular favourites included The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and the Trixie Belden series. This month we throw the spotlight on Nicola and look at her latest release Wife and Mother Wanted.

Writing is my dream job.  After working as a physiotherapist for 13 years, I still have to pinch myself some days when I’m creating the romantic stories that I love rather than mobilising some person’s aching back! I’ve lived and breathed books my entire life and always said I’d like to write a book one day.  In late 2001, I finally stopped thinking about it and decided to go for it! I had read my nana’s Mills and Boons as a teenager and loved the sweeping romances so once I checked out the guidelines, thought I’d give it a try.  The rest, as they say in the classics, is history!

I got ‘the call’ in May 2003 and my first book, The Tycoon’s Dating Deal, set around the theme of speed dating, hit the shelves in March 2004 as part of the Sweet line.  I’ve just sold my eighth book and love every minute of this incredible job. 

I have a toddler so my working ‘day’ starts at 8.30pm but that’s the beauty of writing.  I can do it anywhere, anytime!

My next release, WIFE AND MOTHER WANTED, takes my writing in a new direction.  My previous books have been predominantly office-based, with suave heroes and sassy heroines. In WIFE AND MOTHER WANTED, I deliberately set out to give the book a small-town feel, coming up with the fictitious town of Stockton a few hours north of Sydney.  The small-town feel was particularly important because I wanted the heroine to belong and her new neighbour, the brooding hero, to stand out. I adore fairy shops, all the glitter and spangles and magic!  So what better way to make that environment come alive than create Carissa Lewis, the heroine who runs her very own fairy shop (the lucky thing!)?

Carissa is warm, spontaneous and thoroughly lovable. Enter big, bad Brody Elliott, an ex-cop, her opposite in every way, just the way I wanted him.I created Brody to be the complete antithesis of Carissa and though gorgeous, he’s quite grumpy for a hero.  However, he has good reason to be and thankfully, Carissa helps him exorcise some of his demons by the end of the book WIFE AND MOTHER WANTED was also a first for me in that it contains my first child character.  Molly is adorable and I hope you want to pick up and cuddle her as much as I did.  In fact, Molly influenced me so much that my next two releases this year, FOUND: HIS FAMILY and INHERITED: BABY also feature children as a major part of the plot. Along with Carissa, Brody and Molly, the three stars of WIFE AND MOTHER WANTED, this story has something for everyone, from a ceramic frog named Fred to a reluctant Easter bunny, from a well-meaning interfering aunt to a hot cross bun fiasco!

I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I did creating it.Happy reading, Nicola