It' my pleasure to introduce fellow New Zealander and romance chick lit writer, Catherine Robertson. We both live in Wellington  and I first met Catherine when we were still both working in 'real' jobs. We had an instant rapport and when she saw my Romance Writers of New Zealand ribbon (I hung my work swipe card on it) she took great joy in telling me she wrote romance too.

Catherine's journey to publishing was different to mine. She entered and finaled in a Random House New Zealand contest. She didn't win, but she got offered a contract for her entry, THE SWEET SECOND LIFE OF DARREL KINCAID. She also got a lovely agent in England and her book went on to hit NUMBER ONE on the New Zealand best-seller list and she has now sold her book to Germany and Italy. I should say two books. Her second book, The Not-so-Perfect Life of Michelle Lawrence, is due out in New Zealand later this year.

Welcome, Catherine

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

Well, of course, I’m often mistaken for Charlize Theron. Ha! Sadly not… I was born in Wellington, New Zealand, where I still live, although I did leave for a few years to live in the States and the UK. I share a house by Wellington’s wild sea with my husband, our two sons, a very vocal cat and an old arthritic dog. I’ve always written: I did a BA in English Lit, worked in PR and advertising, and wrote features for magazines. But I didn’t start writing creatively until we lived in the States, when I took a course run by a poet (who had to teach because he earned about three cents a year off his poetry). A year later I leapt into writing my first novel. It remains unpublished, but it gave me the confidence to plug on. And finally, in 2010, and about eight different novel drafts later, I sold The Sweet Second Life of Darrell Kincaid! It’s had great reviews, and got to number 1 on the New Zealand best-seller list – which is all very pleasing and exciting for a newbie author.

What genre do you write in and what appeals to you about that genre?

I really don’t like the description Chick Lit, because it sounds so patronising, as if ‘chicks’ only like stupid, vapid books. I’d rather say I write humorous, contemporary fiction, aimed mostly at women, though an amazing number of men have said how much they loved my first book!

What did you read growing up? Any authors that are a particular influence?

My favourite books and authors are humourists: PG Wodehouse, Clive James, Gerald Durrell, Spike Milligan, Nancy Mitford, Stella Gibbons, Helen Fielding, Cynthia Heimel – all writers of great comic classics, fiction and non-fiction. They have influenced me in the sense that I’d love, one day, to be counted among them. That’s a big call, I know! But I would die happy (laughing, even) if I knew people thought of me as a funny writer.

 Is your book a series and if so will you tell readers what they can expect from the series?  What are the release dates?

I’d intended my first book, The Sweet Second Life of Darrell Kincaid, to be a one-off. But then my agent suggested I write a follow-on, so I quickly regrouped and book two, The Not-so-Perfect Life of Michelle Lawrence, features Darrell’s best friend, and continues Darrell’s story as a sub-plot. The Not-so-Perfect Life of Michelle Lawrence is out in September this year. Both books are being published in Germany, in April and October! And there’ll be an Italian version of Sweet Second Life – I guess whenever they get round to it. (Love the Italians.)

 What do you enjoy most about writing?

I don’t know who said this, but I agree: “I don’t enjoy writing. I enjoy having written.” Writing is HARD! But sometimes, when I get carried into the story, and it all flows and I make myself laugh with my own jokes – then I enjoy it.

Scene you like most and would never cut?

There’s a sex scene in Sweet Second Life that I thought twice about putting in (and which is probably the reason my friend’s eighty year-old mother-in-law will never speak to me again). It is quite raunchy and has an unusual climax, so to speak. You will never look at soup the same way again.

Things your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying:

Darrell, in my first book, tends to be blown along a bit by the winds of life. By contrast, the heroine of my second book, Michelle, is like an Exocet missile, and does and says exactly what she wants. She was such great fun to write – I wish I were more like her.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven't yet:

My favourite character in Sweet Second Life is Patrick, the imposing Gypsy landlord cousin (as another character says: “Don’t try to remember all the family connections – you’ll go mad”). He appears again in The Not-so-Perfect Life – and I’d like to make him the main character in my yet-to-be-titled (and written, gulp) Book 3. I’m not sure if it’s proper form to make your main character a male, but I think it’ll be fun.

Where can people find your book and you!

Print versions of Sweet Second Life are available in all good New Zealand bookshops, and via online stores like Fishpond and Mighty Ape.

I’m very excited because Sweet Second Life is now an e-book, too: on Amazon, and Kobo. If you happen to read German, you can also download the e-book of Wo Bleibt denn nun mein Happy End? from the German Amazon site.
And I’m online at www.catherinerobertson.net, and on Facebook 

Back Cover Blurb...

No one knows 'happy endings' like romance novelist Darrell Kincaid. She's delivered eight of them to her readers with pleasure. But it's not to be with book number nine. In the act of adding the final full stop, Darrell has a revelation: it's not the ending that really matters but what comes next. Darrell now sees that when her husband Tom died (twenty-one months and three days ago, but who's counting?) she lost more than the man she loved. She lost her own 'happy ever after'. The life she expected to live has gone, vanished forever in a puff of fickle, unfair smoke. Darrell knows she has a choice. She can stay in New Zealand and live a half-life, or she can leave in search of something - perhaps someone - else. So Darrell decides upon London, the least romantic capital she knows (why set yourself up for disappointment?). Armed with Nancy Mitford's Love In A Cold Climate as her guide to proper Englishness and the ideal romantic hero, she sets out to live the sweet second life she deserves.

Thanks for popping by my blog today. I loved Catherine's debut romance novel, The Sweet Second Life of Darrel Kincaid, the characters are quirky and likeable and you instantly fall in love with Darrel.

Leave a comment, telling me what star sign Catherine is (it's on her blog) and be in to win a KINDLE version of her debut number one best-selling romance, THE SWEET SECOND LIFE OF DARREL KINCAID.

Open internationally. Closes 31st March, 2012.