Maybe not the first one, but I remember some of the early ones. I used to spend my pocket money on notebooks when I was a child, and I would write stories in them. One was about a girl who went on a train to stay with her Grandmother for the summer, and another one was about a family of Alligators.

I need to have a spark of an idea first and foremost. Usually, they come to me in the middle of the night, or when I'm just about to fall asleep. It can be something very small such as something that might have happened in a character's past, or in the case of the book I'm writing now, it's the way one of my characters feels about his family legacy. When I start writing I don't plan at all. I just go where the story leads me and ideas and developments come to me as I go.

I started writing Still Waters accidentally. I wrote a chapter for some friends of mine in an online book club. It was a bit of a game, because back then I thought of myself as a children's book writer. I never dreamed of writing a New Adult Romance. The readers loved the story and asked for another chapter, and then another one. By about chapter five I knew I was going to turn it into a book.

For Still Waters, I wanted something that represented some of the themes in the story, without being obvious about it. I chose a blue palette because it tied in with the water theme that runs throughout the book. I don't like to use photos of faces on covers because I want to give the reader the freedom to imagine what the characters look like without any influence from me. Even though it's a romance, I shied away from any covers with muscle-bound men on the cover because I wanted it to be subtle and have a sense of whimsy about it.

I read a lot of different genres, depending on my mood. If I'm tired and stressed out or I need to escape reality for a while I love to read something light and romantic. Over the summer, I read a few of the classics. I'm a huge Hemingway fan and I've recently starting reading through all of Virginia Woolf's works. Maya Angelou will always be a favourite of mine, and I read Frances Mayes' 'Tuscan Sun' books every winter because they take me away somewhere warm! My favourite series is the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I've read them all at least five times. Jamie Fraser is, and will always be the ultimate book boyfriend.

I have an old Kindle that is like an extension of my hand. I feel lost without it!

It's an old school desk in dark wood. It has a hole for the ink well and the wood is chipped off at the front. I write on an Apple iMac with a pinboard behind. If I'm writing, you will find a cup of tea and an opened packet of chocolate biscuits nearby, and quite often a little Burmese kitten on my knee.

I grew up near the sea in Wellington, New Zealand. In my children's books, I have used little parts of my childhood as inspiration. I grew up in the 80s when things were a bit simpler and children had more freedom to roam, and I like to use some of those elements in my books. Location-wise, I used a few snippets of home in my new book, Still Waters. The wintery beach scenes and The Sea Shack are from my home town.

I have always felt that deep down, I am a writer. It's something I have always been able to do well, and I love it more than just about anything. Up until quite recently, I was scared of sharing anything I wrote because I was full of insecurities about coming out and telling people that I was a writer. It took some courage, but I decided to commit to writing and sharing my stories. In moments of doubt I follow Neil Gaiman's advice: Keep moving towards the mountain.

Those rare moments when time ceases to exist and the words are coming through you, rather than from you. It feels like magic.

I'm working on a New Adult Romance set in Hawaii.