When it comes to crime writers, I like anyone who keeps me on the edge of my toes without leaving me standing in a gooey pool of blood. I like what Americans call 'Cozy Crime', where it's less about gore, DNA and deviant serial killers (urggh) and more about clever plotting and gripping characters. I like the idea of one murder, 12 suspects, who-the-hell-dunit? For that reason, I can never go past a classic Agatha Christie or the latest alphabet book from Sue Grafton. My home-grown favourite is Aussie paramedic-turned-author Katherine Howell whose mysteries take you on a white knuckle ride each and every time. Harlan Coben has long been a favourite and I've recently discovered British author Mark Billingham. His book The Dying Hours was perfection.

Apart from my boisterous boys and adoring hubby? It has to be the latest book I'm working on. There is nothing more exciting than leaving my computer at the end of the day, knowing i've just thrown my protagonist into some serious trouble and wondering how the hell she'll get out of it.

I live on seven acres in a sub-tropical rainforest so I adore taking long walks and soaking up the pure oxygen. I'm a yoga devotee and a busy mother of boys, so the latter tend to take up most of my spare time. That means ferrying them to school, friends and soccer/footy training. I wouldn't trade that for the world.

I also love to travel and find that simply plotting our next big adventure is almost as exciting. Im a research junkie, which helps.

I must have written plenty of short stories as a child but I do recall the first attempt at a novel. I was 13, I had a plot that involved a sexy career woman, a hunky CEO and the city of New York. I would keep my friends and sisters intrigued as I madly scribbled down each chapter but found myself bored to tears. Until I bumped off the CEO, that is. Suddenly I found my inspiration! The book turned pretty dark after that and was eventually abandoned, but it was a worthwhile learning curve. It taught me that, love it or loathe it, crime fiction is my calling not romance or chick lit.

I get the boys off to school (Yrs 5 and 7), and then grab a strong coffee and head for the sunroom at the front of our old timber home that I call my office. I have a lovely large Apple desktop and I check emails first, pay a few bills, and generally procrastinate until about 10am when I open my latest draft. I do a quick read of the last few pars, then I'm off, into my world of murder and mayhem. It's great fun. I stop for lunch sometimes with the hubby, who works out of his home studio, then work again until school pick up time around 3pm. After that it's a mad scramble to get anything written and you'll know that if you've ever read my blogs!

Occasionally I have to break the routine to do some paid freelance work for national parenting and health magazines. Once my bread and butter, I find my fiction now pays better so it's got to be a riveting article to take me away from my latest manuscript.

Again, I am sure I read hundreds of children's books before I got to The Three Investigators but that's the book series that really inspired me from an early age. It centres on 3 boys, each with their own unique talents, who must help solve a series of baffling mysteries, from missing treasure to ghost noises in the night. I could never get enough of them and struggled to find more in the dingy little library where I grew up, in the capital of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby. But when I did find a new Investigators, it was like I had discovered treasure of my own!

I have a wonderful friend and talented web designer who does the covers for me, at a very special mates rate. Stu designs the covers after I have finished the book and decided on the title. First, I source the images then I head to his office and, over a good cuppa (thanks, Amber!) he whips something up. We throw it back and forth for a while, then I sign off and upload it to the internet. Trying to capture 70,000 words in one simple image and a brief cover title is always a challenge and one I look forward to each and every time. Cover designing is one of the most enjoyable parts of the process because I get to see my protagonist, usually Roxy Parker, come to life in front of me.

I'm a little myopic at the moment and there is always plenty of crime fiction by my bedside. Having said that, i also read the newspapers and online news with gusto, I simply can not get enough. But I do love serious literature, too. After each novel, I take a break from crime and immerse myself in a few meaty reads. Latest loves: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and anything by Tim Winton.

I have both a Kindle and an iPad and I have to confess, the iPad wins simply because it has a bigger screen and more mobility (my Kindle is a small one). Having said that, the Kindle is the best when reading in bed at night because the screen is darker and less liable to keep me awake (I'm a chronic insomniac). The Kindle is not so useful, however, when the power goes out, which it does here in Goonengerry with surprising regularity!

I was once a reluctant blogger and tweeter, a bit of a modern-day Luddite, but have recently embraced both and am now surprised by how much I enjoy them. They do seem to work! With each blog and mention on my Twitter account, I seem to get a small surge in sales. I also enjoy writing them, and I know they are well read. I just don't get a lot of comments. So feel free to get in touch should you want to!

It's what you'd call 'organised chaos'. To the untrained eye, it looks a mess—papers and magazines strewn across, scrapbooks with my latest stories opened up, a computer with yellow stickies all over it, and a tangle of phone and gadget cords all over the place. But if I'm looking for something, it takes me less than a second to locate it. Honestly it does!

To the side of my desk are large windows looking out at the stunning view of the surrounding rainforest and in front of my desk is my inspiration board. This is bursting with photos of my family and holiday snaps, bespoke birthday cards from an arty friend, a list of essential phone numbers, and various vivid artworks from my sons. If I'm ever lost for words or caught in a rut, I just stare at my board and feel inspired.

I grew up in Port Moresby, the dusty, shabby capital of the Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea. It was a fantastic place to grow up! We spent our days at a multicultural school, our weekends out on the Pacific Ocean, sailing between islands or windsurfing with our friends. It was idyllic. Holidays were occasionally spent on a remote island on the tip of New Guinea called Doini, and I found this was the greatest inspiration for my writing. Not only have I set several books on this island, but there was very little to do there except swim, explore the skull caves, and loll about reading the only thing available— gritty boiled crime. You know the type of books I mean? They always featured shadowy characters under street lights on their covers. I loved these books and they taught me that good stories needn't always be deep and bogged down in detail, it's okay if they're fast and fun. That's how I write my books now. I try to write stories that people can read while on holiday, basking in the sun.