Tracey Alvarez

I first started *writing* seriously when I was in my early twenties - in fact, my now husband bought me my first ever computer. You can understand why I married him! The first book I finished at around 22 or 23 was a combination of romance/suspense/paranormal/serial killer...yeah, it was a hot mess and will never, ever, see the light of day. I was never confident enough to send it out in the world (and publishing was a lot different back in the 90's) so I started writing short stories instead. I wrote a ton, won a few national based short story competitions, had a few published in women's magazines both here in New Zealand and overseas, and also tried my hand at a few articles--which I didn't enjoy as much. Fast forward to getting married and having two kids and making the decision to home-school them...writing got put on hold for a decade. When both of my kids went back into the school system at ages 10 & 13, I decided to have another go at this writing thing, and go back to my first love, novels. Specifically romance novels. This time I stuck to it, learning my craft, doing the hard hours of butt-in-chair, entering first chapter competitions for feedback and constantly editing and improving my work. Now I can't imagine doing anything else.

I remember in primary school aged around 7 or 8 writing my first 'fan-fiction' starring the three little pigs and being excited because my mother kept telling people how great my story was. In high school my Granddad gave me a Stephen King-esque monster of a typewriter. I wrote my first 'real' short story for an English assignment on that bad boy. I got an A+ but more importantly a scrawled note from the teacher saying I had talent and should keep writing...I can never thank that teacher enough for her encouragement, because although the story was pretty much a knock-off of every teenage horror movie I'd seen up to that point, she inspired me to have faith in myself.