It takes some time for a modern woman to see past the spectacularly bad dress sense of a spectacularly beautiful man.

Out now, my romantic comedy short story The Truly Awful Shirt Shop, published by and available free from Australian Women Online.

August2009

Tempest

Little Gems Anthology: 2009 Turquoise

When a magical sea nymph rescues a deep-sea fisherman from a life-threatening storm neither can return to their former lives. Tempest is a romantic fantasy about lovers who give up everything for each other. It is part of an anthology of romantic short stories that include the 'turquoise' motif.

Little Gems Anthology: 2009 Turquoise can be purchased from Romance Writers of Australia.

With the publisher

Erotic fairy tale

A modern woman, disenchanted with men and dating, embarks on virtual love affairs with Hollywood's leading men only to find true love in the real world. I wrote this short story as a craft piece and have since worked it into a very modern fairy tale. Like Goldilocks and her porridge, Lisa takes some time to find a man who is just 'right'. This story is with a publisher.

Romantic suspense

I like my romantic fiction heavy on plot and character development. I like to see the characters fall in love while they are pursing their own dreams and meeting their individual challenges. I also like to read about exotic places. When I pitched a contemporary romance to an editor she was as interested in the suspense plot elements as she was in the romance and so I was encouraged to write my first romantic suspense novel. The synopsis and first three chapters are with an American publisher.

Contemporary romance

Short stories are an opportunity to develop an idea or test out an approach to writing that may not sustain a novel length story. Most of my stories are equally weighted for plot and romance but when an idea for a pure romance struck it was too good to pass. The city of love is the setting for my contemporary romance. THis is a new approach for me and I am looking for a potential publisher.

In competition

Competitions are a great way to get independent feedack on your work. Not only does the experience highlight ways to change your work, it also places you in a field so you have an idea just how much you need to improve for your work to be competitive when it hits the editor's desk. I am very careful about choosing competitions that I enter. The feedback has to be timely for the stage that I am at in manuscript development and the judge has to be an editor or agent who is acquiring for the line I am targeting.

Romantic suspense

Two of my romantic suspense works are in competition.

Work in progress

I am working on setting and plot for my next romantic suspense based in Australia.