Q: Where can I get a copy of Spellbound?

A: For those in the US who keep writing to me and asking, Spellbound is the same book as To Have and To Hold. Spellbound was my title for the book, but publishers often decide to rename a book, and my US publishers felt that To Have and To Hold was a better title. My first book, Straight Talking, was originally called Passion Junkie, and secretly I still wish we’d stuck to my title, although at the time it was felt that the word ‘junkie’ had negative connotations . . .

Q: What is West End Girls?

A: Nothing worth buying unless you speak German. As far as I can recall it’s a German translation of one of my books, I suspect Straight Talking.

Q: What is Family Ties?

A: My working title for The Other Woman, changed because it wasn’t sexy enough. The publishers catalogues go out very early, and they have to include your next book, even when it isn’t written yet, which is why so often you find nonexistent books on Amazon — by the time the book is written and in the stores, the title, or the story, are often changed beyond recognition.

Q: When is your next book coming out?

A: The Beach House, will be coming out in mid-June, in both the UK and the US.

Q: Where will you go on tour?

A: I will have one book signing in the UK, but mostly in the Northeast USA. Please check out my events page.

Q: Where do you get your inspiration?

A: Usually from life, from issues that interest me, or that seem to be coming up a lot with my friends. When I wrote The Other Woman, I noticed that the subject of mothers-in-law was a particularly emotive one for married women, and every time you brought it up it guaranteed some great stories, so I decided to explore the subject further. When I wrote Life Swap, I became fascinated by the type of suburban woman who gives up her career to have children, then funnels all her displaced ambition and drive into her children and charity work (except she doesn’t actually spend much time with her children — that’s all left up to nannies). It seemed to me that although they will argue that the charity work is selfless, altruistic, etc., it’s all really about social climbing, and I was dying to really write about what that life, and those women, are like, and whether any of them are truly happy.

Q: What advice do you have for aspiring authors?

A: Write what you know, not what you think will sell, and don’t give up. Also, you must have an agent, and preferably a reputable one. Publishers are inundated with unsolicited manuscripts, and being presented by an agent they already know and trust is a great first step in ending up somewhere other than the slush pile.