We asked Mills & Boon author Melanie Milburne 10 questions about her life, hobbies and writing for  Mills & Boon

1. What is your perfect Valentine’s Day date?

A romantic dinner (that I didn’t have to cook!) preferably with candles and champagne and no phones.

2. What is your favourite Valentine’s Day movie?

Notting Hill. I never tire of watching it even though I’ve seen it heaps of times.

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3. What is the most romantic travel destination?

Paris in spring or summer. It is such a beautiful place with fabulous architecture and great food and wine. And who can resist a French accent?!

4. What made you want to become a romance author?

Reading romance novels in my late teens opened up a world of relationship stories and I was totally captivated. I’d wanted to be a writer since I was five, when I learned to read, but it was reading those romances that made me realise romance was what I wanted to write.

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5. Who are your favourite romance authors?

Jane Austen is my absolute standout choice. I also enjoy Georgette Heyer and Mary Stewart. Modern day authors include Nora Roberts, Sarah Morgan and Fiona Lowe to name but a few. There are so many to choose from!

6. Which 5 novels should every romance lover read?

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Emma, Nine Coaches Waiting and This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart and Faro’s Daughter by Georgette Heyer.

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7. Where do you like to write?

I enjoy writing in my home office, which overlooks my garden. I can hear the birds in the trees and the trickling of water in the water features. My three miniature black poodles are usually in my office with me, asleep on the sofa or the floor at my feet snoring blissfully. I also love writing at our beach house on the East Coast of Tasmania, which overlooks Great Oyster Bay and Nine Mile Beach. It is a perfect place to create stories.

8. What do you like to do when you are not writing?

I love walking my dogs and teaching them new tricks. They have about twenty they do now and are great little show-offs! I love reading, of course, but not always romance. I have a passion for crime and thriller novels.

9. What do you love most about Mills & Boon?

I love the sense of escapism when picking up a Mills & Boon novel and knowing I will find a happy ever after at the end.

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10. What is your favourite romance trope?

I love Enemies to Lovers. It is so much fun writing about characters who loathe each other in the beginning and eventually fall in love.

Melanie Milburne

My favourite quote: “Books, the children of the brain.” Jonathan Swift “A Tale of A Tub” (1704)

To find out more, visit Melanie on her website.

You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter.