Author: Bronwyn Stuart

First published with Escape: April 2016

Favourite romance trope: Beauty and the beast.

Ideal hero (in three words): Sexy, intelligent and built!

Ideal heroine (in three words): Sassy, independent and feisty!

Latest book: She’s The One

What began your romance writing career? Why do you write romance?

I was working night shift for a security firm and had just finished reading a book with the worst ending (sorry, can’t remember the title) and though I could do better. Turns out I was wrong! Took me nearly seven years before I had learned enough to be published.

I am completely addicted to two things. Happy endings and the aww moment when your heart sings and you hear angels in your mind because the moment of ‘I love you’ is just so beautiful. Why be brutal and kill your characters when you can help them find true happiness.

How do you write? What is your process like?

I sit back in a comfy chair with my feet up and put my laptop on my lap. Once my butt hits the chair, I try not to get up again for at least two hours. I set myself a word goal of around 1000 words an hour and don’t let the internet distract me. If I need to research, I do it very quickly or I come back to it later.

What do you do when you’re stuck with a scene?

If I’m really stuck and I’ve gone back a few scenes and still can’t get unstuck, I take a really long bath with someone else’s book and relax. Usually the answer comes to me with a word or a phrase or a similar reaction/action in that book and then I can get back to mine. Most of the time a writing block is actually because your story or plot has gone wrong or you’ve manipulated your characters somewhere they didn’t want to go.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk? Or any cute quirks in general?

My office is a renovated caravan  It’s one big quirk on two wheels. My house was too small for my own space so my dad and I rescued a dilapidated van and spruced it up into a creative haven just for me.

What are your favourite types of book covers? What draws your eye to a romance cover?

My favourite contemporary covers are the ones where the lovers embrace and they’re looking deep into each other’s eyes. Since historical romance is my first love, I adore the covers with the long, bright dresses or even the Scottish Laird in his kilt and nothing else. So basically, intensity jumps off covers and pulls me in, but so do bright colours and snappy titles. And yes, I do judge a book by its cover!

In the game of love — and TV — you play to win or you lose your heart.

Millionaire Banjo Grahams originally signed up for She’s The One drunk as a skunk and willing to do anything to bed Australia’s most beautiful women, but when he sobers up he realises he could lose much more than his reputation if he goes through with it. Unable to back out of an ironclad contract, he makes a deal with the network boss to rig the show, picking the lucky bachelorette ahead of time and guiding the season to meet his own ends and keep the board happy.

When her father tells Eliza Peterson she isn’t going to produce She’s The One, but appear as a one of the contestants, she is livid. Competing for some guy on reality TV is no way to earn his — and the network’s — respect and show them she is capable of producing shows of her own.

But for all the planning and staging, somehow the show takes on a reality of its own, and the goals of Eliza and Banjo fall away from something neither of them expected — love.