I’m an actor and director at a small theatre a few miles from where I live in the county of Yorkshire in the UK. I did work as a project and business change manager – very pressured and very demanding – but I managed to escape and now I write books.

I’ve always loved stories and story telling so it seemed a natural progression, to me, to try my hand at writing and I started with short stories. My first published story was included in an anthology, which was put together by the magazine ‘Ireland’s Own’ in 2011. I also contribute to the Miss Moonshine anthologies of feel-good stories.

I particularly enjoy the challenge of plotting and planning different genres of work. My short stories vary between contemporary romance, memoir, mystery and historical. I also write comic flash-fiction and have drafted two one-act plays that have been recorded for local radio.

My full-length stories are set in France where I like to spend as much time as possible each year. Currently, I'm working on the follow-up stories in my Jacques Forêt series of novels and I continue to write my blog every week where you can find lots of info about France, books, book reviews and author interviews.

MELINDA HAMMOND was born in the West Country and grew up with a love of reading and history. Since her first book was published in 1983, she has written and published over 50 novels, writing both as Melinda Hammond and Sarah Mallory. She won the Singletitles.com Reviewers' Award in 2005 for Dance for a Diamond and her novel Gentlemen in Question was a Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice in 2006 and won the Rona Rose Award from the Romantic Novelists Association in 2012 and 2013

Mary Jayne Baker is an award-winning author of romantic comedies. She grew up in rural West Yorkshire, right in the heart of Brontë country… and she's still there. After graduating from Durham University with a degree in English Literature, she dallied with living in cities including London, Nottingham and Cambridge, but eventually came back with her own romantic hero in tow to her beloved Dales, where she first started telling stories about heroines with flaws and the men who love them.

Mary Jayne also writes cosy mysteries as Penny Blackwell, contemporary women's fiction as Lisa Swift and World War II sagas as Gracie Taylor and Betty Firth.

Originally from Lyon in France, Marie has lived in the Rossendale Valley in Lancashire for the past few years. She writes both contemporary and historical romance. Her novels include best selling contemporary romantic suspense novels LITTLE PINK TAXI and ESCAPE TO THE LITTLE CHATEAU, which was shortlisted for the 2021 RNA Jackie Collins Romantic Suspense Awards, as well as A PARIS FAIRY TALE and BLUEBELL'S CHRISTMAS MAGIC. Her historical novels are full of romance and adventure and are set in France, Scotland and North Africa. HAPPY DREAMS AT MERMAID COVE is her latest contemporary romance. Marie also contributes to the best selling Miss Moonshine's Emporium anthologies together with eight author friends from Authors on the Edge.

Sophie Claire writes uplifting emotional stories with their heart in Provence, where she spent her childhood summers. She is half French, half Scottish, was born in Africa and, growing up in England, she felt she didn’t belong anywhere – except in the pages of a book. Perhaps this is why she likes to help her characters find their home; a place in the world where they can be loved for themselves.

Previously, she worked in Marketing and proofreading academic papers, but writing is what she always considered her ‘real job’ and now she’s delighted to spend her days dreaming up stories that will transport her readers to a beautiful place, and leave them with the warm glow of a sun-filled holiday.

You can find out more at www.sophieclaire.co.uk or connect with Sophie via Twitter @sclairewriter.

Kate Field lives in Lancashire, England, with her husband, daughter and cat. Her debut novel, A Place to Begin Again, won the Romantic Novelists' Association Joan Hessayon Award for new writers.

Kate can be contacted on Twitter @katehaswords or through her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/KateFieldAuthor/.

Helena Fairfax is a freelance editor and author. She is addicted to reading and will read the cornflakes packet if there is nothing else to hand. Helena writes romantic novels in which women take the centre stage. She is also the author of a history of the lives of women in Halifax, West Yorkshire, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Readers can keep in touch via Helena's website www.helenafairfax.com, where she blogs about books and editing, or else subscribe to Helena's newsletter for book news, photos of her beloved Yorkshire moors, gossip, and the occasional free stuff. Use this link to subscribe: https://t.co/8WkjaK3b3B

As a child, Helen had a vivid imagination fuelled by her love of reading, so she started to create her own stories in a notebook. Now a bestselling author of contemporary romance, she believes that good characterisation is the key to a successful book and loves infusing her writing with humour and heart. Helen is a member of The Society of Authors.