About Catherine
I write contemporary romantic comedy because I’ve always loved books that make you laugh and feel. I’m not a natural plotter, so I tend to avoid thinking about it and focus instead on dialogue and characters. I work hard at crafting lively banter and fresh, funny lines, and I really hope there are some places where you’ll laugh out loud. Not in public though, been there, embarrassing.
I’m a #1 bestseller in my home country of New Zealand, and proud co-owner of a beautiful independent bookstore, GOOD BOOKS, run by my most excellent business partner and award-winning poet, Jane Arthur. If you’re ever in Wellington, New Zealand, come visit.
Apart from a couple of years in Northern California and the UK, I’ve spent most of my life in Wellington. Last year, we moved four hours’ drive away to Hawke’s Bay, an area known for wine and fruit. You can always tell what fruit is in season because that’s what everyone’s desperate to give away. I have learned how to make jam, pickles and chutney. If it didn’t breach numerous export regulations, I’d offer to send you some.
I’m represented by Gaia Banks of Sheil Land Associates, London.
In our house are me, my husband, four Burmese cats and two dogs. We’re surrounded by vineyards, and right now, I’m looking out across budding vines to the sea. I do a lot of looking out the window when I should be writing.
Other stuff I do: I’m on the Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers committee, and on the trust for Verb Wellington – two brilliant annual arts festivals. I’m a regular on RNZ afternoon radio as one of Jesse Mulligan’s Book Critics. I review books for various publications.
Other stuff I’ve done: taught creative writing in prisons, chaired the Wellington branch of the NZ Society of Authors, been Vice President of Romance Writers NZ, and on the NZ Book Awards Trust. In 2020, I was the Writer in Residence at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington. I had an office with an amazing view and spent a lot of time looking out the window.
