The inside job ... book author

Job: Author at Wild Wood (Simon & Schuster).

My job in a nutshell: I sit by myself and hear voices in my head. They come out the ends of my fingers whether I want them to or not. I think most writers feel very shy about calling themselves writers.

You think you're a fraud. That's just a manifestation of fear, once you start writing, you hop in the kayak and go down the river   – the river takes you.

How did you start out?

I was a television producer for a long time, I now drown in words. I wrote the first three books in parallel to making television. I was making a pilot for McLeod's Daughter's ... when a sentence for a book came to mind. It took me six months, then it got shown to an agent who said "there's a book here".

A great day is: I write in a converted dairy, on top of a ridgeline in southern Tasmania. The best days are when I hear the weather coming out of the west – I see the sky change. I've got my wood heater lit, and two cats curled up asleep in front of it. That's the best day.

A challenging day is: When you sit there and nothing comes. Some people plot a story and write to that. Television is so structured; [with writing books] I just let the story come.

It's a really wasteful way of writing; you lose pages and pages. And sometimes, whatever you do, a key doesn't turn in the lock. That's hard.

I'll never forget ... I got the deal in New York for my first book. The publisher said, "I think there's three books in there." Then she gave me a deadline.

Most people don't know: Everyone thinks that it's fun. [They think of] adoring fans and book launches. But that's so far down the track; you have to write the book first.