Life lessons: Michelle Holman, Author

Michelle Holman. Photo / Supplied

I dreamed the waiting room in Heaven at the beginning of my first book, Bonkers. I'm a registered nurse and wrote for many years without finishing anything between 12-hour shifts and having my children. I was so damned prolific I should have got an award for it. Unfortunately prolific didn't equate to finished manuscripts.

I'm not a big fan of New Year resolutions but in 2006 I resolved to finish something and send it to a publisher. A week later I got a letter from HarperCollins asking for a completed manuscript. My husband and kids shoved me in front of the computer and locked the door. I got Bonkers completed at 5am the following Thursday and in February 2007 the call came to say it'd been accepted. The screams were ear-shattering.

I write at night and if I'm on a roll I stay up too late. My husband starts work very early so he's used to me crawling into bed not long before he gets up.

I'm not offended if people categorise my books as chick lit. I write what I enjoy reading. You could call the genre Thomas the Tank Engine if you wanted. There you go, can I have that? Thomas the Tank Engine Contemporary New Zealand Women's Romance.

I will always write happy endings. There is enough of the sad stuff on the news each night, plus most of us have to spend a lot of time studying or reading in our professional lives.

I'm a bit shy. I write under my maiden name and use my married name in my "other" job, so they are quite distinct areas in my life.

Stories clamour to be let out of my head. I like writing about New Zealand women in a New Zealand setting. We are very funny. I really love living here and am so grateful my parents immigrated from Britain in 1950 so that I could be born and raised here.

A brand new car is a waste of money to me. However, I did spend time at a luxury car dealership in Grey Lynn with a wonderfully helpful man called Greg Brinck last year. I was researching Aston Martins for a book and can appreciate how beautiful they are. Greg didn't bat an eyelid about my questions and plot. He even came up with some better ideas.

My childhood ambition was to travel. I really wanted to see the world. I left home at 17 and went to Britain to do my OE. It was the first time I had even been on a plane. I didn't realise how brave my parents were to let me go until I had children of my own. I don't know if I could let my kids go that young.

My first memory is of my big brother coming into my room on my 4th birthday after I'd been put to bed and telling me I was a big girl now. He's 10 years older than me.

I don't cope well with indecisive people. The older I get, the more impatient I become.

* Michelle Holman is the author of two books, Bonkers and Divine. She is currently working on her third book, Knotted, due to be released later this year.