Australian Romance Author Showcase with…Tracey O’Hara

As part of Australian Romance Month, Romance Specialist Haylee Nash will be interviewing one Australian Romance author per day. Much like a beauty pageant, each author will be using their charm, wit and grace (and the power of social media) to take home the Booktopia Romance Bestseller crown. Booktopia invites bestselling urban fantasy author Tracey O’Hara to the stage.

1. Describe the perfect date.
Watching a movie and eating take away Thai food with my Hubby. I prefer a good night in.

2. Which of your books are you most proud of?
That’s kind of like asking me which one of my children I love best. But if I really did have to choose it would have to be Night’s Cold Kiss. It was my first and it received the Romance Writers of Australia’s Romantic Book of the Year Award in 2010.

3. What is the hardest thing about being a romance author?

Actually finding the time to write. I work as an IT manager in a government department which can be very intense at times and pretty exhausting. Sometime the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of a computer again.

4. What is the best thing about being a romance author?
What I love is being able to create that story where two people overcome any obstacle to be together. The bigger the emotional rollercoaster you can take your readers on the more satisfaction I get. The other thing I love is the being a part of the community. Romance writers are the most supportive and welcoming group I know.  They are also the most professional with a great balance for the love of writing, respect for the craft and market knowledge. I love getting together with my writing friends.

5. Who (aside from a significant other) do you swoon over?
I tend to swoon over characters more than real people. One of my favourites is still Gideon from Anne Gracie’s The Perfect Rake. Captain Kirk from the new Star Trek movies is not bad, Alex O’Loughlin in Hawaii Five-o is pretty heart-skipping material. I love a man with a sense of humour.

6. Tell us something very few people know about you.
I don’t think there is much people don’t know about me by now. I love horror, thrillers and fantasies. I have a Pug called Colin. I adore movies. I’m pretty much an open book.

7. Describe your writing style in three words.
Hot, action-packed and thrilling.

Click here to buy Night’s Cold Kiss from Booktopia,
Australia’s local bookstore

8. What is your definition of a good book?
A good book is one that I keep thinking about long after I am finished. One that I am sad to come to the end of because I don’t want to leave the story.

9. Which author would you invite to a dinner party and why?
Anyone who knows me would know the answer to that. George RR Martin. I would love to sit down and discuss my theory over Jon Snow’s parentage and yet I wouldn’t want him to tell me anything because I wouldn’t want to ruin the anticipation. I met George in the flesh several years ago – it remains one of my fan girl squee-worthy moments.

10. Finish this sentence: I would do anything for love, but I won’t do_____
THAT! Seriously I have no idea what I wouldn’t do for love and I suspect I wouldn’t find out until actually pushed too. I can’t think of a thing I would not sacrifice for my sons or my husband.

Tracey O’Hara was born in Tasmania, Australia, but grew up in North Queensland. She discovered a passion for writing when researching her family history and started with an Australian colonial saga. She grew up reading Stephen King, Raymond E. Feist, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, and J. R. R. Tolkien, and developed her taste for adventure and the paranormal thriller. Her love of fantasy, horror, and science fiction soon had her exploring darker subject matter. Tracey also enjoys listening to heavy metal, reading and writing, and watching action movies with her boys. She lives in Australia with her husband, two sons, and three cats.

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