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Daphne Clair's Biography
Dear Presents Readers
I won my first (but not last) literary prize when I was eight years old, and decided to be a writer when I grew up. When I was fifteen my first romantic short story appeared in an Australian magazine. Now I have many full-length books published by Harlequin and other publishers as Daphne Clair, Laurey Bright (Silhouette), and Claire Lorel (regency romance). I also write poetry, short stories, non-fiction, and historical fiction under my married name of Daphne de Jong, and some of these have garnered more prizes.
My home is on the side of an extinct volcano in beautiful sub-tropical New Zealand, down in the corner of the South Pacific. We have a small piece of land from which my Dutch-born husband supplies us with fresh vegetables and fruit, eggs and meat which we share with writers who come for short working retreats or for weekend courses in romance writing which I run with Robyn Donald, another Presents writer. We have five children, one who is Chinese, and when they were younger I wrote at the kitchen table with them crawling about my feet, and sometimes sat down at the typewriter after feeding the latest baby at 4 a.m.
Now I work on a computer in a purpose-built study with a fragrant frangipani tree outside my window, where noisy gaggles of red-yellow-green-and-blue parakeets gather to pick off the blossoms and get at the nectar, occasionally chased off by a bad-tempered tui, also known as the parson-bird for his gleaming black suit set off by two white bobbles at the throat. Pukekos stalk about the lawn - they are swamp hens with bright crimson beaks and legs and blue plumage, and a tuft of white feathers under their tails that jauntily bobs when they move. Lovely birds but they dig up the potatoes!
Writing is my passion, and I have to sometimes remind myself to leave the ivory tower and re-enter the real world to catch up with my family and friends and other interests. To relax I read, visit friends, maybe go to a beach and fossick for shells and coloured "beach glass" which I collect and display in pottery or glass containers. Or take a walk in the bush, where it is always cool and quiet. And like most New Zealanders I enjoy
traveling to other countries. Because we are far away from places like Europe and America, travel is a big adventure (and an expensive one!).
But writers are always at work, so whether I'm beach-walking, sitting in a plane, or talking to someone in a foreign land, part of my mind is always weaving stories. I hope that you enjoy the ones that find their way into published books.
Happy Reading
Daphne Clair
http://www.daphneclair.com/
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