else

um and so I I just I didn't ever think that that was a possibility for anyone and in my role so I'm a campaign manager and I do publicity and marketing and for most authors it's not um I think it's very brave to not know where your mortgage repayments are coming in in this market.

And I still, you know, I did creative writing at uni and I just still never thought it was a possibility.

And I've been at HarperCollins, which is the publisher I work at now, for 15 years.

And it was only really when I had the idea for Love and Other Puzzles and my daughter, Hazel, who is now seven, I think she might have been 15, one or two at the time and when I was telling her that you know she could be whatever she wanted to be and you just have to work hard and you can do those things and I realized that I was probably being a little bit of a hypocrite and I don't actually have an issue with being a hypocrite huge hypocrite love doing it but I thought that this might be one of those ones where it might be good to like give something a shot and i just didn't want to regret anything and i think that was also like uh when i was nearing 40 with love and other puzzles and i think as we get older or at least in my case i've just started to care less about what anyone thinks about me and I had been embarrassed to think that I could be good at it and kind of put my hand up especially when I know so many people in the publishing industry in Australia and I thought oh they're all going to be like huh she's got tickets on herself and it'll be really embarrassing for all the authors I work with to have to have pretended to rate, read my book and all of that.

So, you know, and that's why I also got an agent because when love and other puzzles went out, it went out under a pseudonym.

I didn't want anyone to know it was, me um but that's also because when you acquire a book it should be because you love that book not because you're good mates with that person um yeah and but that was like definitely all part of it and I just uh it's not being a hypocrite and also spite i thought if anyone else comes up with my idea for love and other puzzles which is about a woman making all of her life's choices based on the new york times crossword puzzle i thought if anyone else takes my great idea and writes a good book out of that i will be so furious i better do it myself

yeah