Crossing the ditch

In Australia the rural romance genre is big business. This year Tanya landed a publishing deal with Allen & Unwin, so her Holly Ford novels are now sold across the Tasman. Her latest romance The Last McAdam, published in March, debuted in the top 10 Australian newrelease books. Her Sydneybased publisher Louise Thurtell describes Tanya as “one of the most- talented commercial fiction writers I’ve ever come across in my 25-year publishing career”. The New Zealand setting also doesn’t deter the Australians, says Louise. “It is beautifully evoked. I was so taken by Holly’s descriptions of high- country stations in The Last McAdam that I took my teenage daughter to stay on one (Lake Heron) during the Christmas holidays. It was wonderful, and we both loved it.”