I’m English but I live on an almond farm in the remote mountains of southern Spain, between the Sierra Nevada and the Mediterranean.
I write full time, which means I spend a lot of time sitting at a computer. So when I’m not writing, or editing, or marketing, or okay I admit it…wasting time on Facebook, I try to do something active. Here’s a few of the things I get up to on my mountain…
Almond picking – this is a great stress reliever. You place nets under the trees, then you beat the crap out of the trees with big sticks, and the nuts all come tumbling down. This is obviously only available as a stress-reliever at certain times of year, so I make the most of it.
Wine making. Pick the grapes, squash them, squeeze them, press the juice, then just leave it alone and it magically turn into that wondrous thing known as wine. Really strong wine – because it’s so hot here the grapes are really sweet, and all that sugar turns to alcohol. Again, this is a once a year activity, but then of course, it leads to the next thing on the list…
Drinking wine. One of my favorite things in the whole world. I love to lie under a fig tree, staring at the view, drinking a glass—okay, maybe a bottle—of wine and plotting my next story, or if I’m feeling really lazy (most of the time) reading some other author’s fabulous book.
Swimming—okay, maybe not so much actual swimming, but floating on the pool, drinking more wine and admiring the view…again.
Walking the dogs. I have four. And they all have strong ideas about walking—it should be done frequently. And if they’ve decided it’s time to walk, whether I like it or not, whatever my deadlines, we walk. Grunt, the biggest of my dogs, has some very effective strategies for gaining my attention.
Exploring the fantastic countryside on my horses, Gencianna and Rufino. Growing up, I always wanted a pony. Now I have two. It’s a fantastic area for riding, miles and miles of tracks and fabulous scenery.
And if all else fails, I can sit in the garden and discuss plots with Piggles, my three-legged Vietnamese pot-bellied house pig.
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It was her destiny…Tara Collins just wants to be normal. Everyone else wants her dead. Tara’s eccentric aunt raised her to be fearful of the world and follow the rules. But after her aunt’s death, Tara is ready to take control and experience life for the first time. But she quickly discovers that everything she’s been told is a web of lies. Determined to solve the mystery of who she is truly, she hires private investigator to help her uncover the truth.
Christian Roth is more than your average PI. A vampire and ex-demon hunter, Christian lives among the humans, trying to be “normal.” But recently, things seem to be falling apart. There’s a crazed demon hell-bent on revenge hunting him down, and a fae assassin on the loose with an unknown target. And the Order he abandoned desperately needs his help. As the secrets of Tara’s past collide with the problems in Christian’s present, she finds herself fighting her attraction to the dark and mysterious investigator. Falling in love does not fit into her plans at all, but Tara soon learns that some rules are meant to be broken.
Nina Croft grew up in the north of England. After training as an accountant, she spent four years working as a volunteer in Zambia, which left her with a love of the sun and a dislike of nine-to-five work. She then spent a number of years mixing travel (whenever possible) with work (whenever necessary) but has now settled down to a life of writing and picking almonds on a remote farm in the mountains of southern Spain. Nina writes all types of romance, often mixed with elements of the paranormal and science fiction.
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