I am South African born, British and French naturalised and live in SW France between the towns of Cognac and Saintes, close to the Atlantic coast.  

I studied fashion design after school and worked in the fashion industry for a while after coming to London, then studied law and qualified as a solicitor, working in commercial law (mergers & acquisitions) in London.  I left the UK in 2008 and now live in a château, parts of which date from the 15th century, with my husband and several cats that we've acquired along the way.  Note that it’s not the château I write about in D’Artagnan!

I love horseriding and have a wonderful Spanish horse whose sole vice is his determination to eat until he explodes, and I'm also a keen swimmer and love cycling.  We are fortunate to live in the Charente Martimime département which is not too challenging gradient-wise, and has hundreds of kilometres of cycle paths including a dedicated forty-kilometre cycle track along the Côte Sauvage that passes by the idyllic Atlantic seaside town of Saint-Palais-sur-Mer.  We often go to Bordeaux and the Basque coast, and adore the Arcachon basin.

I've been writing on and off all of my life, but being an accomplished procrastinator and suffering like many women from impostor syndrome, I never really believed I had any talent.  That all changed when I sent the draft manuscript of 'Taming D'Artagnan' to the Literary Consultancy for a manuscript assessment.  Thanks to a wonderfully enthusiastic and encouraging mentor, 'Taming D'Artagnan' evolved to become a far more focussed book than the rather aimless Francophile observations on France, French customs, chateau renovations and weird gite guests that it initially was.

As I write this in early March 2023, the second in the series 'Deceiving D'Artagnan' is out for final proofread, and will hopefully go live in early April 2023.  The third in the series (provisionally called 'Beguiling D'Artagnan) has been through a first full edit and will go for professional edit in April, with a view to publication in late May/early June 2023.

I am currently working on a fourth standalone novel, provisionally entitled 'Inheritance' which I'm very excited about.  It's a novel I began writing about twelve years ago, and then abandoned.  It probably falls more into 'contemporary women's fiction' than it does into 'romantic comedy' although there is romance in it.  It explores the question that almost every woman has had to consider at some point in her life, although perhaps not from the unique angle that the protagonist Tara, is required to ponder it!  I hope to have it finished, polished and published by the end of Q3 2023.

Anyway, it's creative time now!  Thank you for taking the time to look at my webpage, and if you enjoy reading my books please, please, please leave a review on Amazon or GoodReads or LibraryThing, or on my Facebook page 'Fi Whyms, Author'.  Feedback is like Tinkerbell for writers: the more we get, the more we are able to believe in the characters and scenarios and stories in our heads, and the more confident we are in writing them for your enjoyment!  So please, leave a review!   
 

Merci encore, et bisous!