Hi! My name is Zoe and I write adult contemporary romance. 

This is my first #PitchWars attempt and I'm very excited about the entire event. I found out about it late and am only now scrambling to catch up but I've already seen that the community of writers (both mentors and mentees) is pretty damn amazing.

I'm glad you stopped by - make a cup of tea/coffee/something stronger and stay for a chat. I'd love to hear from you!

This is me. I'm 29. I'm a romantic at heart and found my own hero almost a decade ago. Now we're married and have a 2-year-old who's pretty awesome. I like making lists, so here's one about me:

• I love traveling. The best three cities I've visited were Edinburgh, NYC, and Rome. The list of destinations I still want to visit is long enough to last us decades.
• I read a lot. I always have. My childhood favorites are Roald Dahl, Astrid Lindgren, and J. K. Rowling. 
• I studied English and French literature and work as a translator.
• When I was a kid, I had a pet stick insect. His (Its?) name was Thor.
• My favorite animal is a giraffe. 
• I'm afraid of leeches and earthworms. And centipedes.
• My favorite season is fall - something about the weather and the colors is just so beautiful.
• I only started reading romances when I was 23 - and fell in love with the genre. My favorite authors are: Jill Shalvis, Sarah MacLean, Megan Erickson, Julia Quinn, and Tessa Dare.
• I also read lots of fantasy (but that's a topic for another day). 
• I love lasagna. Seriously, it has to be tremendously bad for me to dislike it.
• You can read more about me here.

The novel I'm submitting for #PitchWars is called Here to Stay. It's a sweet small-town contemporary romance set in Oak Harbor, Maine. It features a broken-hearted heroine who's a chef and a gruff, bearded hero who owns the town's only diner. 

You can find the Pinterest moodboard for it here (oh, I love Pinterest). Here to Stay also boasts (yep, time for another list):

• very good friends,
• great food,
• miserable weather,
• lots of kissing,
• (and sex),
• the hero and the heroine living together as housemates,
• a happily ever after.

I'm ready to work hard on this manuscript because it means the world to me. It's a case of "write what you want to read" and I want to make it even better. I'm won't cry if you rip it apart - I might sulk for a day and mutter under my breath when nobody's listening but then I'll get down to business and fix what needs to be fixed. I think I need help with pacing and dialogue but I'm fairly good with characterization and writing about sex (I'm a romance writer, what can I say...). 

If this sounds like something you'd like to read, don't hesitate to drop me a comment or find me on any of the social media (see links at the top or bottom of the page). 

Huge thanks to Lana Pattinson for hosting the #pimpmybio linkup and to Brenda Drake for organizing the entire event. I'm so happy I can be a part of it!