Tell us something about a pet

 Like a lot of pet owners, I could talk about mine all day. The difficult part is deciding what exactly to tell. My two cats Dash and Spot are a bonded pair (a brother and sister duo) and absolutely inseparable.

This is about as happy as Dash ever gets. She is extremely moody and is just as likely to claw you as she is to accept stroking. She will never be a lap cat, but when she's in the right mood she loves to be petted on her head and at the base of her tail. She is also extremely skittish and has never left our garden, not even to follow her brother.

Spot is our little house panther; he loves to roam the neighbourhood and often brings random food items home to eat (I would love to know which of our neighbours routinely leaves a carcass of chicken out for him to steal). He likes to sit on my lap while I work, which is adorable if inconvenient to type round his head.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing everyone else's pets.

Favourite book genre and why

 You might reasonably think that because I'm an erotic romance writer, my favourite genre would be erotic romance, or maybe just romance in general. It's certainly true that I enjoy romance, erotic or otherwise, and I'm always open to reading a new one. You might also think that because I love horror films I would love horror novels. However, when I have spare time, I have other favourite genres I turn to.

For fiction, I'm a great fan of historicals. I'm particularly keen on Anne O'Brien and Philippa Gregory, although I tend to stick to the ones based on true stories - I'm less keen on alternative histories. I like to look up the true history behind each story as I'm reading it, since I'm well aware that as writers we have some license to elaborate.

As for non-fiction, I love biographies and autobiographies. I've read a lot of the autobiographies of the cast of "Little House on the Prairie" and quite a lot of other actors too, such as Burt Reynolds and Miriam Margolyes. I also discovered the writer Gavin Maxwell through a very well-written biography by Douglas Botting, which was impressive considering I knew nothing about him before picking it up.

I think I just love reading about people, past and present, and finding out the truth about them. I'm currently working through some new biographies of the Bronte sisters and those are always fascinating as opinions change year after year.

So what are your favourite genres?