I've heard my books called contemporary women's fiction, chick-lit and hen-lit. To tell you the truth, I really don't mind what people call them as long as they're reading my books!

I guess chick-lit is instantly recognisable and suggests that my books, Lucy Springer Gets Even and What Kate did Next will be holiday reads. And that's fine by me.  

Most chick-lit books have several of the following elements:

• The heroine is either looking for Mr. Right or getting over Mr. Wrong.
• She's in a dead-end job or is looking to climb the corporate latter.
• The tone is often light and funny.
• The story usually is told in the first person.
• By novel's end, the heroine usually has worked out all (or most of) her problems and has learned important lessons about life.

Certainly the term chick-lit has its fans and detractors:

Jennifer Weiner, author of best sellers Good in Bed and In Her Shoes, finds the term dismissive and sexist. ‘It's something that says chicky, fluffy, inconsequential, of no importance and no literary quality,' she says. ‘But at the same time it doesn't bother readers, and I have to be mindful of that.'

But Shopaholic series author Sophie Kinsella, who has more than 7 million copies of her six books in print, says she's not bothered by the label. ‘To my mind, it means a fun, light book, often with humour, often featuring a contemporary heroine that women of today can relate to, often addressing an issue of today,' she says. ‘I would probably prefer the term 'romantic comedy' or 'wit lit,' which I once saw in a bookstore. But I can't get too het-up about it. It hasn't done me any harm.'

The spin off's of chick-lit include hen or lady lit,  which is where I see myself because the heroines have been replaced by women in their 30's and 40's who have married and perhaps have children and are now struggling with issues such as infidelity, divorce and career slumps, as well as raising a family.

My main characters are thinking, ‘what happened to the dreams I had?' and ‘how did I get here?'

Basically, I write women's fiction and hope that my books resonate with readers because they're true to life but still light in that there's comedy and generally if not a happy ending then at least a hopeful one. My main characters do tend to ‘find themselves' by the end of the books I write.

What books do you like reading?