Edwina Darke is (almost) 30, flirty and thriving!

We are pleased to introduce Edwina Darke and her debut novel, Three's a Crowd. She's here today to talk about birthdays with us.

Edwina grew up in Sydney and attended Bond University, where she majored in accounting, psychology and journalism. Although she loved her home and family, Edwina had her bags packed, ready to go travelling at the age of 18. Among other adventures, Edwina worked as a ski instructor in Austria, studied the history of fine art in Florence, lived in London and ended up spending the better part of a year living with a friend in Manhattan, New York, the setting for Three's A Crowd. She now lives and works in Sydney. (Bio courtesy of Goodreads.)

You can find Edwina on Facebook and Twitter. While Three's a Crowd is not currently available to US readers, UK readers can purchase it for 99 p.

Synopsis of Three's a Crowd:
Manhattan editor Elan Moore thinks her dreams have come true when she is asked to manage an upcoming celebrity memoir. Not only is her career taking off, but she has amazing friends, the perfect boyfriend and finally she's mastered the art of avoiding her mother. But when her oldest friend Luke comes back into her life, things start to get complicated. To make matters worse, celebrity author Rox Wriothesly has no intention of being managed. Elan soon realises that this 'opportunity' may be the catalyst that brings everything else crashing down around her.

Sex and the City meets The Devil Wears Prada in this smart and funny story of life and love in New York. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon UK.)

When is your birthday?
21 September 1984 – which means this year is the big three-oh.

Do you count down to your birthday?
Not really. I normally keep my birthday quite low key. Do something with family and friends with cake and presents and all the trimmings, but not a blow-out party. Though I’m going to be making an exception to that rule this year.

What animal represents your birth year on the Chinese Zodiac calendar? Do you feel it describes you?
I’m a Rat! Unsurprisingly I wasn’t too thrilled when I found out - it’s arguably the least cute animal of the zodiac. I was hoping for Tiger or Dragon and then found out my animal representative was a plague vector. Such is life. According to Wikipedia, Rats are meant to be ambitious, charming and cunning, which is a bit of a mixed bag as far as good qualities are concerned (going by this description, Francis Urquhart is almost certainly a Rat). I’ve never thought of myself as particularly Machiavellian, but, with fellow Rats ranging from Alexander the Great to William Shakespeare to Katy Perry, it seems like there’s some room for interpretation.

Have you ever been surprised on your birthday?
Not yet!

What significant or insignificant event takes place on your birthday?
My birthday falls on the International Day of Peace (somewhere out there my mother is laughing) and, in a bit of fantasy geek trivia, J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit was published on 21st September 1937.

Where is your favorite place to celebrate your birthday?
Any place, so long as I’ve got family and friends with me. In an ideal world, the place would also serve really good cocktails.

Thanks to Edwina for visiting with us and Penguin Australia for coordinating the interview.