This video is made with the support of NZ on Air Public Interest Journalism Fund. 

Steffanie Holmes is a constant surprise. She has blue hair. A friendly face. Immense energy. Blue glasses. Quirky. She lives on a remote lifestyle block in northwest Auckland, a  long way from the central city.

On the wall of her large home is a bright coloured painting of a castle with a cat and green grass and coloured flowers. “Who painted this?  It’s amazing.”  I ask. “Me,” she replies, “my friends say I paint too brightly.”  

And that’s a surprise. Because Holmes is legally blind. She can’t see colours. Her eyes are extremely sensitive to light.  She can only just perceive blurred grey shapes- and only when she’s up close. And she needs her computer screen to be black with large white text. 

And she uses it - a lot. Holmes may not be a household name, but she should be. She's an author who has sold nearly 1 million copies of her books, online and in hard copy. 

She says “A.I. can’t write books yet - or not ones anyone wants to read.”  

And the surprises keep coming. Holmes is a fully qualified archaeologist. But despite great grades and experience, no one would trust their history to someone who was blind.  

“I was told I might fall down a well at the archaeological dig”.  

She was devastated - all her years of study wasted.  Her partner (now husband) suggested she’d done all she could with archaeology and to try a new career.  

She’d always loved books. So she thought she would write, while doing an ordinary 9-5 job to pay the bills.  

With her background, it would be safe to imagine she’d write historic novels.

Another surprise. Her first book was about heavy metal vampires fighting in the apocalypse.  Science fiction style.  

It didn’t sell well. Then she got a book deal - for 3 books – which was short-lived as it turned out, after she was dropped by her publisher.  

Time to give up?  But that’s not Holmes. No way.  

At a party she was talking about E.L.Grey’s  Shades of Grey series that was selling well when her friend joked light-heartedly that Holmes wouldn’t write something like that.  

She laughed, but without telling anyone, she wrote what she described as a ”sexy paranormal foxy shapeshifter novel”.  It went online and to her surprise, sold a thousand copies in a week.

Since 2015, she’s developed her characters, writing vampire romantic tales that are quirky, compelling and likeable, self-publishing and controlling her own destiny.  

She has learned to be her own marketer, knowing who she’s writing for.  

“Why shouldn’t a woman come home at the end of a hard day and have half an hour to herself with a book written by women, where she can be safe, the heroine of her story, in a non-misogynistic wonderland?”  

Being a romance writer doesn’t get acclaim from critics. But romance is the biggest fiction genre in terms of sale, and probably in number of books written.

Holmes finds it hard to understand why people ”look down on romance when we don’t talk about thrillers that way”.  She questions if it’s because romance books are written by women,and bought by women.  

As a self-publisher, she can move with the trends and sees exactly where the ever-changing industy is trending.

A few years ago, nearly all her sales were online. But last year, 40% were from specially produced, high quality, hard-cover books- that she produced with gilt edges and embossed covers.  

She thinks that’s because her books have built a fan base who enjoy the world she creates in her stories, as well as younger readers who’ve “grown up on screens, now want something tangible.“

Surprisingly  despite her success, Holmes writes every morning. 4000 words. No matter what.  She's busy writing her 53rd book.  

So what does she do in her spare time? She attends fan events, as far away as USA and Europe - a key step in her success.

And when she’s at home, she takes part in competitive pole dancing.  

Of course she does. What a surprise!