| Sarah Mayberry | |
| Birth Place: | Melbourne, Australia |
| Occupation: | Author, screenwriter |
| Genre: | Romance fiction |
Sarah Mayberry is an Australian contemporary romance author and television screenwriter. She has written several novels for Harlequin Mills and Boon, as well as scripts for the television soap opera Neighbours. She was a storyliner for the New Zealand medical drama Shortland Street and co-created the teen drama series Karaoke High with Kirsty McKenzie. Mayberry and her works have been nominated for several awards, and she won the Favourite Erotic Romance accolade at the Australian Romance Readers Awards in 2015.
Mayberry was born in Melbourne. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in professional writing.[1]
Mayberry knew from a young age that she wanted to be a writer and decided to writer romance novels, as that it was she liked to read herself.[2] She wrote some Regency romances, but they were rejected by Harlequin Mills and Boon and she decided to pursue a career in journalism.[2] After reading Jennifer Crusie's Anyone But You, Mayberry was inspired to write romance novels again and she made sure her characters were "human and like people I knew". Harlequin Mills and Boon published her first novel Can't Get Enough in 2006.[2] Mayberry has written over 45 romance novels.[3]
Mayberry has worked as a storyliner and scriptwriter for the Australian soap opera Neighbours since 1998.[3] [4] When the series was cancelled in 2022, Mayberry had written 230 episodes of Neighbours.[3] She later returned to the script department when the serial was picked up by Amazon Freevee.[5] Mayberry credited her time with the show with helping her to become a better romance writer. After plotting a long term romance between two characters, she realised where she had been going wrong in her own writing.[1] In 2005, Mayberry wrote three novellas based on characters from the show.[6]
Mayberry has also worked as a storyliner on Shortland Street and Home and Away. She co-created the 2006 New Zealand teen drama series Karaoke High with Kirsty McKenzie.[7] They first approached TVNZ with their idea in 2003, and the network developed the show into a three-week soap opera.[7] Mayberry wrote the novelization of the television drama The Lost Children for Penguin Books.[8] In July 2022, Mayberry confirmed that she was working on a romantic comedy series to air in the United States and a thriller series for the UK.[3] In 2024, Mayberry won the Best Script for a Television Serial accolade for Episode 8867 of Neighbours.[9]
She also produced the feature film Line of Fire.
Harlequin Blaze novels
Neighbours novellas
Secret Lives of Daytime Divas
Harlequin Super Romance
Porter Family
Mathew Sisters
Brothers Ink
Montana Born
Carmody Brothers
Others
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Romance Writers of Australia | Short Category | Island Heat | [12] | |
| 2012 | Australian Romance Readers Awards | Favourite Australian Romance Author | [13] | ||
| Favourite Love Scene from A Romance Published in 2012 | Suddenly You | ||||
| Favourite Short/Category Romance | Her Best Worst Mistake | ||||
| Suddenly You | |||||
| 2012 | Romance Writers of Australia | Long Romance | The Best Laid Plans | ||
| 2013 | More Than One Night | ||||
| 2014 | Her Favourite Rival | ||||
| 2015 | Australian Romance Readers Awards | Favourite Australian Romance Author | [14] | ||
| Favourite Erotic Romance | Anticipation | [15] | |||
| Favourite Short/Category Romance | Bound to the Bachelor | ||||
| 2015 | Her Kind of Trouble | [16] | |||
| 2017 | Australian Romance Readers Awards | Favourite Continuing Romance Series | American Extreme Bull Riders Tour | [17] | |
| 2024 | Best Script for a Television Serial | Neighbours Episode 8867 | |||