As a teenager, Catherine Jones loved the early Jilly Cooper books. Light-hearted romps featuring sexy girls with names like Bella, Harriet and Prudence, they were hugely popular in the 1970s. After joining the Army, Catherine started writing, helping out with a magazine for military wives, and went on to publish stories about Army life.

So when she heard that publisher Headline was looking for authors for a new romance series called Little Black Dress (LBD), she decided to have a go.

Having parted company with her agent, she decided to send it in incognito under her maiden name, Kate Lace. "Little Black Dress are happy to take unagented commissions," she said. Although it was hard waiting for a reply, the gamble paid off. Plucked from the slush pile, Catherine was offered a three-book deal and now the first, The Chalet Girl, has been published.

The story concerns Millie Braythorpe, disgraced daughter of a rather beastly bishop. Having fled to France, she is working as a chalet girl in a ski resort, making extra money by singing and playing guitar in a bar. During the last fortnight of the season she meets the rather gorgeous Luke, but before true love can take its course, Millie loses her job and blames Luke for it. She returns to England, vowing never to see him again, but Luke has other ideas. When he finally tracks her down, Millie's singing career is about to take off.

Light-hearted and entertaining, of all the LBDs I've read, this is probably the most like an early Jilly Cooper. Millie, in particular, is very much an ingénue in the same mould, although the hero is different, not least in his career as a gossip columnist. Catherine explained why she moved away from the macho heros that Jilly wrote so well.

"They were very domineering and, while I don't mind a bit of masterfulness, I fight back. I'm my own person and I thought Milly had to be more like me," she explained. "She had a lot of va-va vroom."

Catherine got the idea for The Chalet Girl when she was on holiday skiing in Avoriaz, France. Life has changed a lot since Catherine was a teenager, so as a 51-year-old, how did she research the life of 20-year-old Milly? "I've got daughters her age," she said. "I gave my eldest, Penny, the draft manuscript. She'd say, She absolutely wouldn't say that Mum, that's so not cool. And she would not listen to that band, trust me on that one.'"

She turned her life as an Army captain to good use in her writing. "I was a staff officer and my job title was SO3 Artillery (Discipline), so I was known as Miss Whiplash," she said. After being at a girls school from five to 18, she enjoyed military life: "500 blokes to every girl - I thought I'd died and gone to heaven." All of this is said with a twinkle in her eye, since she met her husband on her first posting and was soon married.

Pregnant with the first of her three children, she left the service and followed her husband to several postings, with 17 house moves. So how did she end up settling in Thame?

Our first posting was in Bicester and when I came to Oxfordshire, I just thought this is home. I don't know why. I've lived all over the place since then." When her husband left the Army she decided to return to Oxfordshire. "I just feel this sense of belonging whenever I come through what we call 'Apaché Pass' on the M40."

After self-publishing a book called Gumboots and Pearls with a friend, she won a publishing contract for Army Wives, which was long-listed for the Romantic Novel of the Year award, run by the Romantic Novelists' Association, of which she is now an active member. She is particularly proud of being in a team that got to the final of University Challenge.

Now chairman, she finds the voluntary post takes up a large part of her time. What does she enjoy about it so much? "The other authors," she replied. "I think they're amazing, wonderful." She's been to all the RNA writing conferences and thinks they really helped her develop as a writer. "I learn stuff, about writing emotion really well, plotting. It's networking, too, and it's the support."

She's helping organise the 2008 Romantic Novel of the Year award, which takes place on Monday in London and, given the clichéd view of romance writers, is a great advertisement for her profession - sassy, no-nonsense, with a great sense of humour. And not a hint of pink in sight. But then times have moved on since Barbara Cartland, or hadn't you noticed? You will if you read The Chalet Girl.

The Chalet Girl by Kate Lace is published by LBD at £4.99.