The Rosie Effect: The hilarious and uplifting romantic comedy from the million-copy bestselling series (The Rosie Project Series)

Don Tillman, a scientist and geneticist, has rampant Asperger's Syndrome - but he doesn't know it. Don takes everything in life seriously and literally. If someone says to him 'give me a minute' he will set the timer function on his wristwatch and count the seconds down. Unsurprisingly, Don has never been on a second date. Until he meets Rosie - subversive, unconventional, irreverent: everything he is not. Their subsequent adventures will have you in tears of laughter. Richard & Judy Book Club Review.

Can a man who loves order embrace chaos?

Forty-one-year-old geneticist Don Tillman is living in New York City with his new wife Rosie.

Sure, they're incompatible on paper - yet when did love ever follow the rules?

And after ten months and ten days of marriage, Don has accepted a little chaos into his carefully ordered life.

But when Rosie announces she's pregnant, Don panics.

Suddenly, everything he loves most is in danger of being lost

Graeme Simsion: Finding My Character's Motivation - Author of The Rosie Effect.

Imagine. Your novel-in-progress is finished, published and an international bestseller. You've sold the movie rights for the price of a small island, and your dream cast will play the characters you've lovingly written. And then a random actor ? perhaps a living legend playing a cameo role ? points to an equally random action or line of dialogue and asks that most cliched and reasonable of questions: what's my motivation?

And you have an answer, a clear, defensible answer, consistent with the character's past behaviour, right? Of course you do, because it's unlikely the rest of the scenario would have happened if you didn't. Not only would your characters have lacked substance; the plot would be unbelievable: why did he or she do that?

Of course, the same applies to a novel. There may not be actors around to ask the question, but your editors and readers will do so on their behalf. Best you get to it before they do.

When I write, I make a practice of interrogating all of my characters about their motivation for everything they do and say. Is the most useful technique I have for developing interesting and believable characters, in particular the minor players. When I studied screenwriting, we were encouraged to fill in questionnaires for our characters right down to favourite food, football team and star sign. I think there are better ways to spend our time. If we're going to follow the show not tell principle, then it's all about what our characters say and do, and, in particular, the decisions they make. We need to make those decisions plausible, or, better still, inevitable, though only predictable in hindsight!