Stacy Gregg was a fashion journalist for around a decade, travelling the world as a fashion editor for Sunday Magazine and attending NZ Fashion week for ten years before flipping her career to children's book writing.
Since receiving her first four-book deal, Gregg has gone on to write more than 36 books and has sold millions of copies worldwide
'Pony Club Secrets' has been one of her most popular book series and comes from the passion she has had for horses since she was a young girl.
Speaking about her love for horses on The Sunday Café with Mel Homer, Gregg described them as 'the best thing for girls'.
"All the stuff people bang on about that kids are lacking, they are outdoors, they are responsible for something other than themselves, so it teaches you empathy, it teaches you humility because you are bound to lose a lot of the time."
Writing has taken Gregg all over the world and she told Mel that getting in the head of her characters meant she often had to travel alone.
Once she started doing stand-alone novels, she explained, those sorts of research trips had to be taken by herself to experience the loneliness and true environment of the character's journey.
"The Princess and the foal was set in Jordan and was based on the childhood of Princess Haya of Jordan, so I went to Jordan and stayed at the royal palace where she grew up, swam in the dead sea and that was great.
"For those sorts of research trips often I would want to go alone because I needed to be in the head of my protagonist and part of that is the loneliness and thinking how do I cope with this journey?"
Gregg did admit she often took her daughter, who she described as 'the best travelling partner', travelling with her to Russia, Iceland, Italy and Spain.
Iceland in particular was a dream location for Gregg given they have a human-to-horse ratio of 3:1.
"It's amazing, it's so beautiful there, there's 300,000 people and 100,000 horses so it's kind of like my dream country."
Gregg confirmed to Mel that she is the third highest-selling author for publishing company Harper Collins behind David Walliams and Dr Suess, but doesn't expect to overtake the two ahead of her anytime soon.
"I got really lucky with the pony club secret series when I started writing that.
"Those books are about 15 years old now and they keep getting re-jacketed with new covers and going into fresh new hands.
"The good thing about children is there is always more of them coming up."
TVNZ plus has just got season three of 'Mystic' a show based on Gregg's 'Pony club secret' book series, something she described as a 'long overnight success story'.
Although Gregg wrote scripts for the first season, she is no longer involved in the production of the TV series, which she described as her grandchild.
"It's a bit like pony club secrets was my baby and then my baby had a baby so mystic is kind of my grandchild, and like all good grandchildren I sort of give it a hug and hand it back again and other people do all the hard work."
Listen to the full interview between Stacy Gregg and Mel Homer above.
You can also download the full interview on the Sunday Café podcast, and listen on the go. Check it out on the rova app or wherever you get your podcasts.
