This Thursday night, March 7, she will be in Sydney for the launch of the young adult anthology, Underdog, in which one of her short stories features, before heading back to Taree to be a guest speaker at the International Women's Day luncheon at Club Taree on Friday.

She has also received advanced copies of her debut novel, The One, through book publisher Harlequin, which is scheduled for a July release.

Kaneana, from Old Bar, joins two other Manning success stories, Anna Godfrey (innovation facilitator at RAW Innovation) and Luca Saunders (student and performer), as speakers at the International Women's Day event on March 8.

Her presentation will be Q and A style and will see her talking about her connection to the Manning Valley, how she got into writing, memorable experiences and her work in television, balancing writing with family life and her new book.

She will have arrived back in the Manning that morning after the Underdog launch at the bookshop Books Kinokuniya in Sydney the night before. 

"It's very exciting. I think there's six of us from the 12 authors will be there. We're all different genres but all for young adults."

As part of the launch the panel of authors will be interviewed by the anthology's editor Tobias Madden.

Kaneana said she had been entering writing competitions to push herself into different genres and develop her skills. One of those was for Underdog and her story Living Rose, about two sisters, was selected.

The anthology comes out this week and Kaneana will have limited copies with her for people to purchase at Friday's lunch.

Becoming an author was not always on Kaneana's list of goals, although writing has always been part of her life.

Growing up in the Manning, she attended Taree High School, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in TV production from Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, and went on to receive first class honours in screenwriting.

It was during her honours year Kaneana saw a story in TV Week magazine about a new show Channel Seven was creating, which sounded similar to the one she was creating for her major honours work.

She sent a letter to the head of Channel 7 and the head of drama, and received a call from Bevan Lee saying he wanted to meet her.

Kaneana was hired as one of four storyliners for the show Headland. "It was an awesome first learning experience, coming up with suggested stories for the characters and keeping track of characters. It was a great way to learn how to plot things and write scene breakdowns."

Sadly, after a year's work the show was axed after one month on air.

"I had been offered a promotion for the following year. I was dismally sad when they said it wasn't going to get another season."

While working on Headland, Kaneana had also studied by distance for her Diploma of Education through the University of New England.

She then got work as the script assistant on All Saints and then moved to the script department of Home and Away as script co-ordinator and a freelance scriptwriter.

She did that for a couple of years, married her husband Alex (who she met while at university in Wagga Wagga) at the end of 2008 and they went overseas for a year, basing themselves in London. She continued to write for Home and Away and they both did supply teaching (casual teaching).

"That's when I lost my footing in television. I came back pregnant, which wasn't the plan".

They returned to the Manning to start a family and now have three children.

It was while travelling Kaneana really started writing stories, and then found writing gave her an outlet when her children were babies.

"I find the newborn stage really hard and feel like I'm giving all the time so I feel like writing is something for me."

Her 100,000 word manuscript for The One was the first manuscript she seriously completed. "I started writing it in 2015."

The story focuses on three women and there's romance for each of them. "It revolves around a reality TV dating show called The One."

Kaneana entered it into a Romance Writers of Australia competition and did quite well.

She then pitched it in a pitching session at the Romance Writers of Australia Conference and five-and-a-half weeks later she was contacted by Rachel Donovan from Harlequin who was interested and would be pitching it at an acquisition meeting.

"Six days later I got a deal through...it still doesn't feel real".

She was required to inform the other publishing houses she had pitched to of the offer, and she has spent the past few months going through a few different editing processes.

Looking back Kaneana said writing a book had not been a goal because she didn't think it was even a possibility.

"I think I was more interested in the story then too. The TV side and learning different things at uni and all the organising and working scenes."

But she said while she was working in television she started a course at the NSW Writer's Centre (now Writing NSW).

"I must have been starting to think...it's been so long a passion and a dream but I don't know when I decided I wanted to write a book."

In between raising her children and writing, Kaneana has done some English teaching at Taree High School and said she was working there at the time she found that she had been selected for Underdog and when she learned she had the book deal.

She said she's concentrating on writing while she has momentum.

Her interest in television is still there and last year Kaneana won the opportunity, through Screenworks Australia, to be part of Inside the Writers Room with Playmaker Media, working on the development of a show that they are trying to get up.

Tickets for Friday's International Women's Day lunch are available through Club Taree and is a fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Northern NSW programs.