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When I grow up I want to be...
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One of five children, I had a perfectly ordinary early childhood. Before my youngest sister and brother came along, I had an older and younger sister who could both outrun, outdraw and outsmart me at everything. Except writing! I spent more hours than I should admit to lying on my bed reading every Enid Blyton, chapter book and novel I could lay my hands on. Even some that my mum said I was far too young to read. Reading was my joy. Writing my secret passion. |
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I wrote teenage poetry that I threw away more often than kept, beginnings of stories and plot ideas and dreamed of writing a novel one day. But back then I knew only “real writers” wrote books. It would be many years before I became brave enough to see if that special passion still burned. It did and the rest as they say… |
Today, I am a “real” writer with over 25 published children's books. Several of my adult literary short stories have been shortlisted/commended and published in literary anthologies. (Click here to read my writing bibliography.) I live in the outer Eastern suburbs of Melbourne with my husband, three teenage/adult children and our sweet but sooky dog, Barley. When I'm not writing at home, I work as an Editor/writer for an independent information organisation. |
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Early in 2006, I travelled to a rural city in China and spent ten weeks teaching English to university students and researching a planned novel. Every minute of my trip was fantastic, jaw dropping, amazing, sometimes scary and an absolutely incredible opportunity to discover a new culture, gather material for my novel and source ideas for new storylines, both adult and children's. My story The Key Cutter's Grandson was written and set in China. My forthcoming title The Double-cross evolved from my experiences and places visited during my stay. ( Click here to see some amazing China sights and meet some of my wonderful Chinese students.) |
Here is my gorgeous, very supportive family who gave me their blessing to leave them home and go off to China alone. They also encourage and act as inspiration to my writing, and sometimes even serve as unsuspecting research subjects. Matt lives in Moscow, Russia with his beautiful fiancee, Sveta, and together they inspire me to further travel and to write more international tales. Critics, friends and major fridge feasters one and all. (from left – top row: Matt, Dan & Sal. Front row: Sveta, Me and Bruce) |
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