Bibliophile. Fictionist. Crows fan. Whovian. Tea enthusiast. Dog lover. She/Her.
Hi everyone and thank you very much for taking the time to visit my website! Here's a little bit about me if you're interested.
Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a voracious reader, and grew up surrounded by books. As a kid, all I wanted for birthday and Christmas presents was books, and nothing much has changed! (No wonder my reading pile never gets any smaller!) I even liked reading the novels you had to read for English at school (like Jane Austen). Anyway, like my mother before me, I now have a massive book collection, and wherever I go, my books go too. My husband is resigned to the fact that every time we move, half the boxes are filled with my books!
Some books in my collection I’ve had for over 40 years. I loved Enid Blyton as a child, particularly The Wishing Chair, and because I desperately wanted a pony, I also have quite a few novels featuring horses. I also loved The Borrowers series by Mary Norton (she also wrote Bedknob & Broomstick, the novel the Disney movie is based on), and anything by KM Peyton (she wrote the Flambards series, a family saga which begins just before WWI) and Leon Garfield (my favourite of his is Smith, about a pickpocket in 18th century England). And then there’s The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, and more modern series like Harry Potter by JK Rowling, the Mortal Engines quartet by Philip Reeve, and the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. The Nevermoor series by Jessica Townsend is a recent favourite too. SO. MANY. BOOKS. And I haven’t even touched on my favourite fiction for adults…
Secretly, however, I think I've always been a frustrated novelist. My first efforts, when I was around 19, were corny, romantic stories with heroes who looked very much like Tom Selleck in his Magnum PI days! (Hm - showing my age a bit there!)
Years passed. I got married, had children, got divorced, married again - all the usual stuff, and finally rediscovered writing when I moved to Queensland in 2000 and joined the Gold Coast Writers' Association. Soon after this I joined The Ten Penners, a subgroup of the GCWA. We've released two anthologies for children - Fan-tas-tic-al Tales in 2009 and Mystery, Mayhem & Magic in 2017. And I'm very excited to announce that our newest anthology, Backyard Beasts & Curious Capers, is now available on Amazon as a paperback and e-book!
In 2013, I released my first novel, Shadow of a Soldier, a paranormal, romantic suspense story for adults (written during NaNoWriMo 2012). My second novel, The Players, an historical novel set during the silent movie era in Australia, began as a very rough draft written during NaNoWriMo 2013, and was published in November 2021. My first young adult novel, Kylie Cooper and the Misplaced Bushranger, will be available very soon, and I also have two other adult novels and three YA novels (two Kylie Cooper sequels and a standalone) which are in the very early stages of editing (that is, I haven’t started on them yet)!
I’m a member of the Gold Coast Writers’ Association, Queensland Writers Centre, and Sisters in Crime. And I'm absolutely addicted to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which takes place every November. It's the only way I ever get any of my novels finished!
In future, I hope to update my blog more regularly (see link above) and do more book reviews, as well as edit and publish those unfinished novels, so wish me luck!
Thanks again for visiting! I really appreciate it.
P.S. If you'd like to know more about my books, or even buy one, please click on my "Store" link above.