IN THE BEGINNING ...I've always loved reading books and as an imaginative child I also loved immersing myself in stories and poems I wrote myself. For a long while my adult career took me away from words and stories.
After gaining a New Zealand Certificate in Science (Chemistry) I worked in a variety of different laboratories in NZ and Australia in the fields of salt, meat, dairy and wine. The wine tasted the best! While living in Adelaide , Australia I spotted a course on Novel Writing offered by WEA. I signed up immediately and in the class I felt I had come "home" at last to my first love. I made a commitment to myself there and then: I would write a fantasy novel. And I have! While I wrote my first novel (Ferrasium) I completed other creative writing courses and joined the South Australia Writers’ Centre. Once I had begun I found that I just loved inventing characters and building stories around them. I always have new characters nagging at me to be written into new stories. RETURNING HOME & LIFE ON THE WEST COAST OF NEW ZEALANDIn 2005 I moved from Australia, back to NZ with my partner, my son (aged 5 months) and our dog. We owned a 3 acre property on the outskirts of the little town of Hokitika and planned to build an alternative energy house. So with a 6 month old baby tucked under one arm, my trusty laptop under the other, and an aging Staffordshire terrier on my heels, we moved into a house-truck on our land while we built the house.
You have to be an optimist like me to build a solar-powered house on the West Coast - it's famous for it's rainfall. House-truck living was a mixture of wonderful and hideous - definitely not for the faint-hearted, although very character-building!
After 3 ½ years the house was finished and my character was fully built too. While the house and my character were being built we lived completely off the grid. My laptop was powered by solar power and most nights I tapped away by candle light. |
Member of the New Zealand Society of Authors
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