I grew up in Western Australia. Our family lived in the wheat-belt town of Quairading when I was born, but I spent most of my early childhood and junior Primary school years within walking distance of the idyllic Scarborough Beach. I spent the last few years of primary school in the towns of Cranbrook and Quairading and went to three high schools: Quairading, Cunderdin, and Northam where I went to boarding school. Since then I’ve lived in Perth, on the east coast of Australia, in Sydney, and in the towns of Mukinbudin and Quairading again. I raised my four children, predominantly in the Pilbara mining town of Newman, and have been back living in Perth since 2008.

I'd love to say that living in city, rural and remote locations gave me a broader range of landscapes to choose from when establishing place in a story, but to be honest, I'm no Peter Cowan. I'm more likely to pay attention to 'people' than my physical environment. I'd have to revisit a place to set a story in it (which I sometimes do); but, as my stories are usually inspired by true events, for legal reasons, I de-identify the material I want to use, so I don't usually write about places I'm familiar with. I conduct online research to try and find a place that might fit with the story I want to tell and then I go there to get a feel for the place and check out the local landmarks.

Hmmm. Apparently, I was making-up stories and acting them out with my imaginary friend well before I could write... I went to pre-primary at a Montessori School where they let kids focus on whatever they are interested in, and oddly enough, I was into numbers, loved maths and was passionate about everything science. I remember being in a remedial handwriting class when I transferred to a public school as I still couldn't write very well in Year 3. Fortunately, the remedial handwriting teacher was left-handed (like me) and I picked up writing pretty quickly once he showed me how he did it. So, I'm guessing it wasn't until I was in Year 4 (about 9) that I started putting my imaginary world onto paper.

I don't remember the first story I wrote, or any of my earliest stories, but my mother kept the first poem I had published - it was either in a school newsletter or a local paper - and it was written in 1972 when I was nine. I'd just started playing hockey and the poem was about a hockey stick breaking.

The first story I remember writing was one I received an award for at a school assembly in Year 9 (age 13). It was for writing the best story about “Nothing” and I only remember it because I wrote the “Nothing” story while banned from my English class and seated at a desk outside the Headmistress’ office. Looking back on my life history timeline though, I went to three high schools in three years and it seems like I became disruptive in class just before and just after we relocated to somewhere new.

I don't put anything to paper until I have a pretty thorough plot mapped out. I like to 'do something else' (I often bake scones and cupcakes) while I have ideas churning and pictures forming in my mind. I'm pretty old school in the planning phases. I will simultaneously jot sentences or a reference to follow up onto colour-coded index cards, I'll sketch scenes in my art journal, and I'll do a big-picture plot-plan on one side of a big whiteboard and work on my characters on the other side.

I spend a lot of time getting to know my characters, their life histories, their families etc, and I give each of them the character traits of one of the nine personalities from the Enneagram. I do this for two reasons, firstly, so if I get to a point in the story-line when I'm unsure how my character should respond or react, I go to their Enneagram personality type for guidance so I can keep their behaviour consistent and believable. The second reason I like to personality-type my characters is because I like everyone in the audience to be able to relate to at least one character in the story. If I can squeeze all nine personality types into a story - I will.

It's only after I've got the backstory clear in my mind that I sit down at my computer to write. My elaborate planning often goes out the window once the characters and the world they live in comes to life. Sometimes it's like 'they' are telling me the story and I'm just the scribe - well, at least that's what happens when a project is going well...

I don't edit as I write, but I do a light edit of what I last wrote before I start writing again. This is partly because it helps me get my head back into the story - and partly because I don't notice grammar, spelling or punctuation errors when I'm in writing-mode and I like to fix the worst of them as I go.

Once I finish a story, I print off a hard copy, shelve it and start on something new. Sometimes I'll pick something up a few months later and decide it is too crap to spend the time and energy editing and reworking and it disappears into my 'it seemed like a good idea at the time' files. At other times, I love getting back into the story and I'll polish and shape it a bit more, set it aside again, and repeat that process until something inside me just says 'it's done'.

I’m one of those writers who likes to retreat from the world to write. When I’m writing, the rest of the world (and everyone in it) ceases to exist, so while I was an at-home mum with four little kids, I planned a lot of 'future' writing projects and didn't get much actual writing done. I've still got a back-log of ideas from those non-writing years that I'd love to work on 'one day'.

I think a lot of people were surprised when I decided to be a writer. In high school, I loved algebra and science, especially chemistry calculations, and I think everyone expected me to do something more conservative and financially rewarding. But, once I discovered literature and started reading the classics, I was hooked and there was no going back from there.

I read a lot and everything from trashy and literary fiction to cross-disciplined academic journals. I paint, write bad-poetry and even worse songs on my piano. I enjoy pottering around my home and learning new things. I'm always doing a course in 'something' to help me keep in touch with what's trending and to give me something new to write about.

My second bathroom is my chemistry lab. It's where I make aromatherapy blends for myself and family members. I also have a collection of crystals, including an amethyst geode to cleanse them in, and despite my interest in evidence-based science, I'm also open to the universe and to the celestial intervention of angels.

I have desks - plural. I have a dedicated writing space that takes up a whole bedroom. It has four desks lining the walls and a built-in wardrobe with a lateral filing cabinet, stationery supplies and 'cooling' projects inside. Under one desk there are mobile drawers with things I like to keep handy inside (e.g. plastic sleeves, spare printer ink, staples etc) a bin and shredder.

One desk is my computer desk which also has a fan to cool my computer, a landline telephone/answering machine, back-up external hard-drive, desk lamp and speakers on top of it. To the left and connected to my writing desk is another desk with a long bookshelf laid sideways on top with all my current writing project files, any related research files, various dictionaries, a style manual and things like a calculator, my DRAFT and other self-inking stamps and slots for things like white editing card, bookmarks, staple remover and pens.

The adjoining desk to my right is in front of the window. It holds a laminator, paper punch, staplers, binding and labelling machines with space in front of them to sort and file notes. It also has an unlucky bamboo plant that I always forget to water on top, and a cat basket which my cat, Nala, rarely uses (she prefers to squeeze herself into a space on the bookshelf, or to park herself on top of whatever I am trying to read and work on).

The fourth desk is my planning and editing space. Across the back wall I have a desk lamp, photo of my kids, pen, pencil, highlighter pen storage, index card boxes (stacked on top of each other) an aromatherapy oil burner, candles and oils. I have a large desk blotter calendar that I scribble notes on if I'm working on one project and think of something related to another project and I 'card up' my scribbles at the end of each month.

To the right of that is an art area. I have a sketch book and art journal within reach of the desk and there are things like liquid paper, a glue stick, watercolour pencils, textas and gel pens in an organiser tray along the wall at the back. There is an adult colouring book on the desk which I sometimes use to help switch off and unwind at the end of the work day.

It is a great workspace - the type of space I could only dream of when I was younger - and now I don't have to share the desks with anyone else, it's also a far more productive space too.

I read fiction on a Kindle. My kids bought me my first Kindle as a Mother’s Day gift, thinking it would prevent me from collecting more books (I call it 'collecting', they call it 'hoarding'). But, I like to make notations in books as I read and although I can highlight text and make notes in the Kindle, if I want to remember something, I prefer a hard-copy book that I can use coloured highlighters in to mark important points and make them easier to find, years later, if I want to reference them in an article.

But, having said that, I also have a Mac Laptop that I read on as well.

I'm in a book club and I'm on Goodreads so mostly via recommendations from family and friends. I also look up the winners of literary and crime-writing awards, the New York Times best seller list, and whatever was voted as Best Books in the previous year.

I'm having a break from writing while I'm studying and getting to know my new grandsons; but, I've got a feature film script and a television series cooling and waiting to be edited. I'm also researching a new project - which is starting out as a book - but it has the potential to work as a feature film franchise, its too early to tell the direction it will take.