Regional Victoria was my childhood where my father was a Pharmacist and my mother a Nurse in a small farming community. My parents travelled as long as I can remember and this filled our dinner conversations around culture and language. Growing up in a monocultural country town meant we had to make great effort to experience other cultures. Therefore living overseas at a young age and travelling frequently has influenced my writing.

I wrote a lot of poetry when i was young, very young and mostly short stories. I can remember writing my first journal (which I still have) when I was eight on a family holiday to central Australia.

Actually surprising myself! I hope that my story enlightens and empowers people to make change. When someone reads what I write and says they didn't know that or this, that gives me great satisfaction. I also love it when people discuss my characters and know them better than I do!

When I was sixteen years old I lived in Thailand for a year as an exchange student. In the late seventies there were many migrants flooding Thailand from Cambodia (Kampuchea) and a constant flow from Burma. This was my first awareness of displaced people, specifically stateless people and the effect it has had on bordering countries like Thailand. It was my recollections from this experience and having continued to visit Thailand every year over 30 years that has influenced my latest book.

I knew very early on that if I were to write a book that I would go it alone. I am so glad as an Indie author that I chose to self publish - it has been a wonderful experience and so empowering! I wish more people would see this and chose to self publish - I am proud to self publish and see it as a major achievement in my life.

Writing the second book has been much harder than I expected. I began one and then put it aside then went back to it. At the moment I have one complete novel almost ready to release and another shortly after. Both are crime fiction but very different.

There are many strong female writers that I admire.

My husband and I live on a large property and we also live near the beach. Outdoors is a big part of life and we love fishing, bike riding and enjoying friends for coffee. We travel frequently, more often to Thailand but we have been fortunate to visit many parts of the world.

I begin and just write! Don't look back too much, just keep getting the story down. The take a breath and back to it and rewrite over and over, until it feels right. It took me two years with this book with a few breaks. But the rewriting process is the real work - writing it first is the easy part!