Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in a remote city in Australia, and this has given me not only an outsider's perspective of the world, but Australian English spelling in my books and a large Australian presence, which I do not apologise for.
For example, in Tina Storm: Demon Hunter, the Christmas school holidays are in summertime, and Tina attends college classes that are not university, nor strictly high school, but somewhere in between, just like the college I attended. For Americans, this is the equivalent of the senior year of high school, and for the British, this is similar to Sixth Form.
I write about real life locations and situations I directly experienced in Demon's Blood. Of course, I'm not a super-powered demon hunter, but I have experienced some of Tina's high school experiences, and base it in the suburbs.
In The Edge of Darkness, I drew on my family's history of immigration and made Max's parents immigrants to Australia who only wanted her to embrace Australian culture: that's why Max only speaks English!
In Lies for a Living, both Tori and Cameron are drawn to each other because of their shared Australian background in a foreign country, where I also lived.
I'm Australian and it plays a large part in the presence and influence in my books.
What motivated you to become an indie author?
I have a full-time day job that I really love, so I don't want to work to anyone's deadline except my own.
I love to write in different genres and for different audiences. I never wanted to be put in a box and branded 'this author only write this niche sub-genre', which is often what happens with marketing traditionally published authors.
Also, the flexibility of publishing a book with a kitten on my lap is appealing.
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