The Writer

 I've lived in Melbourne, Australia for over thirty years now except for when I do the odd winter season in Alpine Victoria (yes, Australia does get snow). I'm a loud and proud left hander who hates tinned beetroot but has a serious devotion to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Eternals now please Chloé Zhao). 

 I was eight years old when I decided that telling stories was for me. From that point onwards I was the quiet kid who always had some paper and pen in hand at lunchtime getting words down. Many of those words probably won't see the light of day… mostly because they were terrible and that I lost some of them. 

 When I completed secondary school, knowing full well I wanted to be a novelist, I enrolled in the Professional Writing and Editing Diploma at Box Hill TAFE's Whitehorse Campus (currently the second educational institute I attended that is now demolished – tears have been shed) - I completed the two year diploma, learning some of what I know now, and graduated with the hope of becoming a writer.  It didn't happen... then.  

For the next ten-ish years I tried my hands at a lot of different things - I worked as a labourer, swim school teacher and resort worker (remember what I said about winter seasons?) with a lot of domestic and international travel thrown in (backpacking is my second biggest love in life) and another diploma, this one in Travel and Tourism... but I was always getting words down.

Then came the year 2020…

By this point I’d received my share of rejections… but had been published professionally in London (thank you again The New Accelerator) and was seriously considering taking the self publishing approach because I’d long dreamt of seeing my name on a paperback. This came to fruition when a certain pandemic made a name for itself.

So in 2020 I got my hands dirty and after a lot of lessons, many of which were taught to me by indie writers lurking on Instagram, my first book Chaos Surging hit Amazon and by technicality… the world. It’s been a difficult journey but one I’m more than happy to keep going on.