Like most writers, I’ve written since I was a child, fiddling around with paper and pens, rather the way an artist does with brush and paints. The scale of the writing increased with my age, to the point where when my children left home, I thought I had the time and space to complete the novel I had always wanted to write.
I live in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, the island bunkered down to the south of the Australian continent. Having been born and educated here and despite living in other places, my husband and I moved back about 18 years ago. The island ethos appeals to my own sensibilities – the security, beauty and freedom of living removed from the rest of the world. It makes for a perfect environment in which to write.
We farm a cropping and wool-growing property just outside of Hobart and when time and seasons permit, I load the Jack Russell terriers in the car and head to a little ‘House’ on the coast and write, swim, walk and kayak. The coast is where I’m truly at home. I feel content when I am on the beach or the water – in summer or winter and a deep sense of all that’s right with the world ensues.
I’m university educated with a media and bookish background. The scholarships awarded for an Arts degree and for a postgraduate diploma in librarianship and my later occupation as a journalist were a past history that laid some hefty foundation stones for investigation, an absolute pre-requisite for the craft of writing.