A Journey of Writing

Out of my three Life Loves- Travel, Writing, Circus- creative writing came first in the timeline. And it still comes first; of the three, it’s the non-negotiable, the one I can’t live without.

I discovered a love of storytelling very early in my life. Like, really early, at the age of two.

I would sit at the dining table at home and draw A4 page after A4 page of stick figures, like a cartoon strip. My mum would sit with me, and I’d explain to her who all the people were in my pictures and what the stories were all about. My dad worked as a draftsman for the Brisbane City Council and would bring home stacks of used print paper, still blank on one side. He could barely keep up with the supply.

I loved using ‘Fuzzy Felt’, a children’s activity featuring assorted felt shapes that stuck to flocked, velvety rectangular boards. The sets included themes like Farm, Jungle, and Ballet. Fuzzy Felt encouraged my imagination, fine motor skills, and storytelling, and I’d create scenes and intricate plotlines.

Mum also gave me a few old bracelets and chains from old purses, with which I would create shapes of mermaids with beautiful tails and long hair, and move them around on the table. 

Like many little girls in the 1990s, I loved Barbies and used my dolls and other toys to play out the stories in my head. Our two-storey house was a playground for my doll games, a make-believe land of mermaid palaces or sparse deserts, oceans and mountains that reached up into cloud kingdoms.  The backyard, the house, the school ground, and games with my friends were all inspirations to me. 

Once I started school, the detail in my drawings caught the attention of my teachers. My first-grade teacher commented to my mother on my ‘outstanding’ art skills, although she was concerned about my difficulties with simple math and problem-solving.  I couldn’t write neatly, and my lines of words took a slant away from the spine of my exercise book.  No matter how hard I tried, I could never seem to make my letters neat.

Although the teacher was concerned about these issues, Mum considered my ‘learning difficulties’ to not be a major problem for me in the first grade.  She continued to encourage me in the art skills she already knew I had. 

As I progressed through primary school, I began to write a few lines of a story with my drawings. By the time I reached high school, I had dropped the illustrations altogether, much to Mum’s disappointment. She still keeps a collection of my early drawings.

I was distracted easily at school, pretending my pencils and erasers were characters and my desk was their house.  I would get so absorbed in my storyline that I’d look up and realise we were halfway through the lesson and I had no idea what we were doing.  Or the teacher would get mad with me for not paying attention. 

I loved to create stories all the time, and my whole world was my material. Mum just kept telling me I was doing fine.

At nine years old, after suffering two seizures, I was diagnosed with Epilepsy. The medication I was prescribed made me drowsy, and I started falling asleep in school. Mum had to remind me to complete simple daily tasks like brushing my teeth and hair and getting changed.  It was embarrassing.

Each day was a struggle in the classroom. I could not absorb the information being taught. I was extremely shy and self-conscious, and struggled to maintain friendships with my peers.  However, I found freedom in my storytelling. I came home from school each day and spent hours in my bedroom drawing pictures and writing a few simple sentences underneath each one.  It was an escape for me, something I could do aside from all the things I could not.

My health had improved by grade seven. My doctor took me off medication, and I became much brighter and more aware of my surroundings. I coped much better in school, and at age fifteen I decided I wanted to get serious about my writing. Mum signed me up for a correspondance writing course, which I worked on alongside my school studies. I wrote my first short story as an assignment for the course. 

Writing seemed like a whimsical career choice to many people close to me. It was difficult to hear their doubts in my abilities, especially during my impressionable teenage years. But I didn’t let anyone destroy my dream, choosing only to listen to those people who encouraged me.

Mum approached me about writing a book about her life. Still being at school she knew I was not yet ready, but advised me that when the time came, the project was there to start if I wanted to take it on.

I left school after grade ten and started working full-time, while continuing the correspondence writing course.  At age eighteen, I joined the Queensland Writers Centre, and attended many workshops and masterclasses. By then I had written several rough novel manuscripts. I also loved writing short stories and submitted them regularly to competitions and literary awards.  I gathered a small network of people consisting of my mum, an editor and a few close friends who read my work and gave me feedback on my stories.

Around this time, I started writing the first draft of Mum’s life story. After five years of hard work, I published The Wilted Rose, a creative nonfiction novel inspired by the true story of my family’s experience with mental illness during the 1960s. I have since gone on to publish more books and multiple short stories across various genres.

In 2014, I entered the Grieve Writing Competition with a flash fiction story inspired by my cousin’s recent cuicide. My entry was selected and published in the annual anthology. My entry was again selected in 2015, and I also received the inaugural Hunter Writers Centre Award. That same year, I was a finalist in the Reader’s Digest 100 Word Short Story Competition.

In 2016, I had my first appearance at a writer’s festival, in the Self Published Marquee at the Byron Writers Festival.

In 2023, I was selected in the Outback Writers Festival Short Story Competition. Jabiru, a story about a dinner date in a small township in Kakadu, was published in the annual anthology. 

I received my first international writing recognition in 2022, when I was selected as a Finalist in the Wild Atlantic Writing Awards. That same year, I shortlisted for the SD Harvey Short Crime Story Award and won the 2022 GenreCon Short Story Competition.

I have been published in three previous Rainforest Writing Retreat anthologies, Meanwhile Murder (2021), Got Game? (2022), and Charms of Love (2023).

In February 2026, I was selected for a full scholarship to attend the Queenstown Writer’s Retreat in New Zealand. I’m super excited to go to this event in March, and keep an eye out here for a blog about this literary adventure!

In my writing, I take a particular interest in exploring various human experiences and perspectives. I predominantly write crime and psychological suspense, often with a sprinkling of the supernatural.

All of my books are available for download HERE. The Wilted Rose is available on Amazon in paperback in the UK, US and Canada. Please contact me for paperback copies in Australia.