Her parents were journalists so there were always ”colourful characters” dropping in for dinner. As a kid she loved to impersonate these people. Even then she must”ve enjoyed observing the human condition.
Life took a downturn when she was in 5th class and her mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She battled cancer for 10 years and died just after her 19th birthday. She thinks spending so much time in hospitals and around the sick must”ve been the reason she decided to become a nurse. No one else in her family had followed a medical path.
She trained at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in the days of ”hospital training” and later specialized in Oncology which is the care of cancer patients. The area she really liked was Bone Marrow Transplantation. She was head chemotherapy sister at the University College Hospital in London. They had the biggest transplant unit in Europe.
She loved nursing. The people she met and cared for were an endless source of inspiration enabling her to develop an empathy with the human condition, its frailties and spirit. Nursing probably made her a better writer.
She didn”t write a word till she was 35 years old!!! Yes, almost one foot in the grave! In 2000 she did a Creative Writing Course via correspondence whilst recovering from Glandular Fever. She loved it, so straight after she did another course, at Sydney University with Libby Gleeson. It was with Libby that she found out about the Australian Society of Authors Mentorship program.
Her application to the ASA”s program was successful and Garry Crew was her mentor. The day she opened the letter to say she’d been successful was such an exciting one. She remembers how much she screamed ? her kids remember too!
Her first novel ”White Lies” was written during the mentorship and Lothian published it in 2002. It was made a CBCA notable book for 2003.
She was on her way to really becoming a writer and since then she haven”t stopped.
She lives on Sydney”s Northern Beaches with her hubby Michael and two kids Victoria and Nick. Well, she can”t really say ”kids” as Victoria is a teenager. They have a big fat Labrador called Jake and sometimes a python, that her son calls Timmie, slithers in to say g”day.
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