I’m a born and bred country girl and while life here may be slower, I love a good action book and movie. But, like my book selection I do enjoy reading in other genres including rural fiction, fantasy and science fiction, historical fiction and the occasional romantic comedy.
I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I didn’t fully realise my love for the craft until I entered my first short story competition when I was twelve years old. While I didn’t win (bummer I really wanted that computer), my story was published in the national newspaper, and I even received a cheque, which in my eyes (and that of my school and wider community) I was a winner. The following year my love for writing was further cemented when I took out a state-wide short story competition for a factual piece.
But, that’s where my writing ended. School, career and family took centre stage and writing was only done when I had time. Sound familiar? While I may have worked in various office jobs ranging from trainee receptionist to bookkeeping, to second in charge to project accountant, there’s always been that niggling feeling of returning to my first love, my writing.
Finally listening to that niggling feeling, I spent most of 2016 relearning the craft, reading books, blog posts, videos. You name it, I was absorbing it. But, hey you never stop learning do you, so I’m still learning and redefining my craft. In 2017 I finally had the courage to put fingers to keyboard and began writing the Emily Lee series and I haven’t looked back. I’ve loved the process from writing through to publishing. Okay, okay maybe not so much the editing. It’s amazing how many other writing things will be completed when there’s editing beckoning you for it’s attention! And was definitely a learning curve, but one i’m very grateful to being allowed the opportunity to pursue it.