I grew up surrounded by books, and have a love of reading and stories. Commercial fiction, literary fiction, children’s literature, history – my bookshelves are forever overflowing.
My eclectic background includes an Honours degree in social history and English, and a range of work experiences – HR in a hospital, youth worker, dance teacher, organisational development manager, educational designer, occasional academic, and museum curator.
Although I lived as a child on the edge of Melbourne and Canberra, my Dad loved taking us out bush, and my interest has always turned outwards to regional and rural areas, rather than cities. Since moving to the New England region of northern NSW in 1988, I’ve travelled extensively in rural and outback Australia and Victoria and love the landscapes, histories, and resilient people and communities.
My inner historian and my love of textiles combine in my interest in historical fashion, particularly in the clothing of ordinary people through time, and how it was made and worn. Which means that although I have no idea of current 2019 fashions, I do know the latest in fashion details for 1819 and 1919!
I’m a member of the Romance Writers of Australia and the Romance Writers of America, and in July 2007 I was honoured to win the prestigious Golden Heart Award for the romantic suspense manuscript which became As Darkness Falls, my first novel published in 2008. Three of my novels (Dark Country, Dead Heat, and Storm Clouds) have won an Australian Romance Readers’ award for best Australian romantic suspense novel. Dark Country and Dead Heat were both shortlisted for the Romance Writers of America RITA awards – the ‘Oscars’ of romance writing – and for the Daphne du Maurier award for romantic suspense, and Storm Clouds was the first romantic suspense novel to be short-listed for the Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards for crime writing.
After writing six contemporary romantic suspense novels and a novella, I turned to another favourite genre – historical romance. In part inspired by the research I undertook for my Honours thesis on late 18th century British worsted textiles, The Clothier’s Daughter is set in Yorkshire in 1816. The Clothier’s Daughter won the Historical category of the Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year Award.
I’m fortunate to live on 100 acres of beautiful bushland in the New England tablelands, with my husband and two energetic border collies. I’m privileged to be able to enjoy the naturalness and the rich complexity of the bush every day.
I love to hear from readers! If you’d like to send me an email, please use the contact form on the Contact page.