About me
I had my first taste of literary success at the age of eleven, when I won St Michael’s Primary School’s Year Six creative writing competition with my dramatic World War II piece, Dominic Finds a Way. Twenty-four comparatively unsuccessful years later, I was one of the winners of NZ Book Month’s Six Pack Two competition with Scout’s Honour, an extract from an early draft of what was to become All our Secrets.
My short stories have been published in journals and magazines both in New Zealand and across the Tasman, including Southerly: Writers and their Journals (Australia), Pulp (NZ), Viola Beadleton’s Compendium (NZ) and Island (Australia).
All our Secrets was published by Rosa Mira Books (New Zealand) and Clan Destine Press (Australia), and won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel in 2018. My second novel Miracle was published in September 2022.
6 Things About Me
1. I was born in Australia, but have spent over half of my life in New Zealand.
2. I got married in both New Zealand and Australia (to the same man).
3. Our two daughters are called Tess and Tilly (Matilda) – the same names, we later realised, as the characters in a Dick Bruna book I owned when I was five.
4. My favourite authors include Tim Winton, Helen Garner, Christos Tsiolkas, Donna Tartt and Kate Atkinson.
5. The novel I most wish I’d written myself is Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame.
6. I have a lovely cat called Stella.
My original home, Cambewarra, Australia
My current home, Wellington, NZ
My cat, Stella