I was born in Adelaide in 1957 and raised at Henley Beach (quite often on the beach!) where I attended the local primary and high school. I then went on to Torrens C.A.E. where I spent three years socialising and emerged as a primary school teacher in 1976.
I then left my beachside home-town to teach at Koonibba Aboriginal School, Ceduna Area School, Pt Broughton Area School, Minlaton Primary School and then Strathalbyn Primary School.
Somewhere in between all of that I worked as a governess for a year on Commonwealth Hill Station, which was oodles of miles of dirt roads north west of Tarcoola.
In 1992 I married and now have a twenty-year-old daughter (and a husband), three adult step-children and five grandchildren. I work part time as a primary school teacher at Strathalbyn and do my writing in the evenings and on my days off when I have time to myself.
I see stories all around me every day, from just the littlest things, sometimes just a sentence or a conversation I have heard. I churn my ideas over and over in my head until I have a story. Sometimes this can take weeks and weeks from the first glimmer of an idea. I love my thesaurus and usually make lots of lists of words to work from. I often have the ending to a story before I have the beginning. I have notebooks full of potential story ideas..
I have had three children's picture books published by Limelight Press (Limpopo Lullaby illus. Dee Huxley 2004, Glass Tears illus. Di Wu 2005). Both of these books were listed as Notable Books by the CBCA. Ali the Bold Heart illustrated by Elise Hurst was released on June 1st 2006 .
Tea and Sugar Christmas illustrated by Robert Ingpen and published by NLA was released in 2014.
One Step at a Time illustrated by Sally Heinrich and published by MidnightSun Publishing was released in 2015.
I have a large organic fruit and veg garden. I love eating the fresh produce from my garden. I also love bottling, drying and pickling it.
I love eating. Especially chocolate. If I could grow a chocolate tree I would. I have a theory about eating and that is, that our whole lives revolve around eating. Think about it! The last time you went somewhere or met a friendwhat did you do? Eat or drink or both!
I also love my chooks! And their big brown eggs. Which I eat!!
P.S. I don't eat the chooks.
