Welcome to my new website! Here you will find illustrated articles on the writing process, book reviews, film festivals, and excerpts from my work-in-progress, ‘A Difficult Daughter’. There is also more background material on ‘Capriccio: A Novel’, which re-creates the true story of Assia Gutmann Wevill, who was Ted Hughes’ lover and Sylvia Plath’s rival. I look forward to meeting new followers, and re-connecting with my previous readers.

About Me

Being something of a gypsy, I live on opposite ends of our continent: tropical Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia, and cosmopolitan Sydney in New South Wales. Occasionally I reside on the picturesque Central Coast of. I’ve lived in twenty-seven houses or apartments so far, and rarely stay settled for more than seven years.

If you wonder how I could fit Writing into this peripetetic life,I would answer: with difficulty, commitment, bloodsweat&tears, with equal amounts of despair and joy. It has taken my entire life to become an author.

In grade 3, I told the class of fellow eight-year-olds:, “When I grow up, I want to be an authoress, like Ethel Turner ” [my then heroine, who wrote the iconic Seven Little Australians]. Everyone, including the teacher, laughed their heads off. I hung my head in shame, never quite sure what had provoked this mirth, knowing I had exposed myself to ridicule. This put me off the idea of being a writer for the next twenty years or so, although I always scribbled in secret.

For many years I worked as a language teacher of academic English, then became an editor, mostly of tertiary students’ theses. Lately I’ve aspired to my original vocation, and instead of editing other people’s work, I’m giving my left brain a rest, re-activating my right brain, and returning to my first love, creative writing.

Since turning my attention from others’ writing to my own, I’ve discovered how easy it is to disappear into another world, peopled by my characters and their lives. On the other hand, I’ve found that few people take one seriously as a writer: the phone still rings (or buzzes, when I remember to switch it to silent) the bills still mount up, and a looming deadline is no excuse for missing a social occasion. Yet every day I’m filled with gratitude, to the Universe, for allowing me to indulge my first love: Writing.

My other interests, besides the main one of writing and reading, are sailing (occasionally) Yoga (see my post on same) travel (see posts on Darwin, NT, ) and movies, including all the film festivals I can get to. I also collect elephants (not live ones, although I love them too).