Born in New Zealand, I had my first taste of writing success when I was in primary school, winning a children's short story competition for a national magazine.

In 1982, my husband and I moved to Australia. It was the beginning of my love affair with the sunburnt country. I’ve lived in and explored the central business districts of large cities, suburbia, idyllic seaside locations, rural areas, bushland, and remote desert mining camps.

During this time I worked in a multitude of different industries including banking, stockbroking, importing and wholesaling, human resources, mining, hospitality, civil engineering, and toys in predominantly accounting, IT and management roles.

A bout of ill health in 2002, though, had me reassessing my priorities. I knew that if I didn’t do something about following my dream then, it would never happen. One of my favorite Mark Twain quotes:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

We moved out of Melbourne city to a rural property one-and-a-half hour’s drive north-east, where I’m now based.

I set about learning everything I could about the craft of writing, ploughing through book after how-to book. Some of the advice conflicted, but at least the authors all agreed on one thing: there is no single approach. And I learnt a great deal about elements of writing I had never really considered.

After the theory came the practice. I concentrated on short stories for a time but found the criteria magazines placed on contributors restrictive. Although from the way I danced in the supermarket aisle the day I opened a women's magazine and found that one of my short-short stories had been published you would have thought I had just been awarded the Booker Prize.

The first novel I wrote was probably the easiest of the five I’ve written so far. The easiest but so embarrassing to look at now. My next novel was better but still scored enough rejection slips to wallpaper the office.

One agent, however, went to the trouble to explain his reasons for rejecting the manuscript. When I completed the next novel, he was the first agent I submitted the manuscript to. Robert Fleck of Professional Media Services, Las Vegas, now represents me. I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better, more approachable agent.