Look and Listen

Biography

Behind the pen I’m brave. I can change my perceptions, Change my reality, and tie it up in a parcel of fiction. I can say what I dare not speak. I can express what I dare not feel. I can lure you into my make believe world. Or is it? My fears can be closed with the pages. My love can be safe within words. My heart can’t be broken. My mind can’t be hurt. My life is safe. When I write…I control fate. The angst ridden writers of yesteryear...how we love to read about their lives as they tapped out novels on a clunky old typewriter, all the while battling inner demons masked inside fictional characters and stories. I don't use a clunky old typewriter, however the rest would be an apt description of myself. I'm a self-confessed workaholic and am currently working on my fifth novel together with a non-fiction project aimed at depression/mental illness awareness. My first novel, The Curtis Reincarnation, is published through Torquere Press. My second novel, Living Inside A Picasso, is published through Zacton Press. Soul Mate Mirror, my third novel, will be available mid 2008 also through Zacton Press. Australian born and bred, I live in Adelaide although my ideal location would be a small country village with a green vista of trees, cobbled streets, peace and quiet surrounding me while I work. Ahh...we can dream, can't we?

Inspiration

Inspiration never arrives when I search for it. I've since learned it's always best to let it find me. Perhaps I'll listen to a piece of music and it speaks to me like soul food. Perhaps I see something on the television, a news article, or notice a person in a crowd and those things spark a thought similar to a flint on a cigarette lighter. I then let it continue to spark without forcing it until suddenly it catches alight. Character faces swim inside my mind, I hear their voices, I begin unravelling their story, and then it's time for me to step in and write. I love the whole process. The anticipation of a story in its feotal stages and the smile that settles on my face when the spark ignites. To me there's nothing more satisfying - except, of course, an end result I'm happy with. I'd describe myself as a disorganised writer, courtesy of my bipolar brain. I'm not afraid of the delete button should I meet a crossroad and I'm a big believer in letting characters speak for themselves. Letting it all evolve as it goes and riding with it. Mapping out and planning a novel doesn't work for me, it only makes my imagination feel trapped. In the end it all comes together - thankfully! Sure, I am a little on the eccentric side. But writing is my world, something I've done since the moment I could hold a pencil and string words together. Something I love. Something, no matter how cliche, which really does define me as a person. Something I'm comfortable with, and something I'm dedicated to.