About

I am a Hunter Valley based writer who grew up, farmed, and played along the banks of the Hunter River.

I love the rich history of the area and often escape down the rabbit hole of research. On one such excursion I fortuitously found a family connection to a local landmark and historic figure, William Harpur, one of the founding settlers in the Hunter Valley; assistant to the Surveyor General in 1821; who established his property Oswald on the Hunter River in the mid 1820’s, and is related to my father’s great-grandfather who settled in Australia in the 1840’s.

This discovery piqued my interest in the people who lived here before me, and so I find myself setting my stories in and around the places I grew up. I was fortunate to have lived on a small property and grew up riding horses, mustering with a local cattleman who filled my head with stories of his life growing up on the land, caring for the pit ponies during a strike at the Rothbury Mine Riot and being branded a scab, and learning about horses, cattle, the land, and the area.

My love of reading evolved into a desire to write, and with that, I determined to be the best writer I could be, and so embarked on a series of writing courses both online and overseas. I was blessed to be able to travel to the UK and attend Kate Forsyth’s History, Mystery, and Magic writing retreat in the gorgeous Cotswolds, where I learned the importance of research and taking the time to get it right. I won a mentorship with Charlotte Legder of Harper Impulse with a Romantic Suspense story, and another with Felicity Pulman for Stone of Destiny, a YA timeslip

I’ve dabbled in contemporary romance, YA timeslip and finally have found my home in Australian Historical stories with a good dash of romance, because I love romance.