From the very earliest I can remember, I was transfixed by stories. Those would have been the ones Mum read to me when I was a little kid. My imagination had been fired and soon I became a storyteller, not just an avid listener (and eventually, reader).
Early years, growing up in Melbourne wasn’t terribly exciting but once the family moved to the River Murray town of Swan Hill in Victoria, my creativity soared – in my head anyway. Stories of the river have been with me since.
Back in Melbourne, after secondary school was done and dusted, and teacher’s college no longer held any charm, I headed for the Red Centre and Life. That’s where I first penned what I thought was a full length novel.
Thirty-three years and many drafts later of that same handwritten story, it became
Daughter of the Murray, published in 2016 with HarperCollins Australia.
Not sure when history began to make me sit up and take notice, it’s always been there as has mystery and adventure. Being drawn to those things made for an easy segue into the style and genre of the stories I now write. I write other genres, and will continue, but I seem to work best in the historic drama space. Love the research!
Darry - and Hamish the Wonder Dog, beloved writing companion - live and work on the beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia, very close
to the mighty River Murray.
