Thanks for taking a peek into my somewhat twisted world.
It sometimes seems so hectic but who’d want it any other way? I thrive on being busy and openly admit I’m an overachiever. So this year I give myself the ultimate challenge.
366 DAYS 366 STORIES
While still working part time, completing a masters degree and taking on adventure races every second weekend. To easy. Right?
Anyway, a little backround. I’ve lived on the Central Coast in New South Wales, Australia since I started kindergarten so many years ago. I completed my 6th year at Gosford High School in 2005 having completed the Higher School Certificate with some fairly descent marks (I’m pretty modest too.) I’m not that old though I usually suffer a mid-life crisis at least once a year (guess it would be a mid-year crisis then?). After my sister fled the country for a year, my brother and I kicked my parents out of home in 2009, but after a year my brother kicked me out too and I now live with my partner in crime, Ben, and the family cats who turn 17 this year and are somewhat senile.
I began writing when I was little (as most writers claim) and was super pleased when I finished my first “book” called Cat Island that was a whole 45 pages long! It even had pictures! When I was 14ish I wrote my first full length story during Maths class that reached well and truly over 200 pages (and that was after I made the font smaller and removed the double space between lines) and when printed could easily knock out any sibling. The story was called Immortal and was heavily influenced by Buffy with a more fantasy type twist.
Whilst editing that story, I wrote Kangaroo Feathers, the first in the Hopscotch Chronicles, in two weeks and, because it was much shorter than Immortal, I decided to try and publish that one first. In 2004, when I was only 16, I self-published Kangaroo Feathers in time for ANZAC day. It has a front cover and everything!
Since then I’ve been to uni, travelled through Europe for 5 months (including participating in San Fermin or better known as the Running of the Bulls), taught karate, learnt piano, ran 52kms in a relay race of 100kms through the Blue Mountains, Aus, and then the following year tried to do the full 100kms, and other crazy, somewhat stupid, but usually very exciting things. The one thing I’ve been consistently passionate about has been writing.
Writing is like having a good sneeze, releasing tension and all those icky emotions that I dangerously bottle up and sometimes unleash on unsuspecting victims. I’ve never not written. Looking back on stories I wrote in primary school it is often amusing to see how my brain function then. It’s almost better than writing in a journal everyday as with every passing year I am now beginning to notice the change in my writing style. (Hopefully for the better.)
That’s all about me for now, summed up in a few paragraphs. Oh! And my favourite colour is blue! No yel…!
