Never in my wildest dreams

Write a Book.
That’s what I wrote on my bucket list. I never imagined how much those three words would change my life. My initial motivation was simple. Unlike the fabulous Cherry Adair, numbers are my friend. English was not. So I thought the best way to improve my spelling, grammar and vocabulary would be to write a story

I'm really bad at guitar.

Every birthday and Christmas my husband shakes out my bucket list for inspiration. One year he helped me tick off ‘Learn a musical instrument’. He gave me a beautiful guitar and paid for lessons. But to be honest I’m really crap at it.  

The following year, he scoured my list again and at number 69 - I kid you not - is ‘Write a Book’. So hubby purchased the Year of the Novel Course at the Queensland Writers Centre. During this course, I wrote Lost In Kakadu and it literally changed my life.

But writing it was the easy part. Editing that shitty manuscript took eight years of hard slog. I followed up that first course with several more. Then I hired an editor who also offered mentoring and boy did she have her work cut out for her. I learnt about POV’s and cliché’s, first person and third person perspectives. I learnt syntax, synonyms, sentence structure and just about everything else in between. I wrote short stories, drafted two more manuscripts and learnt the joys of character arcs. I worked hard, did my homework, read the prescribed reading, experimented and practiced. Then practiced some more.

At the Romance Writers Conference, James Scott Bell said that you CAN learn to write - I know exactly what he means. My poor editor nearly gave up on me many times. But now, with my beautiful R*BY trophy glistening with inner glow on my kitchen windowsill she admits the tears were all worth it.
Without my bucket list, I may never have discovered my passion for writing. 
By the way I had also written ‘Publish My Book’ and ‘Win The RuBY  Award’ on my bucket list. But never in my wildest dreams did I believe it would happen with my debut novel. 

My rather unconventional speech...
It's not every day someone uses a Muppet's reference in their winning speech. I have no idea where that came from, but at least the crowd laughed. Thank you Romance Writers Australia for creating this truly amazing competition.

Romantic Book of the Year 2014 Winner trophy - stunning

The winning slide at the Romance Writers Conference

I couldn't wait to tell my hubby of my win. He's the one who made it happen.

My debut novel Lost in Kakadu -
A story of survival, grief, adventure and undying love is out now.