Hey There
Welcome to my world you sexy thing.
Grab a glass of wine, take a scroll around, and make yourself at home. Hopefully you'll find what you're looking for.
If you like your romance gritty, raw and real then you've come to the right place. There's no pretense here. No polite pretending or pretty lies; just life as it comes, warts and all.
So if you're brave enough... step on in.
Image by Social Laura
About Me
Born and raised on the West Coast of Australia, I completed a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Communications and Media Studies at Murdoch University in 2002.
Although writing was part of my degree, I never expected to write a book (let alone a series!) when I left Uni and embarked upon a marketing career. My professional ambition led me to London for the majority of my twenties, which was where the idea for Stories from the City was born.
With the first two parts of the story now complete, and the third in progress, I'm excited to get the series out into the world a decade after its inception.
The 'Stories from' series was a project long in the making!
It began as nothing more than a creative outlet way back in 2009, when I started to play with some characters and develop the beginnings of a plot. Instead of watching crap TV, I spent my evenings getting inside the minds of my main characters, Bobbi Granger and Jason Stone. Nope, I didn't get their names wrong, that's where our two protagonists began.
In the beginning, I was writing purely for myself - a guilty pleasure if you will - and I never dreamt that all the random scenes I was writing would become a completed book, let alone a whole series!
Image by Sam de Souza Photography
Over the following years, the fictional world that I had created, became an escape for me. Writing was my haven and, if I'm brutally honest, a therapy of sorts. When my world crashed down around me and real life grew more difficult to bear, I retreated further down the rabbit hole. It was me and my characters against the world. I'm not saying it was healthy, but it was my way of coping!
It was my productive rebellion. Creation amidst destruction. Love against rage. A sense of order in a world of chaos.
Soon enough, my own personal experiences infiltrated my beautiful imaginary world and, ever-so-politely, reality hijacked the entire plot and tormented my previously happy characters. I resisted it at first. My lovely story was all fairy floss and rainbows, so why would I want to upset utopia with the harshness of real life?
Then came an interesting revelation: Manure allows a garden to grow. Or in bookish terms, trauma makes characters more interesting. Pain creates strength. Struggle leads to triumph. In short, the problems that characters overcome is what makes them more, well, human.
So I embraced it. Not only in my story, but in my life. I faced the storm, I owned my shit, and I decided that I would turn my traumatic experiences into a positive.
Before long, the story had evolved into something else entirely. It had taken on a life and a personality of its own, as had my beloved main characters. They were now tarnished and weathered but so much stronger for it, and after the trials and tribulations they had overcome, neither of their names suited them anymore. Thus Ashley Granger and Nathan Stone were officially born. Also Kirsty became Kat; Ryan, well... he was still Ryan; and one story became three. It was now a series.
Stories from the City may not be (aka: isn't) perfect; it probably won't win a Pulitzer Prize; and it may never get turned into a film series but... it's mine and I couldn't be prouder. When I look back at the original manuscripts, I can't help but be proud of how far we've all come: the books, the characters and me. We've all been riding this crazy, painful, dramatic, beautiful, lesson-filled ride together, and for that I am thankful.
Image by Sam de Souza Photography
