Randomize ME

Secrets, souks, seraglios … and spells.

My son brought me a millefiore paperweight from Venice and I was inspired to write a story about charms hidden in the glass tubing that makes up the tiny flowers.

My most favourite part of the novel is the description of the seraglio as Lalita is led through the Gate of A Thousand Promises. I wanted the reader to experience it as she does because she is temporarily blinded by the sun’s glare and so all her other senses come into play.

I needed to convey the horror of what was happening in her life and contrast it with the sheer beauty of the palace surroundings.

My day job? I’m an Australian sheep farmer working with my husband on our sheep property, as well as being the gardener for about 1.5 acres of gardens.

I am hopelessly un-disciplined when it comes to my writing, as I would prefer to be outdoors working than cooped up at the computer. We grow superfine wool for the Italian and Chinese fabric trade and it’s busy. Especially when we’re lambing, shearing, crutching and doing any other of the million things that need doing on a farm.

To compensate, I write at night in bed with pen on paper! The transcribing to computer then becomes the first edit.

I have almost finished writing The Shifu Cloth which is the fourth in The Chronicles of Eirie. Another stand alone, it is set in the secretive Han province of the world and takes up the successive generation’s story, following on very gently from A Thousand Glass Flowers.