Writing and I go together like peas in a pod. We just fit perfectly. For me, it was love and at first sentence and I was hooked.
Writing is the butterflies in your tummy, the goosebumps on your skin, the tingles of excitement as the words pour out and form sentences that tell a story.
You want to hear a story?
Butterfly Kisses
Butterfly Kisses is a heartfelt look at the bewildering world of a child after the death of a parent. It is a reaffirmation of life, reassuring the child that even though their parent has passed away, they are still with them in the love they will continue to share. With ethereal illustrations, it is a touching read and will surely bring a measure of peace and calm to the bereaved.
Publisher: Austin Macauley
Between the Notes is seeking representation and its forever home. Manuscript available on request.
A girl embarks on a perilous journey to do the impossible, bringing her dad back to life. Unbeknownst to her, she must fight for her own survival.
Presented in verse style, BETWEEN THE NOTES is a middle-grade fiction novel that examines the mystery of death, told through the eyes of twelve-year-old Maggie.
A passion for music, she shares a special connection with her dad. Together on the guitar, they create music, write lyrics and sing their songs. When Maggie’s dad dies in a car accident, her world is shattered. She exists in between the notes of her song, her life.
When I lost my father, I was an adult, but my grief was that of a child. BETWEEN THE NOTES is my grief journey. When a loved one dies it is like there is a piece of us that is missing. Nothing will ever be the same. The life we knew is broken. We wander aimlessly, searching for the connection that frees us to grieve, accept and rebuild our worlds.
I would like to introduce you to my picture book NOW, ALWAYS AND FOREVER. It has a word count of 793. Now, Always and Forever is a story about love, loss and grief told through the eyes of young Sophie who is nearing death after a battle with cancer. Her journey explores how a family lets go of their loved one.
During my years as a primary school teacher in Australia and as a life coach, I took this death journey with many children and adults. What inspired me to write Now, Always and Forever is one child, my 10-year-old student, who lost their older brother in a tragic accident. He had never spoken or expressed emotion. Through storytelling, my student shared the story of his brother’s death to a united empathetic and supportive audience.
As an underrepresented writer, I want to give voice to difficult emotions and challenging subjects that impact. As a child of diverse cultural and immigrant heritage, I know what it is like to be silenced, unable to express my emotions, thoughts and feeling. There was no safe, supportive, and empathetic space to foster this.
Dance To Your Own Beat is seeking representation and its forever home. Manuscript available on request.
Dance to Your Own Beat is a picture story with the empowering and inspirational message of positivity, acceptance, love and unity.
Dance To Your Own Beat is the story of Suni. She is brown-skinned and totally focused on all her different. We journey with Suni as she opens her heart and mind to her beauty, uniqueness, and sparkle with the help of the totally cool, hip disco fairy. Suni confronts her fear and reclaims her self worth and confidence to be her, live her, do her and love her. In doing so, Suni creates her own rockin’ dance style that blends all the different genres she loves.
Dance To Your Own Beat is based on my experiences as a child of Indian origin, growing up in Australia. My family immigrated from Singapore in 1973 when was 1 year old. I grew up in a conservative suburb in the east of Melbourne, my Indian brown skin stood out in the sea of children’s faces on school photo day, because it was the only one.
Everything about me was different. I struggled to accept the diversity of myself, endlessly trying to fit in, to make my skin not so brown, my hair not so black, my eyes not so blue, the food I ate not so Indian. I rejected my uniqueness, focused on the ‘has not’s’ and never on the ‘has’. The core of my struggle wasn’t the people around me, the families that embraced me, the friends that loved me, it began and ended with me. I needed to see my value as me and accept my ‘different’ and my ‘same’.
My story is every child’s story. Every single child will struggle with their 'different', their confidence, their self-worth, their individuality and our innate desire for connection and unity. This begins with acceptance and love of self.