A LITTLE ABOUT ME
Born in Dunedin New Zealand in 1962, half Lebanese on my father’s side, and half English on my mothers. I was the third born of seven children. The first four born were girls just one year apart, three boys then followed. Our back yard was full of playground equipment and we welcomed the neighborhood kids in. We lived close to the city in an enormous red brick house with a clay tile roof. The house rose above the footpath boundary on two of its sides. On three of its corners, round bedrooms with turret tops towered high above the footpath. One of the upper level round bedrooms was mine and from there I could see straight over the harbor and out to the headlands. It was the perfect place to drop water balloons out of the window down onto unsuspecting passersby. I giggle as I recall this and a few banana peels too.
I was a bit of a tom-boy as a child and had my legs in plaster a couple of times. Once because I fell out of a tree swing onto an asphalt drive and another time because I jumped off a horse as a riding stunt. I built my own trolley to beat the boys of the neighborhood in races down the High Street hill. I rode horses with my neighbor friend, and much to mums horror she arrived home to find a very large Skewbald standing on the lawn of our postage stamp sized back yard. I had a set of Pearl drums which I played whenever my baby brothers were up and my sisters and I had a little band going with an electric base and lead guitar and an electronic organ... Poor Mum and Dad.
Mum filled the house with books and whenever we were bored she would tell us to read. The Secret Seven and The Famous Five series instantly became my favorites along with Little Old Mrs Pepper Pot and Milly Molly Mandy. Mum always sought out good old English classics. One Christmas Mum bought me a set of Pam Ayers books which I thoroughly enjoyed and found to be really humorous. Pam's stories still to this day influence how I write for children.
As a child growing up in the Lebanese community (on my dads side), there was always someone interesting to observe. Some days I would come home from school to find a Nun or a Priest asleep in one of the chairs in the lounge. One delightful Cantonese Priest even grew his own Ginger in our kitchen cupboard so he could use it fresh when he came over to cook dinner for us. Our house was open to our many relatives. It was delightfully colourful and there was always something happening.
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Jump Forward...
In 1980 after the birth of my second son I relocated to Christchurch for better weather and improved job prospects. Here I raised my family of four sons and one daughter who were born between 1978 and 2001.
Throughout my career I started and sold a number of business and also worked as an architectural designer. For a decade I was a regional manager for one of New Zealand’s largest companies, however in 1999 I left to have my last two sons. In 2011 I returned again to Architecture to assist in the need for new homes following the devastating Canterbury earthquakes.
The Canterbury magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit us in the middle of the night on 4th September 2010 left thousands of people in and out of broken homes, but it was from one of the ten thousand aftershocks on 22nd February 2011, at a magnitude 6.3 with an epicenter near where I was living in Mt Pleasant, that threw the ground a meter up in the air and broke open our house while I was still in it. It was a terrifying time with hundreds of aftershocks hitting us every day. These aftershocks continued to happen for over 2 years. It was exhausting both physically and mentally throughout the 60,000 aftershocks, but we were safe and I am very blessed that no lives in my family were lost.
We eventually bought a house on the other side of town nestled among tall 60 year old walnut trees in a park like setting on half and acre where we rebuilt our lives. Now in 2022. with 5 grown up adult children and 10 wonderful grandchildren, I live here with my husband on half an acre with our three adorable white fluffy Japanese Spitz dogs named Snowbear, Polarbear and Honeybear. (that's another story!)
Having travelled the world I still couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. This is my own little writer’s paradise to enjoy with my children and my grandchildren.
The Pigeon Express was written following an experience I had on board a London train in 2008. A pigeon walked onto my carriage and looked at me in the eye. He rode the train to the next stop and walked slowly out, like he had done this every day.
The New Shoes is a story about something that actually happened to my mother in the 1940’s, and when she told this to me as a child it struck a funny bone with me.
City of Amber is a story about fairies. This came about following a trip to the magnificent Kauri trees in the North Island coupled with my children and grandchildren’s fascination of a small wooden Fairy door that I installed at the base of a very large tree in my own garden. They are adorable to watch when they knock on it 3 times and tell the Fairies their names.
For many years I have written and illustrated stories for my own children when they were very young. How incredible it is to take an empty page and see it transform into so many different possibilities. Now I quietly observe and are continually amazed at how many wonderful stories happen around me every day.
How delightful it is now to be able to share these stories with you.