After six years working in high school outdoor education, and the masculinised outdoor adventure industry, I became intimately interested in what makes young men tick, and the emotional challenges they negotiate each day, often in silence. My first novel, My Private Pectus, published by Ford Street Publishing, gives these boys a voice.

While writing My Private Pectus, I studied masculinities as part of a Master of Arts at Queensland University of Technology. A focus of this research was the emergence of body image as a key concern for today’s young men, and how this is portrayed in Australian young adult fiction.

Now living in Lismore in northern New South Wales, I’m working on two new books: the biography of Jimmy Wan, a pioneer of the coffee industry in Papua New Guinea; and a children’s story about a young boy whose father is fighting in Afghanistan.

My news and political opinion articles have appeared in trade magazines, regional and national newspapers, and various online media. I’ve also edited and published a book of poetry.