ABOUT GAIL

I was born, for which I'm very glad, and set about learning all sorts of things from those I wasn't interested in like maths, sport and after school chores, and those I was very interested in like drawing, writing and riding horses. My childhood was idyllic and I feel so lucky. After all, we lived in a seaside town and my parents owned a toy shop. Next door there was a sweet shop. Talk about a kid's paradise! Each summer we travelled to Europe for our holidays. I wrote in my travel diary every day and illustrated everything from scenery, houses and people to bugs and other critters.

  In my bedroom I had paints, pencils, paper and craft items. I'd spend many hours   painting, cutting, sticking, drawing, creating and writing. I still do.

 What was I going to be when I grew up? I hadn't a clue so I trained and qualified with
 the British Horse Society in equine management and horse riding instruction. It was
 fun for a while but it wasn't to be my career path. (My career path was hidden by thick  scrub and resembled crazy paving.)

My husband and I raised our two children in a variety of locations around WA.We ran our earthmoving business in the northwest, worked on our sheep station,  Nyang, (now renamed Emu Creek) in the West Pilbara where I also reported the weather information to the Meteorological Dept via telex machine. Then for something different we sold Nyang and bought a bannana plantation in Carnarvon. There was far more than just bananas in our plantation: we shared it with humungous spiders, snakes and rats and one day a big, smelly, feral billy goat.

We moved back near Perth and when my children went to school so did I. This time I studied graphic design and illustration full time for three years. After qualifying I worked freelance designing posters, brochures, packaging design, logos, corporate identity, illustrations including botanical and medical, calligraphy and typography. It was fun but not quite the career path I was searching for.

It was around this time that I damaged my knee, which seriously compromised my salza dancing, and found myself stuck at home creaking quietly. I needed a new career path and went back to school again, this time via correspondence to study writing for children. Eureka! Stories bubbled up out of my imagination. Some have been published, some I'm still working on. Some I've illustrated and I've illustrated other writers' stories too.

Now I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. Although I still haven't grown up I carried on anyway. At last I had my career path. Well not just a path, it's a two-lane highway with no speed limit!

So here I am living with my husband Dave in a small (make that tiny) country town and our children off doing their own things like motor racing, qualifying as a commercial helicopter pilot and instructor, competing in horse shows, driving monstrous trucks on a gold mine, and raising my grandsons. I spend a lot of my time in my fabulous studio - built especially for me by Dave - writing stories, illustrating, designing and creating websites. And for a change I also create soft toys and other crafty pursuits, try to play the guitar, listen to loud music on the stereo and have a ball!

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