Early in her career Di was a primary school teacher and a teacher-librarian and has had a life-long love of children’s literature. Di has written many popular travel blogs recording her long distance walks in the United Kingdom and Europe. Her most popular blog documents her 2000kms walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats in the United Kingdom. This took four months and wore out six pairs of socks.
Di has a passion for historical fiction and her debut novel for young adult readers, “Anna’s War”, is set in German-occupied southern Netherlands during the last eighteen months of World War II. It is based on the true wartime childhood experiences of three children, two of whom are her elderly parents-in-law. “Anna’s War” will be released in July, 2025.
Di lives with her husband in a small country town 1.5 hours north-west of Brisbane where they are renovating an old Queenslander in their retirement.
WHAT CYA CONFERENCE DID FOR ME
Everything! After I wrote the first few drafts of “Anna’s War”, my writing group, The Tappers, suggested I submit the manuscript to CYA 2021 for assessment. One member also suggested that I enter it into the CYA competition and to my surprise “Anna’s War” came third in the Fiction Writing for Young Adults. I was blown away and this was a huge boost for my debut fiction writing. I also received positive feedback during the assessment.
However, I still felt the manuscript wasn’t ready and I spent more time developing the manuscript before resubmitting to the CYA 2023 Conference. It was then that I met Rowena Beresford from Riveted Press who was enthusiastic and wanted to read the entire manuscript. Rowena came back to me within three days and thought it was a “…wonderful, wonderful story.”
I felt validated as a writer and when I received the email from Rowena offering a contract I cried and then spent the rest of the day on Cloud Nine. I still am! None of this would have occurred if I hadn’t attended the CYA conferences. I am grateful to Tina and the CYA team and all the work they do to encourage writers and illustrators.
