Camel Rider

I’ve always wanted to be a writer, so when I left school, I decided I needed to go out into the world and collect experiences, so that when I had enough, I could write about them.

I traveled around Australia and then around the world. The experiences I collected were many and varied: learning how to cook while working with shearers in the outback; learning how to fly while ferrying aeroplanes across to Canada and back with my husband; and learning to teach while teaching English as a foreign language to Arab girls. Along the way, I learned about life.

I got my chance to write while living in Dubai when I started working for a children’s magazine. All my different experiences became useful. I had six columns to write, covering astronomy, astrology, science and technology, gardening, as well as a weekly bedtime story and an advice column. There, I also met an interesting old lady from Iran and helped her write her autobiography, which was later published.

My time in Dubai taught me more than how to write, though. I learned that when people from different cultures meet, they often don’t trust or respect each other, and there can be many misunderstandings that can even lead to war. But after having lived and made friends with people from other nationalities, I know that no culture is better than another; we just do things differently.

I wrote the first draft of Camel Rider while living in Dubai. We left there in March 2001 and now live in magical ‘Rowan House’, which overlooks the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. Here, I run a writers’ retreat and guesthouse.

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