About the writer

So with the few posts I've made over the years, I guess I've not really told you much about myself. So who am I? I'm a newly found emerging writer who only discovered I had a passion in the area about four years ago when I began writing the first part of a series of novels. Named after an Aunt of mine in Fiji whom I've never met who is a writer and journalist, my maternal grandfather hoped that in naming one of my five names after her, that I would one day eventually follow in her footsteps. I grew up in West Auckland New Zealand, the youngest of six children in the 1970's. My parents migrated from the Islands and were part of the first wave of the Pacific Migration. My father was an avid fisherman who spent most of his adult working life as a Welder, my mother in a local supermarket until her health took a turn. She now enjoys a quieter life watching grandchildren and the like. Dad represented Samoa in the very first South Pacific games representing for basketball and volleyball. Dad loved sport and fishing. The two loves of his life. He now gardens. Dad doesn't fish much anymore because his knees are too weak to make the trek up and down the stairs at Muriwai beach and I know it kills him not to do what he loves. I graduated from Massey University with an undergraduate Arts degree, majoring in Psychology then returned some years later to complete a Masters in Social Work (Applied). I've worked in retail, in a paint factory, in afterschool care, hotel house keeping and community holiday programmes but for most of my professional life, I've worked with young people in a residential home, as a Youth Worker in High Schools, a Family Violence Social Worker, a Teen Parent Case Worker, an external Social Work Supervisor and as part of the leadership team of a local community volunteer youth initiative.

So where did the inspiration for writing come from you ask?