Australia Week: Guest Post by Helen J. Rolfe

I’d always been fascinated by Australia (must have been the Neighbours and Home and Away influence!) but had never been there. So in 2000, at a time when my workplace had changed a lot and I wasn’t enjoying my job as a computer programmer, I handed in my notice and bought a one-way ticket down under. I didn’t know a single person and landed in the middle of the night, in the pouring rain, to retrieve a key from under a mat from an apartment in a Melbourne suburb. Looking back I can’t believe I did it, but it was an awesome experience. I stayed in Australia for 14 years, 9 of those in Melbourne and 5 in Sydney, but returned to the UK last year to spend more time with my family.

I was a late starter to writing. I waited until I became a permanent resident of Australia and then studied journalism part time. I finally made the leap in 2003 and left my I.T. job to write freelance for magazines. I started writing fiction in 2011 and I haven’t stopped since. I love it!

I love setting my books in Australia and both The Friendship Tree and Handle Me with Care are based there. The majority of The Friendship Tree is set in a town called Brewer Creek, which is a fictitious town in the Central Coast of New South Wales. I based Brewer Creek on towns that I have visited in Australia (not necessarily New South Wales). I have also included Sydney and London, both of which I have visited and loved. Handle Me with Care (to be published June 30th 2015) is set in Melbourne, a city I absolutely fell in love with. Again, I have a fictitious setting, this time a suburb called Huntley but many scenes are set in Melbourne itself and in its surrounds.

Australia is an amazing country that I hope to visit again soon, but for now, I bring readers to Australia in my novel s J I hope they fall in love with the country as much as I did!

Helen J. Rolfe's books - Handle Me with Care (release date June 30th) and The Friendship Tree.