ABOUT NIKKI

Before I became a writer I stumbled through a jumble of jobs from television acting to drama teaching to legal counselling to kindergarten dogsbody, to check-out operator to personal assistant and everything in between.

I grew up on the Gold Coast, when it was still a lovely beach village and my father was a high-school English teacher with a penchant for Shakespeare. His love of words and stories was a gift that I still treasure today. I have always written, from the age of about four and I was never without a pen in my hand. I wrote plays and performed them with friends from school to very little applause. I wrote short stories and was thrilled at twelve to come second in the Gold Coast Bulletin’s essay competition, with the theme of ‘My Brilliant Career’ to coincide with the launch of the film, starring Judy Davis and Sam Neil. I wrote about my dream to follow in Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin’s footsteps to become a great writer.

Life and boys and bands and then Sydney, marriage and children distracted me from my literary dreams and I traveled about the country like a gypsy gathering stories in my head, filing them away for the day when I might pick up a pen once again.

Somewhere along the way I graduated from law school. It was those tedious years of writing legal papers that became the impetus to get me back into creative writing. I gave myself one year to get my writing noticed before I would throw it in and get a real job in the legal sector.

I wrote a memoir and eleven and a half months later, I was shortlisted for a Queensland Premier’s Literary Award in the Emerging Writer Category. That was the sign from the universe that I was waiting for and I decided that it meant I should pursue a career in writing.

One Way or Another  was released in 2012 with Black Inc. Sandy Feet was released in 2014 with UQP. I have written for the Sydney Morning Herald, The Hoopla, Mamamia and The Big Issue.

Hexenhaus was released in 2016. Liberty is out now in book stores and Saga will follow in 2019 – a loose trilogy which can be read in any order or as stand-alone books. They are novels that explore the way women can shape their own destiny against all odds. My characters are strong girls who defy social conventions and stand up and fight to have their voices heard. I hope through my books I can encourage and empower young women to strive to be the very best they can be and to reach their full potential and beyond.

In 2016 I won the Irish Moth Award judged by John Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) which was a career highlight. LIBERTY was just announced as a Notable Book by the Children’s Book Council of Australia (2019) which made my heart very glad. Another career highlight!

I live in the misty Blue Mountains with my family, school-teacher husband Zeus and two of my five children. The others have grown up but visit often. I am currently writing an adult fiction manuscript based on a local ghost legend while also transposing Hexenhaus and Liberty into screenplays as I am keen to move back toward film in the near future.

If you wish to book me for an event or a speaking gig or if you just want to say hi, my email address is on the home page.