ABOUT

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I am an aspiring children’s book writer and illustrator, but life gets in way of creativity, so I currently work as a Speech Pathologist. This is a very boring job in comparison with previous ones. ‘Shearer’s cook’ was a career bestowed on me as the eldest daughter of a farmer. I learnt how to master a wood burning stove to produce three meals a day at the tender age of 15 and at the height of summer. I am happy to report everyone survived the experience. I travelled the world much later on, and for two terrible months I trained to be a golf caddy in Japan, a career to which I was wholly unsuited. I learnt how to climb down slippery cliffs to retrieve golf balls, how to move large snakes out of sand bunkers and how to drink hot milk. I would not call myself a coward, but I draw the line at hot milk, and I left this job soon afterwards.

I love books and will spurn most things in life in favour of dawdling through a bookshop. All except coffee. Nothing comes between me and a good coffee. I now have a vast collection of children’s books that I begrudgingly share with my 7-year-old nephew whose love of a good story rivals my own. I live in a small coastal town in Australia with a fluffy cat, dog and a very large, smelly guinea pig who escaped his cage and is now living a life of adventure in our garden.

I am supposed to love gardening but I've been thoroughly defeated by kikuyu grass: battle lines were drawn and the weeds won!

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I have a very loose drawing style and prefer drawing animals over humans everyday of the week. I love wacky whimsy and humour with a passion and I think this comes through in my creations. I used to use traditional media but then stopped abruptly one day when my nephew decided to eat my paints - a crazy situation since the kid is such a fussy eater he won't eat cake at a birthday party! One large panic and call to the poison line later, I decided to put my watercolours away for a few years.  I now use photoshop and mixed media. Textures and collage are my jam - but not the cut out with scissors kind. I hate glue and sticky fingers and much prefer to magic wand and paste electronically!

I am extreme introvert so I love working solo in my own business everyday. I try and lead a life where I am organised but you are more likely to find me racing out the door with my hair standing on end while trying to figure out how to get a bird (that the fluffy cat brought in) out of my bedroom! The trick was to take off the screen - it is sitting beside me right now waiting to be put back on!

 

Bio:
 

Writing:

2008: awarded Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Award Mentorship for 'Amelia and Jake', an adventure chapter book for 10 to 12 year olds.  

2017:
    i.   long listed in The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Aspiring Writers’ Mentorship Program       
    ii.  short listed in in the 2018 Maurice Saxby Creative Development Program for a picture book called
          ‘The Goose is Out’.
 

Illustration:
 

2020:
‘The Goose Is Out!’ picture book
    i. highly commended in the 2020 Scribbles  Creative Writing Awards (story board)
    ii.  awarded first place in ASA Style File Illustration Award Mentorships 
    iii. won the West Words Pinerolo Illustrator in Residence, where Elizabeth spent
         a week with the highly respected publisher and director of Pinerolo, Margaret Hamilton. 

2021: Commended award for New England 'Message in a Bottle' Competition.
             Result: "original and poignant take on the theme; adorable characters and story."

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