Ann Massey

I was born in Lancashire, England and came to Australia as a teenager. I've lived a full life of changes, challenges and adventure---experiences that have given me a lifelong fascination with people, relationships, and the stories hidden beneath the surface.

I live in Marmion, Western Australia, where I'm lucky enough to walk beside the ocean every morning. The coastline, the people I meet, and the world around me continues to inspire my writing.

Before becoming a full-time writer, I worked in newspapers, education and hospitality. I was marketing manager of Perth's afternoon newspaper, the Daily News, taught English literature, and owned and ran three hotels---experiences that introduced me to a wonderful variety of people and gave me endless insights into human nature.

I have never been very good at putting my novels into boxes. Some are thrillers, some have romance, mystery, history and humour woven through them. They take readers from Australia to Borneo, the Middle East, Ancient Britain and beyond. The settings and the stories can be very different.

What connects them is something I've come to think of as "square peg fiction"--- stories that don't fit comfortably into one particular genre, populated by characters who don't always fit into the lives expected of them.

Perhaps that's because I've never believed people fit neatly into boxes either. We're all multi-faceted: serious one moment, and ridiculous the next, brave in some circumstances, and hopelessly vulnerable in others. I like my characters to have that same mixture.

So if you enjoy a novel that takes you somewhere unexpected, crosses a few boundaries along the way, and doesn't worry too much about which shelf it belongs on: welcome. You may be a square peg too.