Helen Iles

Helen Iles was born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1954. Her storytelling ability started at an early age and was encouraged by her Grade Three teacher, then challenged further by her Grade Seven teacher who put her on the road to writing the longer story. Branching into novels became easy and, after studying her craft for many years, she began teaching creative writing at various colleges and writing venues.

Helen has won numerous awards for short story writing, poetry and non-fiction, which are featured in her collection of writing ‘Indelible Ink’. She placed third in an international mystery writers’ competition with her second novel, A Call to Sarah, which is yet to be released.

Having a long career in emergency service work, Helen has written numerous training manuals focusing on fire and emergency response and has herself lead and managed mounted search teams as a volunteer for over 25 years, as well as working in incident management during cyclones and other disasters.

Her life-long involvement in horse breaking and training spurred her family’s involvement in horse competitions and Pony Club, and set Helen on a path of competing, judging and training young riders. This experience with horses often comes through in her stories and poetry.

Recently retired from Fire and Emergency Services, Helen is now settling down to pen more novels, to edit novels previously written, and assist other writers by conducting writing workshops around the State more frequently.

She has recently also taken up illustrating children's picture books, and is having much fun dabbling with mixed medium.