David is a survivor of severe child abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, torture, and starvation. He has written a book that was 30 years in the making. In the last three years he has re-dedicated himself to writing the narrative of his violent youth. Also of his battle with C-PTSD, depression, and his long and winding road to recovery.
The message of his book is simple. No matter how bad the abuse gets... there is life after it ends. We can learn to live again. We can learn to trust again. Most importantly we can learn to love again. We can become survivors. There is always hope.
David is originally from Rhode Island in the USA but has lived in the Cairns area for 11 years now with his wife Christine. He is the private manservant to his four cats, Endeavour, Taco, Ember and Chilly, his little balls of purring valium.
David is now involved mainly with getting legislation passed concerning child abuse laws, enforcement, and statute of limitations. No child deserves to be abused.
If you see it, report it.
Book link USA https://www.amazon.com/dp/196050519X
Book link Australia https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/196050519X
Webpage/private https://www.facebook.com/groups/755526315608658 Facebook private group invite only it is my child abuse awareness page.
Born and raised in drizzly Manchester, Sam Woodgarth uprooted and transplanted herself in tropical Cairns, where she shares a home with her amazing husband and clowder of spoiled cats.
Sam swapped her teacher's desk for a writer's desk, and runs a small, in person, writing group: The Write Tight Crew. Her short stories have appeared in numerous international online and print publications, including the ever popular Chicken Soup for the Soul Christmas anthology.
She writes epic fantasy for discerning women and men.
You can discover more about Sam and her novels: https://www.facebook.com/SamWoodgarth/
Her books are available: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Sam-Woodgarth/author/
Stephen Chong M.Ed. is an author, speaker and screenwriter who draws his inspiration from life. Themes of life that relate to us all – love, grief, struggle, overcoming obstacles. Culminating in his five inspirational novels, four feature-film screenplays and multiple short-stories, he has converted these ‘life themes’ into stories that we can all relate to. Stories that resonate in the soul. Stories that identify us as unique and wonderful human beings. Stephen’s wise observations of modern work and personal life will give insight how to realise your highest potential through a rich and fulfilling life.
Stephen’s books include: Bodies of Consequence (2019), Power and the Possible (2015), Letters Across Time (2013), The Music of the Soul (2011), The Book of Testaments (2009), plus The Afterlife, A Journey To, released in mid-2022.
Feature film screenplays: A Meaningful Life, Mean Paradise, The Pivot Point, Bodies of Consequence.
Visit his website (link below) or Facebook page or LinkedIn, for more information.
Writing under the name of JL McInnes, Jeanette McInnes grew up in Europe and lived in Asia for several years before migrating with her then husband to Australia. She has pursued a range of careers including: Interpreter-Translator, Nurse, RAAF Chinese Linguist, secondary school teacher of modern languages, tug pilot, aerobatic joy flight pilot, ultra-light flying instructor, scuba diving instructor, Customs Officer, etc.
In retirement, Jeanette has published Midnight at 6AM, volumes one, two and three, Staying Afloat, and The Harder They Fall, available as e-books and in paperback on Amazon. Her varied careers, the many countries in which she’s spent time, and the ambiance of Tropical North Queensland, where she’s lived for over 20 years, have provided interesting backdrops to Jeanette’s tales, which might be described as: suspense, humour, drama, travel and romance. She is currently working on her sixth book.
As an aspiring author of romance and women's fiction, Frances loves nothing more than losing herself in a good romance. She's all about helping you forget the housework, or the bus to work you're going to miss, if you don't put the book down now!
She's devoted to giving her readers an emotional, yet satisfying ride, with a love story that'll melt your heart and keep the pages turning right until the end.
When she isn't writing, Frances is climbing mountains, searching for waterfalls and swimming across lakes. She loves to exercise, would prefer it if someone else cooked dinner every night, and never notices dust on the furniture.
She lives with her husband in tropical Far North Queensland, Australia, and uses her great baking skills to tempt her three daughters to visit home as often as they can.
Des switched from Melbourne’s Bayside writer’s group to Ravenshoe, Cairns and Atherton writers’ groups. Through a great variety of members and friendships Des has learnt much and yet still hungers for more. He currently runs Word Weavers, a writer’s group at Atherton, a fortnightly episode of mirth, misery, and mystery, as members entertain with Weaved stories of delight.
At Tropical Writers Inc in Cairns he has learnt the mastery of writing books from accomplished writers. He may not have learnt the principles of English use during his school days and still struggles with its proper use. Back in the days, the end of Form 3 was the signal to be free of all that stuff about teachers and learning. But now, in the years of appreciation for such thing, he is learning from his fellow writers and creators of stories.
Des has just released a fiction novel as his latest achievement, a 245-page novel, a story based in Melbourne, This Home Where. Other published books include Timid Drip and a book of Poems called Fragments of My Mind. Des’ stories can be found on Facebook: Fragments of My Mind, Des O’Neill: Short Stories.
Debra Gavranich grew up on a sugarcane farm near Mossman in Far North Queensland and after travelling extensively returned to Cairns where she lives with her husband and family and works as a physiotherapist.
The Girl Who Left is her first book. It is based on her mother’s life. Her mother was from former Yugoslavia and lived in an occupied village during World War Two. As a teenager she agreed to a proxy marriage to a farmer in Far North Queensland. The book was published by Wild Dingo Press in August 2021 and has sold thousands.
Debra has had many radio interviews including ABC Conversations with Sarah Kanowski and ABC Nightlife with Indira Naidoo - Radio Australia, Coversations | Radio Programs, Nightlife - as well as many launches both in Australian and overseas.
Debra is overwhelmed by the success of this story and feels it is a quintessential Australian immigration story, showcasing our diverse cultural heritage and what it means to be Australian.
Carole had a distinguished career in media. Beginning as children’s announcer 2WG Wagga; to London’s Radio Luxembourg; a ‘pirate’ on Radio 270 in the North Sea; introduced talkback to Canberra on 2CA; Sydney radio’s first female executive as Program Manager 2GB and Producer radio World Series Cricket; the ‘voice’ of TCN Channel 9; then built the first FM station in Darwin.
She began with ABC Queensland at Toowoomba, followed by talkback on 4QR Brisbane, ABC Townsville, then Regional Program Manager ABC Far North Cairns. Lastly, a member of the ABC National Advisory Council 2000-2004.
Carole was adviser or member of over a hundred professional, community and industry bodies, including Chairman Centenary of Federation NT 1998-2002; Chairman Australia Day Council NT 1994-2004.
Proudest achievements Territorian of the Year 1998; Order of Australia Medal ‘for services to Australian broadcasting’ 1999.
Retired: Convenor FNQ, Order of Australia Association, she’s finally writing her memoirs.
In January 2019 Barbara released a gripping biography of Lena Goldstein a 100-year-old Holocaust Survivor living in Sydney. This is Barbara’s second book on the Holocaust with the first being the biography of William Cooper in 2012. He was an Aboriginal Australian who, as well as being an activist for his people, led a protest against Kristallnacht, the start of the Holocaust in 1938.
She wrote a historical biography in 2014 on European adventurers who were the first to land on Australian soil in 1606. This was followed in 2018 with her memoir, White Woman Black Heart and The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia, both with an emphasis on the contact history of Europeans with Indigenous people.
Barbara is a pastor, mediator, psychologist, sociologist and historian. She was shortlisted in 2018 for the Queensland Literary Awards for a “Work of State Significance” for her memoir.
Elizabeth moved from Melbourne to Cairns in 2000. She has been a member of Tropical Writers since 2010, speaking on author panels at the 2012 and 2014 Cairns Tropical Writers Festivals, the 2011 JCU Tropics of the Imagination Conference and at the Yungaburra Book Fair in 2010, 2011 and 2012. She presented Tea for Two, with Josephine Moon, author of The Tea Chest, at the Cairns Botanical Gardens, in June 2014.
Her publications include the two romantic comedy novels (All You Need is Love and Coffee, and The Teahouse in the Lime Trees) set in Far North Queensland; articles in Medical Observer; short stories in the Tropical Writers 2011 and 2013 anthologies; and her story Second Thoughts was published in 2010 in ABC Great Australian Rabbit Stories. Her poem Silence Slices won the Port Douglas Gazette and Reef Writers poetry competition in 2012. Her story Damn Dog Won’t Die was shortlisted for the QRRRWN/Writer’s Web competition in 2013 and later published in their e-anthology. The Fragility of Loyalty won the Tropical Writer’s Tiny Shorts competition in January 2017.
Elizabeth works as a general practitioner, a medical educator and a shepherd of three energetic boys and an assortment of other animals. She can be found in her spare time lurking in various coffee shops around Cairns, avoiding single use plastic items and scrabbling back a creative life.
Robyn Kienzle BSc. Dip. Ed.
After teaching Senior science at a girl’s school in Toowoomba, marriage took Robyn to Kokoda in PNG where she then worked with her husband managing the family cattle and rubber estates. From there they moved to their farm on the Darling Downs, where they grew cattle and asparagus and owned and operated a supermarket in the local town. A few years on the Gold Coast in semi-retirement allowed Robyn time to write her father- in -law’s biography “The Architect of Kokoda”, published 2011, now into its 3rd Edition & heading to 20,000 copies sold. Robyn and her husband now own management rights in Cairns as Robyn tries to find time to pen a follow up book about life in PNG post war.
Dr Sathyabhama Daly (nee Gopal) is an adjunct research fellow at the College of Arts, Education and Social Sciences, James Cook University, Australia. Her research interests are the ways in which writers use myths, legends and fairy tales to engage with history and cultural identity in contemporary society. A founding member of Tropical Writers Inc. and Cairns Tropical Writers Festival, she is actively involved in nurturing and promoting writing, literature, and the Arts in the region. Her publications include short stories, memoirs, and academic essays.
Pete Barker left school at 16 due to a mutual lack of interest. He found much more exciting things to do working in car factories, mines, power stations and other noisy, greasy places full of giant machines. He went on to travel across Asia, Europe, and Africa for several years before studying for a degree in English Literature in the United States. Luckily – or not – he took a second major in Journalism which led to working as a reporter, photographer and editor at magazines and newspapers in the U.S., Hong Kong and Australia. These days he avoids work by pretending to be a freelance journalist while trying to write two books at once (it’s a Gemini thing) and tinkering with noisy, greasy old motorbikes.
D. S. Hodges lives in Cairns, Australia with his wife Angela and two children. He is owned by a cat who sits on a chair next to him as he writes. Dave is hoping the cat will one day provide inspiration, but all the cat ever does is sleep.
Over the course of his life, Dave has had numerous jobs: he worked as a baker in the family business, as a computer programmer, as a business analyst and finally a project manager. He now writes full time, and has published three books. Two of his books are in the Blaise Hall series: The Barlow Bridge Machine and Retribution. The third book is Little Miss Muffet, the story of the 1921 Mount Mulligan mining disaster. To learn more about these books, go to www.dshodges.info
When Lenka started her career in financial planning twenty years ago, the possibility of becoming a writer didn’t even enter her mind. She had just arrived from the European shores, and was settling down in her new life in Canberra.
Fast-forward twenty years, and Lenka now lives with her family in beautiful Cairns, enjoying the tropics and everything it has to offer. She has become a writer and is the author of two children’s picture books about an adventurous bunny, Tommy Learns a Lesson and Tommy and Friends to the Rescue, while still dabbling in financial planning.
Lenka is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and Queensland Writers Centre.
Lenka would like to invite you to visit her website at www.lenkawagner.com where you can find out more about her and her books.
Denise Petersen (McCallum) was born in Jamestown in 1949, and lived in Caltowie, a small town near the grain belt of South Australia.
She now lives in Cairns with her husband and adult children. She still works happily at the Cairns Hospital.
As a child in the 1950s Denise was asked many times, “What would you like to be when you grow up?” Aunty Mavis, her mother’s sister, was a much-traveled nurse, who would chat extensively about her great adventures traveling overseas and her many stories of nursing experiences. Denise always answered she wanted to be “A nurse like Aunty Mavis”. The family moved to Port Augusta. After a difficult time in school due to her dyslexia, Denise commenced nursing training at the Port Augusta General Hospital in 1966. This began her journey with nursing, from the fun days of training, where we learned compassion and camaraderie, to the hard work of a nurse’s life. This led to Midwifery training, remote nursing out on the Nullarbor Plains of Australia, and patrol work and home Midwifery in Papua New Guinea.
After twenty years in Papua New Guinea, Denise returned to Australia and settled in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, with her family. She continued to expand her nursing career at the Cairns Base Hospital, working up to a Level 2 position in Paediatric Units, higher duties in Nurse Management positions and finally settling as the Regional Case Manager for Children with Cancer. She was always eager to pass her knowledge and experiences down to younger nurses, with many “tricks of the trade” of nursing. Her story incorporates her many travels and experiences of living in Papua New Guinea, her family, and ocean sailing on the yacht, Vitiaz.
Denise had often thought of recording Aunty Mavis’s many nursing adventures. Sadly, by the time an opportunity for this arose, her aunt had dementia, and her stories were lost forever. This encouraged Denise to write about her own nursing career and travel experiences, in memory of her aunt’s life.
Philip was born in Birmingham, UK, in 1957, and emigrated to Australia—among the wave of ₤10 immigrants—in 1966. The family settled in Adelaide in South Australia. Philip has enjoyed a number of careers over the years, including serving as an Anglican minister, and working as an evolutionary biologist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He holds two doctorates, one in theology and one in biology. When Philip left Switzerland, he returned to Australia to pursue a more literary career. Always keen on writing, Philip finally completed his first novel in 2012, and is continuing to write in his spare time.
Now based in Cairns, in Far North Queensland, Philip runs a freelance editing business from home.
Carol Libke is a qualified journalist who has written a non-fiction history book, magazine and newspaper articles, short stories and a host of 500-word pieces and a video for ABC Open.
For the past 13 years, Carol has served as past-president, secretary and longstanding committee member of Tropical Writers Inc. Her short stories are included in all group anthologies.
Carol enjoys the company of like-minded friends who enjoy discussing books and watching movies on the big screen. She recently relocated to South East Queensland's Scenic Rim, with her family, and is currently working on a new non-fiction work, planning a novella and writing simple stories for her grandchildren.
© Tropical Writers Inc 2025