Hi, I'm Kerrie Paterson.
I'm an Australian author of small town romance, and I also live in a small motorhome. I want to bring you along for the journey of both my travel and my writing. One thing that sets my books apart from some others is that my main characters are older, so they're in their 40s and above. That's because I believe that life doesn't stop when you hit middle age.
I currently have seven books published. Some are with a publisher, and the rest are self-published. I'm currently writing my eighth book at the moment. I've always loved writing, right from when I was a kid, and that became more of a passion as I got closer to 40. About 14 or 15 years ago, I was suddenly filled with the urge that I wanted to write a book before I hit my 40th birthday. I joined the Romance Writers of Australia group and took lots of courses and did my very best. I didn't quite make a book before I turned 40, but it wasn't too long after that from memory. Like many people's first book, it isn't great and will never see the light of day, but it was great training. From there, I went on, persevered, kept taking courses, kept practicing. I started placing in contests, and that gave me the confidence to start self-publishing my work. Sometime after that, I also got my first contract with a traditional publisher to publish my first book.
So I published for a few years. Life was going well, and then, as can often happen, marriage breakdown, single mum, full-time work, volunteering — throw all that into the mix, and the words dried up. I just couldn't write. I thought my writing career was over. I packed everything away, and I didn't think I would ever get back to it.
As my kiddo grew up, I started making plans for after they left home. I bought myself a small motorhome, and I started taking some small trips and watching so many van life videos in the hope that one day I would also be able to hit the road and have a life of freedom. I was renting and working remotely; I couldn't afford to rent and travel, so that was my solution. I could still work remotely, live out of my van, and get to see part of Australia.
When kiddo moved out, after about a year when they left, I ended my lease, sold everything or gave it away, put some in storage, and then I moved into the van. That was about 2 and 1/2 years ago. I've mostly explored Victoria, with trips back to New South Wales to see family.
Then, around 18 months ago, I started to think about writing again. It was very slow, just an inkling: "Oh, that'd make a good story," "Oh, I feel like writing again." It took a little while, but eventually the words started to flow again, and I started to regain that joy of writing and realized how much I'd missed it. I released another book in December last year and also wrote a small novella for my newsletter subscribers, which I released earlier this year. I'm now writing my eighth book, which is the third in a series called The Hope Creek series that I started writing way back in 2015.
So that's it for now. I hope you enjoy a brief look at where I'm staying at the moment, and I hope you come along for more. I want to share with you both my writing updates and where I'm currently traveling so that you can see parts of Australia as well.
Bye for now!
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