I see myself these days as an archetypal seeker, for I have had a lifetime obsession to ‘know stuff’: to explore; to question, to observe, to nose about, dig into, track down, and sniff out; to research and to pass on what I discover to others, either in face-to-face encounters or via the written word. My intense curiosity has led me down many paths—physical, emotional and spiritual—and opened endless doors, created challenges, often leaving me vulnerable, and forced me into some difficult choices. It has taken me off the beaten track, helped me learn about people different from myself and what motivates them—particularly those who have ‘taken the road less travelled’—and is a boon whenever I make solitary journeys which I do when following my passions. My inquisitive nature has led me into reading about discoveries on the frontiers of science and investigating the mysteries and wisdom of past cultures, but more than anything, my curiosity has led me in a lifelong search to find the answers to the questions: Who the hell am I? and  Why am I here? and to follow Socrates’ adage: ‘An unexamined life is not worth living’.

 

• I was brought up among the waterways and bushland in the southern Sydney suburb of Blakehurst and was encouraged to always see my life as a bit of an adventure.

• I asked my first serious spiritual question at Sunday School when I was about seven: Why is our Heavenly Father so wrathful? By nine and ten, I was entertaining my classmates with stories of adventurers and explorers who crawled through dark, narrow tunnels, opened forbidden doors, found embalmed bodies, discovered untold treasures and unleashed ancient curses.

• In high school, I discovered the excitement of researching history while confined in the library once a week for arguing with the scripture teacher, and was inspired by a senior geography teacher who spun tales and read from the journals of male—and more interestingly—female explorers who travelled through the world’s deserts and equatorial rain forests.

• I studied at Sydney University, majoring in History and Geography, with a large dose of Anthropology thrown in and a smaller one of Psychology and Education.

• I have been an educator in one form or another for most of my adult life, have travelled widely—although I hate flying. I have penned on-line travel articles in between writing research-based books—thirteen at this time—about the history, mystery and wisdom of ancient cultures.

• When I left the classroom, I bought a café in Mosman on Sydney’s lower north shore, which became the haunt of many local writers, actors and artists and endless other eccentrics. 

• I had my first memoir, Nefertiti Street, published in 2008, my second Maybe I’ll Be Cleverer Tomorrow in 2016, with a third creative non-fiction book well on the way. I have several aborted historical novels set in ancient Egypt filed on my computer and dream of completing them in the near future.

• Today, I live in a quirky old flat in a 19th century terrace in the inner Sydney suburb of Balmain, a peninsula surrounded by the waters of Sydney Harbour. My husband lives in the flat next door.

• I have three adult sons who never fail to remind me ‘to walk my talk’.

• To my friends and associates I am known as Zelda. But that’s another story.

 

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