Arlo is Australian and currently lives on the island of Tasmania. She has worked in a range of jobs including as an artist, running a small business selling tea, and in education. Currently she is a senior teacher at the local high-school. She loves travelling as that is when she indulges her passion for infra-red landscape photography – you can see examples in the background of her author's website. She is also an accomplished artist and she finds that writing fantasy is a perfect complement to her love of painting. Both her fantasy novels and her website feature her artwork. She started writing novels about twenty years ago with 'Margot's Men' and her focus is now on the fantasy series 'The Lygons of Fraith' which is about a race of beautArlo is Australian and currently lives on the island of Tasmania. She has worked in a range of jobs including as an artist, running a small business selling tea, and in education. Currently she is a senior teacher at the local high-school. She loves travelling as that is when she indulges her passion for infra-red landscape photography – you can see examples in the background of her author's website. She is also an accomplished artist and she finds that writing fantasy is a perfect complement to her love of painting. Both her fantasy novels and her website feature her artwork. She started writing novels about twenty years ago with 'Margot's Men' and her focus is now on the fantasy series 'The Lygons of Fraith' which is about a race of beautiful reptilian cats, their cheeky companions the geflars, many colourful dragons and a few humans . . ....more
Arlo MerciaThere were two mysteries in my life as I grew up. The first surrounded the whereabouts of my uncle - my mother's brother. He and his wife had moved to…moreThere were two mysteries in my life as I grew up. The first surrounded the whereabouts of my uncle - my mother's brother. He and his wife had moved to Tasmania from England in the early 1950's and started a chicken farm in a town south of Hobart. This was very isolated with difficult dirt roads and my aunt was most unhappy. They went back to England and left the farm to be run by the foreman, who accidentally fed the chickens fertiliser instead of feed pellets and they all died. The foreman panicked and abandoned the place, and my father had to clean up the mess and deal with the RSPCA court case. Being who he was, my father blamed my uncle, cut ties with him, and forbade my mother to have any contact. 30 years later, after my father died, my mother made contact again, and a friend paid for her to visit him - they had a lovely holiday together just 18 months before my uncle died. The second mystery surrounded my father's ancestry - he claimed his grandfather was a free settler, and not a convict. After he died we discovered his grandfather had indeed been a convict - sent out to Tasmania from Norfolk for stealing a cheese, and was quite a character. We think my father knew and was ashamed, but I was just relieved to find there was someone interesting in the family!(less)
Arlo MerciaI don't really get a writing block as in don't know what to write, as I am writing a long running series, so I already have lots of the stories in my …moreI don't really get a writing block as in don't know what to write, as I am writing a long running series, so I already have lots of the stories in my head and just hope I live long enough to write them all. It is more that sometimes I have to pause and sort out aspects of the plot - how do I get this character from here to there? What happens next? How is this character going to behave in this situation? Those sort of questions. The best times to think about these things are while lying half asleep in bed, or driving, or doing the housework. The best attitude is patience, and the best comfort foods while waiting for the answers to appear are chai tea and chocolate :)(less)
Mentoring has been a bit of a theme in my life recently. At the school where I work (no, I still haven't given up the day-job), apart from teaching various subjects, I am in charge of all the careers education and events for 700 students. Last week I ran a program where the students could access video-conference career mentoring from industry volunteers. Most of them really enjoyed it. I joked to
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