Ex-police officer and ex-paramedic turned Young Adult Fiction author, Fleur Ferris will be speaking at the Patchewollock Music Festival this Saturday about her amazing life and career.
Growing up and living in Patchewollock until the age of 17, she said her time spent there was really important in developing who she is today.
“It was an easy, happy childhood, a really typical family upbringing, nothing like what’s in my novels,” she said.
As a police officer, Fleur moved from her idyllic life to the inner city suburb of St Kilda.
“It was a big change from living up here where crime is a rare thing to working St Kilda where crime is a 24/7 thing.
“I really realised how sheltered and lucky I was growing up,” she said.
Now retired from the police force, she lives on a rice farm in Bunnaloo (an hour north of Echuca) with her husband and three young children.
“It was a really good place to be able to develop my career as a writer.
“I’ve always been a writer, but I never thought about it as a career and I certainly never thought about writing novels until I quite my job in the city and I moved here,” she said.
Since she left the force, Fleur has written seven novels but had no luck getting the first five published.
She finally got her big break when Random House took on her sixth novel, ‘Risk’, which was released in 2015.
To read more of this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (14th October).
