Membership List

Welcome to our member’s page. Here you will find a list of all the current members of the Tropical Writer’s group.

Annette Christensen
Annette was born in Denmark and lived in Germany and England before migrating to Australia in 1971. She worked as a registered nurse in New South Wales and Queensland and later ran her own business near Cairns for 11 years. Now retired, Annette finds more time for family, reading and writing.

Carol Libke (President)
Carol’s work at a small local magazine prompted her to study a Bachelor of Journalism at James Cook University. Her book, Our Club: The History of the Ellis Beach Surf Lifesaving Club was published in 2007. Carol’s first play ‘Angus’ was short-listed for ‘Short and Sweet’ in 2009. Carol is the current president of Tropical Writers.

Celia Berrell
Celia is an award-winning speaker who loves writing rhyming verse about science. She has been published in the CSIRO’s children’s science magazines, The Helix and Scientriffic and presents her poetry at local schools. Supported by the Education Department and JCU, a selection of Celia’s Science Rhymes are made available to pre-service teachers. See www.sciencerhymes.com.au

Christine Eyres
In the past I have used the writing of poetry as a vehicle for condensing and resolving thoughts and feelings in order to express myself through the visual arts. Now the writing bug has bitten and is taking over my life.

David J Delaney
David left school aged fifteen and has had no formal education in writing. Since discovering his prowess in writing bush poetry in 2007 Dave has self-published popular poetry books and has expanded his interest to include memoir and short story writing. Dave’s work is quintessentially Australian.

Diana Messervy
Diana rediscovered her love of writing when she retired. Prior to this her only published work was a chapter in a text book for special education practitioners for which she received the princely sum of $100. Diana lives on the stunning Atherton Tableland where the landscape and the characters fuel her passion for writing.

Diane Finlay
Diane left England for Australia in 1995 and stayed. She self-published The Duck With No Quack, joined Tropical Writers and became Treasurer. Diane was part of the team who organised Tropical Writers Festivals in 2008 and 2010. She has penned two children's novels and continues to write short stories and poetry. Diane's work has featured in Short and Twisted anthologies in 2010 and 2011


Elizabeth Martin
Elizabeth was born in Melbourne and moved to Cairns in 2000. She published seven short stories based on real medical cases in Medical Observer in 2007-2010, and her short story Second Thoughts was published in Great Australian Rabbit Stories, ABC books, in August 2010. Elizabeth’s debut romantic comedy novel The Coffeeholic and the Cafe was published by Boolarong Press in October 2010. Elizabeth works as a GP, medical educator and mother to three boys.

Gloria Anderlini
Gloria was born in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. She has lived in Far North Queensland for 60 years. She is now a great-grandmother and is a prolific writer of poetry, short stories and scripts. Gloria draws from her own life experience in her writing.

Jacqueline George
Jacqueline lives with her cat and husband in tropical house in Cooktown. It is a rewarding and peaceful place, ideal for writing her stories. She writes adventure, romance (some remarkably steamy), paranormal, historical, whatever takes her fancy. You can find more on her books and how she wrote them at www.jacquelinegeorgewriter.com

Magda Palmer-Cordingly
Author of best-selling book Healing Power of Crystals, authored and illustrated opera WindRose performed 2009 by DSO. Magda has been involved in theatre for many years including working on West End, London and as News Reader for Grampian and Scottish Television. Having completed her Feng Shui Student Manual, Magda is currently working on her Ensemble Theatre Production “WindRose”. Her website can be found here: www.maggiepalmer.biz

Mick Willcox
Mick has spent most of a nomadic working life employed in the transport industry: highway, mining, civil construction ... but has constantly been haunted by the suspicion; this was not his undeniable destiny. He has now almost completed his first novel and is enjoying the satisfaction of realising his true identity.

Oonagh Prettejohn
Born in South India, Oonagh lived in the UK and Hong Kong prior to settling in Australia. Her short stories have been published in magazines, newspapers, online and several anthologies including the Tropical Writers publications. She studied creative writing with the Institute of Modern Language and considers life the greatest education for a writer.

Paul Freeman
A resident in the Tropical North for twenty-two years, Paul uses this background for all his writing, citing the climate and lifestyle an inspiration ... It gives one a kind of open mind to thoughts, ideas and characters ... like floating on your back in a big bowl of warm water. Tanquil.

Rob Farquhar
Rob recently gave up being a writer-in-denial to work on his first book. He's married to a wonderful woman, works for a newspaper, loves science fiction, kicks a ball around, dabbles in video games, and suffers the worst of the tropics with the best humour a city boy can muster.

Rob Macalister
Rob’ poetry is an eclectic mix with a strong sense of place. Over the last couple of years Rob has expanded his interest to include short story writing. His work, including his first short story Splash has been included in the 2009 and 2010 Tropical Writers anthologies.

Sally McDonald
Sally retired to the tropics to become a beachcomber. When she's not walking dogs on the beach, she is writing essays, short stories, plays and novels. She's written a weekly column for a newspaper and had a book published in 2010 entitled Pet Sitter's Diary. She's had several plays produced and like all writers is in the process of writing the next bestseller - between beach walks.

Talitha Kalago
Talitha Kalago is a horror and fantasy writer currently signed with the Joy Harris Literary Agency in New York. Her website contains a range of writing tutorials for those interested in the craft and she maintains a blog of regular writing tips. Her website can be found here: http://www.traditionalevolution.com/