Carol Marinelli was born in England to Scottish parents, then emigrated to Australia, where there are loads of Scottish and English people who did exactly the same, so she's very at home there. She lives in the outer suburbs of Melbourne--pretty much in her car, driving her three children to their various commitments. In her life, Carol has been a typist, a nurse, a fruit-picker, a backpacker, and has also applied to be a policewoman and to study midwifery, psychology...the list goes on. They all appealed - just not enough.Since the age of eighteen she's dabbled with writing, but it was a rather sporadic effort at first - then finally she decided to take it more seriously.The biggest thrill in Carol's writing life (and it still is to this day) was typing, for the first time, the words "The End". For so many years there had been chapters and outlines and endless stop-starts, but having a full story, from start to middle to end, gave her a rush she had never expected. Of course it was rejected, but she'd got the bug and kept going till she was accepted.