The son of an itinerant rural worker I grew up in a world of poetry recitations around campfires and on the boards of shearing sheds, where most of my reading matter was aimed at adults rather than children. My fifteen primary schools ranged from single room bush schools to ancient stone edifices in working class suburbs. Dux of my secondary college in the final year, with a tertiary education beyond my parent's means, I had to find another way. One involving a trade apprenticeship and years of night school, but it led me to a professional qualification as a Marine Engineer and forty-five years in the maritime industry. The final years were spent in a senior offshore position of the Offshore Oil industry.This triggered a habit of writing fiction for an hour a day to maintain my sanity, which created a considerable body of writing by the time I retired. It took a further three years to turn this into something publishable, a romance novel "Mitchell's Run". At the insistence of my first publisher, Diane Colman, I became a woman, taking my name for my wife's middle and maiden names, Amy Gallow.Amy published twenty-one stories, all romances, survived the failure of three publishers and gave me the services of eleven editors as I learned the craft of writing fiction. She has my gratitude.My sea stories are written from experience. I sailed on paddle steamers, fishing boats, general cargo ships, bulk carriers, container ships, passenger ships, oil tankers, supply boats, oil rigs and FPSOs. I was Chief Engineer, Engineering Superintendent, Classification Surveyor and University Lecturer along the way.Most of all, I enjoyed myself, as itinerant in many ways as my father was before me.I hope you enjoy my stories. I had a ball writing them.