With a background in psychology, I’ve worked mainly in community and welfare sectors in various locations across Australia, most recently with Lifeline WA where I initially trained telephone counsellors and volunteered as one myself. For seven years I also delivered suicide intervention programs across the State.

These experiences were the inspiration behind my book Twenty-Four Seven.

From when I began writing essays at school, till I graduated to writing reports at work, I’ve loved playing with words and functioning within the strict confines of English grammar. The world of fiction, though, is entirely another challenge which I’ve been delighted to explore, where breaking the rules is necessary to be authentic.

The title, Twenty-Four Seven, is a play on words, since it is both the name of the telephone counselling agency owned and run by the protagonist, Cherie Dexter, and the length of time her story spans.

Cherie is on call, not only to clients in distress, but also to her aging father, Tom, who is rapidly slipping into dementia. On top of the daily chaos, she must fight to keep the business afloat and her hare-brained partners under control. Just when she thinks nothing else can go wrong, it does, and Cherie finds herself embroiled in a life and death situation that puts all her skills and training to the test.

Could telephone counselling really be this dangerous?

Dawn O’Neil, CEO of Lifeline, Australia said: “Fascinating…an excellent read which I’m sure readers will find compelling.”

John Harman, Author, Ghostwriter, Scriptwriter, said: “Twenty-Four Seven really moves. The novel is full of pace, action and realistic characters who are living, scheming, and trying to survive in a world few of us know - that of telephone counselling. It’s a great, unputdownable read.”

Twenty-Four Seven will be launched through some major Lifeline Centres beginning February 2010 and I warmly invite you to come and help celebrate.

PERTH: Monday 22nd February 11.00 am at Freehills, QV1 Building, Level 36, 250 St Georges Terrace, Perth.

ADELAIDE: Tuesday 2nd March 6.00 pm at Uniting Care Wesley, Way Hall, Level 1, 10 Pitt Street, Adelaide.

MELBOURNE:  Friday 5th March 6.00 pm at Wesley Church, 148 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.

SYDNEY:  Monday 8th March 6.00 pm at Ku-ring-gai Town Hall, 1186 Pacific Highway, Pymble.

BRISBANE:  Friday 12th March 3.00 pm and again at 5.30 pm at Lifeline, 117 Gipps Road Fortitude Valley.

($10 from each book sold at the launch will be donated to the respective Lifeline.)  If you’re not able to be present, Dennis Jones & Associates will be distributing the books into book shops. Copies of Twenty-Four Seven will also be available on line from www.shortstoppress.com.

I am currently almost finished the sequel to Twenty-Four Seven, where Cherie Dexter is operating from a mining town in Central Queensland.

I initially cut my literary teeth on The Rocky Girl in 2005, writing under my maiden name, Macaree. The Rocky Girl was published to honour the short life of my work colleague, Mima-McKim-Hill of Rockhampton, who, in 1967, was murdered on the job, while working as a home management advisor for the electricity authority. That murder has not been solved, although the case is currently undergoing a review and new evidence has been revealed. (Watch for another emotionally charged book.)