Yanicke Forfang

Brisbane, Australia

A self-proclaimed hermit, I retired from the real world several years ago when I realised I was having more fun in my head than playing lawyer.

I’d always dreamed of throwing it all in and becoming a writer, with daydreams of living in a country cottage somewhere and slaving over an old typewriter day-in, day-out, while the sunlight streamed through the gorgeous white-trimmed windows. And all with a steaming hot cup of coffee in my hand.

While I’m still working on the whole “living in a cottage” thing, I do get to indulge the fantasy once or twice a year when I visit my parents in Tasmania and lock myself away in their gorgeous attic for hours on end. I don’t write on a typewriter, though, and probably never will – my writing involves too much use of the delete key for that to ever be practical. Coffee, though, is most definitely a mainstay.

I’ve loved books since my father started reading me Norwegian folktales when I was just a wee bairn. The fantastical stories of trolls, huldre, nisse and oskerei captured my imagination and never let it go. As a teenager I loved to scare myself silly reading thrillers, by writers such as Christopher Pike, Richie Tankersley Cusick, Caroline B. Cooney, L.J. Smith and Janice Harrell. Their stories instilled in me a love for YA fiction that I’ve never outgrown – to this day, my favourite series is The Secret Diaries trilogy by Janice Harrell.

When I’m not writing, I’m either watching movies and getting addicted to HBO TV series with my wannabe hubby who moonlights as my muse or chasing my three boys around who masquerade as musketeers or stooges depending on their moods.