Amy Gallow

The only child of an itinerant rural worker, Amy had more schools than birthdays until she was fourteen. Her first paid employment was as "Slushy", washing the pots and pans in the galley of a passenger carrying paddle steamer on the River Murray. In spite of these advantages and a personal code of honour that owed more to her father's love of Clarence Mulford's Hopalong Cassidy and the Arthurian legends than to any practical concerns, Amy survived to follow his itinerant ways. This included time in the military, the Merchant Marine and the Offshore Oil Industry, even a period as university lecturer. Amy's writing came from the accidental enrolment in the wrong course in 1975 and provided her with an escape route from work pressures. Winning a number of competitions led to a contract with an Australian print publisher of category romances. Five books later, New Blood is Amy's first essay into electronic publishing.