I was raised in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill and now live among the trees in Eltham. I am married with three grown children and four grandchildren. I love to travel, my most intense experiences being walking the Inca Trail and riding a camel in the Sahara desert. Something about my working life. (I don't holiday all the time) I worked in schools, full-time at first, and then as an emergency teacher when my children were small. When they started school, I moved to TAFE were I began as a teacher, then manager of programs for long-term unemployed. This was a very satisfying part of my life – we did some great work in those programs. When the funding was withdrawn, I worked in the money-making area – a challenge, but not as rewarding personally. My job required a lot of writing—tenders, reports, curriculum—even advertising, but it wasn't until I took early retirement that I was able to tap into the stories and poetry that were waiting somewhere in my head. Beginning with poetry, I was delighted to win a prize with a poem I had submitted to a competition. Then I won an encouragement award for a short story. (I had no idea how encouraging those encouragement awards can be.) Along the way, I joined a writers' group and began to attend a class at my old TAFE. Again, I was overwhelmed by the support I received from these people. I was a late starter... My first novel, Book of Lost Threads, was published by Allen and Unwin in 2010. My second novel, The Memory Tree was published in March 2012. The third is a work in progress, and will give me the excuse to visit the Darling Downs. Book of Lost Threads was published the year I turned sixty. ... so it's never too late The Memory Tree is Tess Evan's second novel. Her first, the bestselling Book of Lost Threads, was published in 2010 and was shortlisted for the Indie Awards, 2011. Previous to her writing debut, Tess taught and counselled a wide range of people: youth at risk, migrants, Indigenous trainees, apprentices, sole parents and unemployed workers of all ages and professions. Her experience with people is clearly visible in her humane, compassionate writing.