Travels a novel story

Kez Wickham St George was a reluctant traveller at first.

But after years of adventuring the length and breadth of Australia with fisherman husband Lou, the Cooloongup writer has turned her experiences into a novel — her third.

Writing Metal Mermaid, which took Kez three years, was something of a cathartic experience for the full-time writer and artist — an experience which she said was both satisfying and challenging.

“Metal Mermaid is about my travels all over Australia and the wonderful people I have met,” she said.

“In the story, my husband dies and I meet a woman called Tara who takes me back to New Zealand and abandons me there.

“It’s essentially about travel, friendship, love and dealing with emotions — although I think my husband got quite a shock when he found out that I had killed him off.”

Kez said she was introduced to writing by her mother when she was a child, bed-ridden with polio, and always viewed it as a therapeutic and comforting experience and an important part of her life.

“I think there is always going to be elements of the author in any work of fiction,” she said.

“Writing can be a very lonely experience but I don’t mind because I am in a different world when I write.

“It’s a challenge because it has got to be readable, articulate and the reader has to believe it.”

Kez published her first semi-autobiographical novel, Tariku, as an Amazon e-book last year after producing children’s book The Nana Tree, which was illustrated by illustrator Sylvia Stonehouse.

“Tariku was really my life story, names were changed but not the time or the places,” she said.

“Metal Mermaid is a little bit more like fiction.”

Find Metal Mermaid online at www.amazon.com.au in coming weeks.