LANA ANDERSON

BIO

 

I believe my creative mind began to form when I was only 4-5 yrs. We left all friends and family to move from Sydney to Perth via caravan over 9 months. I was an only child and in those 9 months I learned to use my imagination to no end.

 

​By the time I reached primary school age  I became good at telling very tall, scary tales that other children would believe so much it literally petrified them. The reason they were scary was because even at that young age I made them realistic. The bad guy coming to get you wasn't a monster under the bed it was a real person from bandits to thieves to bikers to strange men under the bridge I managed to make it all seem true. So much so that teachers even heard some of the tales and thought they needed to be investigated.

 

My vampire fascination was funnily created by my mother. When I was in primary school still, my father came to visit one weekend with a friend of his. I can’t even remember his name but I still have his navy sailor hat to this day. He brought me a few presents one being vampire novels, as he had heard I liked to read. My mother deemed me too young for such reading that might give me nightmares and took the books from me. From that day on I would go through life reading everything I could on vampires.

 

As I grew up I began writing more and more for my school creative writing assignments. At one stage handing in a nine-page front and back story on Vikings, with apologies it was still the draft copy as I had run out of time to re-write. My primary school teach nearly fell off her chair when she read the detail my young mind had created and I had to beg her not to make me read it out loud, as I hated public speaking .

 

High school saw my dream of being a writer destroyed as when asked what I wanted to do, being a writer was apparently not an option I could choose. So, I left school to get a taste of the real world of work. Starting at an ice cream store, I soon discovered a taste for work creativity and dedication. Through the years I continued to work my way up company ladders with pure hard work and enthusiasm for whatever I was doing. Until one day I realised I had everything I ever wanted but was still not happy within myself.

 

After much soul searching I decided to let go of everything I had worked so hard for and quit my job to go see the world on my own . On my return, I had the one thing I never thought I would have, a child. The working world was no longer my friend and I need to be a mother to my child so I decided to try the one thing I could do from home ……write.

 

I had started a story years ago in my early working life and that story still needed to be finished so I decided to give my story a chance. After finishing the first four chapters I submitted to Austin Macaulay to get their thoughts. They responded with interest which spurred me on, giving me the confidence to continue and the hope that an old childhood dream could become real.