About Ross

Thank you for wanting to know a little more about me.

Now the wrong side of 40, I finished my secondary schooling and then ended up working for a bank for the next ten years. Well they were the first ones to offer me a job so I took it. However at the end of that time I was heartily sick of graduates swanning around the branch for a few months, doing none of the lousy jobs I had to do when I started, have to teach them some of their job and then watch them get an automatic promotion over my head. So I decided to join them, quit my job and headed off to university to obtain a Bachelor of Business (Accounting).

Unfortunately my timing proved to be less than fortuitous, as I finished my degree in the midst of the recession of the early 1990s. I ended up working with the Australian Bureau of Statistics more by accident than anything else, staying there for the best part of 15 years. However in late 2007, I left the ABS behind for better pastures. It was time to become serious about my writing!

The written word became a big part of my life from a young age with my mother reading to my younger sister and I. At primary school the writing bug first bit with numerous attempts at writing stories of different sorts. I vividly recall at age nine being asked to read one of my stories to another class. It was about life as an ant. I still cringe at the memory of the closing line: I died a hero of the ants. Sheesh!

As a teen, other interests intervened such as my love affair with cricket. The writing pretty much stopped, only resurfacing again for brief times through the years until I was in my late 30s. At that point I found myself writing copy for a local computing journal. A similar publication in the USA requested permission to reproduce one of my articles. That and some positive reader feedback encouraged me to start extending myself. A few published articles resulted. I then submitted a draft story for consideration entry into a weekend writing master class with author Jack Dann. I was accepted. Looking back, I realise that the story was horribly written, but Jack obviously saw something in it. His words to me were something along the lines of ‘Guy - you gotta a lotta work to do, but it’s worth it.’ Since thing I have had a number of short stories published, with a first novel in tortuous progress.

In 2008 I had the opportunity to return to university and study for a Graduate Diploma of Professional Writing at the University of Canberra. That was a blast, especially getting to study under scriptwriter, Felicity Packard of Underbelly fame. Most surprising of all, to my immense surprise that university experience also turned me into a poet!

More recently I have become a book reviewer, writer and Henchman at www.awritergoesonajourney.com. I have also found myself being engaged to speak about writing (well, you hold the pen like this…) and working with others on their manuscripts - do as I say, not do as I do!

That pretty much sums things up in brief. If you have any queries of me, by all means get in touch - drop me an email to ross @ rosshamilton.net - just delete the spaces either side of ‘@’ - damned spammers.