My journey to becoming a published author.

As a child at school and when I wasn’t out exploring the country side, I loved to draw, write poems and make up stories. I called myself Maria Brutus Cabunya.

I spent a lot of time outdoors with my brothers, exploring old caves, rivers and tracks in the mountains. Sometimes we would slip through a crack in the granite and find an underground river. I had 4 brothers so definitely, not a girly indoors type. Didn’t read much, there was too much going on outside. Seeing nature first hand was always exciting, getting chased by a wild ram, bulls, watching cows being milked, seeing snakes, bats in the caves, spiders and ants, ants were the worst, giant bull ants and the jack jumpers, ouch! they really sting. Falling out of trees and into old mine shafts was common.

I met my future husband when I was 16, together we drove all over Victoria, NSW and up to Queensland. We married 5 years later and had 3 children in a period of 6 years. Golden Books were very popular those days, these and other stories were read many times over the years.

In 2012 my adult children gave me a Samsung Tablet for Mothers Day. The best present ever! I enjoyed learning how to use it and initially took photos and videos of the garden, wildlife and our pets.

My husband and I had a property in Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tablelands where we would go on a weekend to relax. Every opportunity, we would sit out the front and enjoy watching the wildlife that frequented the garden, particularly the antics of the Rainbow Lorikeets. It seemed the lorikeets had a routine, they would fly in, all squash on to a tray until a bossy lorikeet would start biting, screeching and deter other lorikeets from staying on the tray. After a while there would be 2 lorikeets on each tray and the rest would be on the ground picking up seeds that had fallen or in nearby trees waiting their turn.

I watched the movie “Miss Potter” for some reason, this inspired me and my imagination went wild!

I started typing notes and before I knew it, I had written the first book, Lorikeet’s Garden Breakfast. Phillip, my late husband always listened to my stories and encouraged me to continue. There are 10 books in the Lorikeet’s series.

The Lorikeets would come early in the morning and late in the afternoon, this is when I would replenish the sunflower seeds. Other wildlife as well as Rainbow Lorikeets came into the garden, so I added them into the stories as well.