About Lyn Uhlmann

I have a secret to share with you: I have one of the best jobs in the world.

Why? Well, part of my week is spent writing for a newspaper, so I get to stay up-to-the-minute with what’s happening in the real world, and the other part of my week is spent daydreaming, imagining and creating new worlds.

It’s great fun.

I write speculative fiction and non-fiction for adults and children, but speculative fiction (SF) is my passion. People often ask me what SF is and why I write it. SF is a term that encompasses the genres of science fiction, science fantasy, fantasy and horror. Not every SF author writes in all those genres and I don’t write horror. For children I write “spooky”, but not horror.

I write SF because the worlds it allows me to create are unlimited. The imagining that comes with writing SF opens creative doors in me and being in that creative flow is very balancing.

My word dance began when I was very young. Having a fresh new book to write stories in was bliss. I can’t remember a time when stories of some sort didn’t flow out of me and they always had elements of mystery and magic in them.

But I’m not only an author. As I mentioned above, I’m also a newspaper journalist. I write for the newspaper in my home area and I do some freelance work for some interstate and overseas newspapers too.

I have also written for magazines, travel publishers and computer game makers in Australia and overseas. These include Family Circle, WellBeing, Grass Roots, Comet, Explore, Impeller (Sweden), Gulliver’s Travel Associates (UK) and Merit Industries (USA).

As the youngest of six children, I grew up on a farm in Glenorie, New South Wales, Australia. Today, I live with my family in Queensland, at the southern end of Moreton Bay — one of the world’s most beautiful marine parks.

If you ever get a chance to visit the bay, make sure you stay long enough to watch a full moon rise over the bay islands one night. As the red-gold orb slowly rises above North Stradbroke Island, sending golden beams of light skipping across the water to the mainland, you’ll feel magic in the air and might even be inspired to write some speculative fiction yourself.

If you do, I wish you well with it.