About Me

Want to know more?

You're in the right place. My name is Paula Mason, and I'm an independent author living Down Under in a cozy small town off the beaten track in rural Victoria. If you've made your way to this page, I'm guessing you're a little curious. So let me tell you a little more about myself, my work, and how I came to be spinning magical yarns for the masses.

From scribbling to stories...

So this is the part where I tell you that I've been penning literature since I was knee high to a grasshopper and so on... except, that didn't really happen for me. I grew up on epic fantasy novels and magical worlds, and my first foray into writing fiction was back when I just started high school. I wrote a whole chapter of some vague world, and scratched out a hand drawn map which I recall looking sadly like a fried egg.

It all seemed so hard. How on earth was someone supposed to build a whole imaginary world?

Fast forward a few years when I moved into my early twenties. At that point I’d broadened my reading horizons, and was consuming a lot of historical fiction. Again, I felt the burning desire to write something myself. But this time I didn’t even pick up a pen, despite my imagination conjuring characters and places I was itching to explore.

It all seemed so hard. Didn’t you need to be some kind of historical expert to write stories like that?

As time went on, I developed a taste for magic in more contemporary settings. I was also doing a bunch of other things (hello fantastical video games) which might be the reason why I wasn’t tempted to take a stab at urban fantasy fiction for quite a few years. Then, of course, I had my daughter… so as I’m sure you can imagine, video games went out the window as I moved into the next season of life.

But it all seemed so hard. How were you supposed to dedicate yourself to a little person and still hold onto something for yourself?

I needed something. Something that one could do from the comfort of one's pajamas in the small windows of time between cleaning up spills, wrangling laundry, working, and pushing swings… For all the parents out there, I know you hear me! So in my thirties, after reading the Imp series by Debra Dunbar, I felt the itch I’d been putting off for years flare right up again.

Except this time, I sat down at my laptop (probably in my pajamas) and wrote a chapter of what would become my first novel.

No, it isn’t published. It’s safely stored on my hard drive where it can RIP. But the point is, I got to writing, and I didn’t shut myself down. It probably took me a year to finish that thing, and it opened up a whole new world for me. And yes, it’s a lot more fulfilling than video games.

Independent with a capital ‘I’

Being an independent author was a no brainer for me. As I began learning about the publishing industry—and that it was possible to put books out into the world by myself—I made up my mind pretty quick. I’ve never endured the slog of querying agents and sending manuscripts in the post. Or under bathroom stall walls as some authors have been known to attempt to get a publishers attention! Nope, not for me. I love having control of everything that I create, which is why I’m proud to be indie.

And I didn’t stop there, either. If I could upload my books to Amazon, then what was to stop me from selling my work direct on my own website? And… here we are. I get to handle things from the messy first draft right through to getting stories into people’s hands. Buying direct from an author means more money in their pocket, so if you do pick up anything on the website, know that you are a true champion!

And I guess I should mention what else I do…

Maybe this is something of a self-disclosure, but I think it’s important that we are real with each other. I’m not a ‘full time’ author, which means I have a day job to keep the bills paid and am usually up at 5am each morning to get words of fiction written. During business hours, I work in a busy family violence projects team. I’m a social worker by trade, and have been working with my local Aboriginal community for most of my career.

That’s why I hope you’ll find that my stories play with themes of power, privilege and social justice, and normally follow an everyday hero. I’m not going to hate on books with princesses or folks living in the 1% (I watched GOT and Billions too), but I love reading about ordinary people doing extraordinary things without the benefit of a system designed to keep them at the top. And if you’ve made it this far into my website, I’m guessing I’m in good company!

But enough about work!

When I’m away from the computer, you will typically find me either hanging out with my daughter (now she loves video games and I can live vicariously through her), still fighting the good fight against the laundry, and keeping on top of this ‘adulting’ business. But you might also find me wielding a crochet hook on one of many (mostly unfinished) projects, gardening, or wrangling three little demons—oops, I mean cats—and a big floofy Samoyed.

I love living away from the bustle of the big smoke and urban sprawl, and the town I live in might even be a little smaller than the settings you find in a typical small town cozy mystery. We do have kangaroos patrolling the streets, but it’s a little cold here for crocodiles, which suits me just fine. Don’t get me started on bunyips, three foot spiders, drop bears, and snakes that’ll turn you into stone if you look at them sideways (I’m kidding!).

How stories happen

People talk about inspiration, writing processes, and building complex worlds like they’re some form of spiritual journey. Maybe it is. I personally find the process magical, but if you’re a reader, you might not be interested in how the sausage is made, so to speak. When people ask me where I get ideas, I laugh a little inside, because my problem isn’t chasing an elusive muse who will deliver the perfect idea from up above. I simply can’t write fast enough to satiate my overactive imagination.

In fact, I have a bad habit of getting wrapped up in a shiny new idea when I should be working on finishing off the old ones. Just ask Mike, my ever-patient writing partner who endures many of my ‘new idea’ rants and always gives me a gentle nudge back from the edge. I’m getting better at getting those out of my system these days and keeping my eyes on the prize, but the struggle is real!

The fact of the matter is that writing books means that you need to plant your butt on the chair (or walk, if dictation is your thing) and get the words down for weeks or months before it’s finished. And in my experience there’s no ‘spare time’ in this world, only the time which you carve out yourself and guard like a jealous dragon sitting on their glittering hoard. That’s why I turn into a pumpkin well before midnight, and am tapping away at the keyboard at 5am before the family wakes up.

My Books

And talking about books, I’ve written a few if you hadn’t figured out that much yet, haha! While I strain against new ideas, I also bounce a little between genres. That’s why you’ll find contemporary cozy mysteries alongside complete fantasy worlds, and even wayward moody historical stories here and there. It’s not necessarily ideal. Most authors choose a genre lane and stick to it, but my brain just doesn’t work like that. Trust me, I had to give myself a stern talking to recently about a Vikings era historical novel idea which would have been a disaster.

Once my Trouble Down Under cozy mystery series is complete, I will move sideways into Urban Fantasy, however, which is probably my first writing love. It’s not so much as a genre leap as a hop, and I have no doubt quirky Gretchen stories will continue to simmer to the surface from time to time as well.

Connect With Me

Whew! If you’ve made it to the bottom of this page, you deserve a drink. I did not intend to write a personal essay. But if you’d like to hang out with me across the interwebs, I can tell you I probably spend the most time on Facebook and YouTube (I don’t spend huge amounts of time on social media) and I do send out regular newsletters to the awesome folks who sign up there. People on the newsletter get a bunch of freebies and extra bits, so it’s well worth divulging your email address and a little space in your inbox. I promise, I won’t start selling you garden hoses at 2am or asking you to click links that will give your computer chicken pox.

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You can also drop me an email, and I’m currently accepting carrier pigeons. I don’t BookTok, Bookstagram, or whatever else the cool kids are doing these days. But if you’d like to keep tabs on new releases and whatnot, I’ve also got the coordinates for my Goodreads and BookBub profiles for you to check out.

Stay magical, folks!

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