I’m delighted to be included as a local author on the Hobsons Bay Libraries website.

The intensity and loneliness that growing up brings with it has always seemed to Mary Borsellino to be a perfect basis for stories, ever since she was a teenager herself. That age group knows better than anybody the hopes and horrors of society’s potential futures, the flash and glamour of rock stars, the dangerous hunger of the vampire, and the quest to find out who you are.

Mary’s writing career began in her own teen years, when her Lord of the Rings fanfiction Pretty Good Year attracted the attention of academics worldwide. Her next breakout success was the Wolf House series of punk vampire novels, which Vampire Diaries author LJ Smith described as “Electrifying. Chilling. Enthralling. Amazing. One of the truest young voices I’ve ever heard, with a plot that keeps you stuck to the pages and stops the breath in your throat.”

Her first novel to be set in Australia was 2012’s The Devil’s Mixtape, and Mary’s most recent novel, Thrive, sees Hobsons Bay and Victoria play pivotal roles.

My family has lived in Hobsons Bay for generations: my great-grandfather made a lot of the old iron lacework you can still find on houses around Williamstown.

I was born and raised in Queensland, and yet when I wound up in Hobsons Bay at age 22 I knew I wanted to stay there, even before I knew the longstanding family connection to the area.

I’ve been here more than eleven years now, and hope that I don’t leave any time soon.