ABOUT KATE LANCE

Catherine (Kate) Lance grew up at Speers Point on Lake Macquarie, NSW, studied arts at the University of Newcastle and science at Queen Mary College, London University. In 1986 she completed a doctorate in astronomy at Mt Stromlo Observatory, ANU, then in 1988 moved into Internet technical services at CSIRO and later at the University of Newcastle. From 1996 to 2000 she was System Manager and Director of Internet Services at the pioneering ISP connect.com.au, then Executive Director of the Internet Society of Australia until 2006.

The charmed life of a pearling lugger inspired her to write Redbill: From Pearls to Peace, which opened up a whole new world of maritime history and the extraordinary people linked to that strange vessel. Redbill won the Western Australian Premier's Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2004.

Intrigued by the secrets behind the published works of maritime author and photographer Alan Villiers, she wrote a biography based upon his diaries, Alan Villiers: Voyager of the Winds. The book explores the lives of the great four-masted steel windjammers of the early twentieth century, and won the Mountbatten Maritime Award in 2009.

In August 2014 her first novel, The Turning Tide, was published by Allen & Unwin under the name C. M. Lance. It was based on WWII commando training at rugged, beautiful Wilsons Prom in South Gippsland, guerillas in 1942 Timor, and life in post-war Japan. She independently publishes fiction through Seabooks Press, and builds websites via Lancewood. (Image courtesy of Gill Clarke. Wilsons Prom in the distance.)

OTHER WRITING

• Short stories
• Astronomy papers
• Computing papers