Born in Brisbane in 1961, eldest of three children born to a police officer and a stay-at-home mum (they were called home makers back then). The author attended primary school at Serviceton and high school at Corinda. She studied Japanese from the age of twelve with the goal of teaching English in Japan. After working in the Queensland Outback, she taught English as part of her work over five years in Japan. She eventually returned to Brisbane and put herself through university as a mature-aged-student. Her career spanned a very diverse range of occupations including executive secretary, copy writer and office manager for a Japanese language newspaper, head waitress in a Japanese restaurant, and treatment scheduling clerk for cancer patients. Jessie is now retired and lives in Brisbane with a rescue cat named Thomas. Her hobbies, apart from writing, include pastel and watercolour painting.