Sara Michelle Lansing, 49, is a second-generation Australian born in Loxton in the South Australian Riverland. The family moved to Adelaide in 1970 where her father worked in the whitegoods industry.

Always interested in writing and art, Sara was a middling student when it came to maths, though found an aptitude for science and mechanics. She briefly attended university in a period of late-teenage confusion before joining the Royal Australian Army. Women in the military were still a contentious issue in Australia in the early-mid 1980s, and her tour was unremarkable in the broader scheme of things, a period which she has preferred to put behind her in all practical ways other than the gifts of practicality and forthrightness that have marked her career since then, and which she freely acknowledges as products of the system.

Sara worked in journalism in the 1980s for regional papers and freelanced for magazines on topics as diverse as photography, conservation, popular science and diving. A qualified scuba diver and marksman, Sara brought these skills to her early novels, indeed her fannish output in the 80s and 90s strongly reflects her military experience in terms of procedure and hardware.

A lifetime fan of science fiction, fantasy and adventure, Sara has found a literary outlet for these passions and since entering semi-retirement to care for an aged relative she has had the time to write, developing ideas which have lain fallow sometimes for decades. Sara identifies as essentially bisexual, which in her words, gives her “the best of all possible worlds,” and also allows her the personal perspective to write both straight and F/F narratives with equal conviction.

Unmarried, Sara shares her writing studio with two dogs, loves folk music and good food, pursues a fascination with the occult and all things pagan, and relaxes with chai tea after a good workout three times each week.