Hi there!

My name is R.M. Allinson (I usually answer to Bec, though) and I’m a writer.

Here is my little home on the internet where you can find information about my books.

The story of my life (condensed version):  

I’m an Aussie. I grew up in a rather small town (population less than 250) in rural Victoria. People who think the countryside is quiet obviously haven’t been to my hometown. Cows are loud. So are dogs. Don’t get me started on the possums or the birds.

A pleasant, mostly uneventful childhood. Parents are both teachers. Said parents shook things up a bit when I was 10, and packed us up and moved us to a country I’d never heard of before – Kiribati. Beautiful topical islands. Swimming every day. School finished at 1pm and we didn’t have to go if it rained (the roof leaked). Bare feet. Spam (the tinned variety). Sporadic mail deliveries. Pigs and dogs running around everywhere. No electricity. I loved it. We were meant to be here for two years, but ended up having to come back after only seven months due to my sister getting pretty crook. She’s okay now though.

A year in Tokyo when I was 16/17 as an exchange student. My school uniform was a sailor suit. I kinda looked like Sailor Moon. Some men thought I was a prostitute. I wasn’t.

Home felt very small after Tokyo. Living in a city that has more people than your entire country is a strange thought. I loved growing up in the country, but by the time I turned 19, I was itching to shake off my country bumpkin boots and hit the big smoke.

University in Melbourne. Monash. Bachelor of Arts. Was not very good at submitting essays on time. The realisation that I didn’t need to tell my parents where I was going or when I’d be back was scary and exciting.

Three and a half years later, I graduated with an oh-so-useful degree in history and no idea what I was going to do next. I was sick of uni. My marks were pretty mediocre (thanks to handing most of my essays in three weeks late) so graduate jobs were a bit out of reach. What’s a girl to do?

Make $100k on the stock market during the crash of 2008 and go backpacking around Europe for six months, that’s what! (Yes, that really happened, no I don’t have any idea how to replicate it.)

Came back from backpacking. Still didn’t know what to do. Enrolled in Master of Teaching, because hey why not. Responsible and stuff.

Screw responsible though, let’s go to Canada!

I ditched the teaching career (for the time being) and moved to Vancouver in 2010!  It was only meant to be for a year. But then I got drunk and sat at a bar and met my other half.

We’ve been together every since. You know how they say you’ll meet someone when you least expect it? True in my case. The year in Canada turned into almost four.

Luckily for me, Keenan was willing to move back to Australia with me. We came to Melbourne at the start of 2014, and I tortured myself by going back to uni and doing the Masters of Teaching. What an insane year that was!

I published my first little book (it’s a novella, it’s little) in January 2013. I got such a thrill out of it I decided to keep going. The second book was a lot slower coming, juggling full-time work, moving across the world and then full-time studying and then teaching! (Teaching is a ridiculously exhausting job!). The Long Road Home finally came out in August 2015 though, and hopefully the next book isn’t quite as slow in coming!

Over the years I’ve worked as a check out chick, a barista, an insurance call centre person, a technical writer, and a teacher. And a few other random jobs. Teaching is great, but my heart lies with writing.

Apart from writing I also love gardening and growing my own food, catering to my cat’s every whim, and playing netball. My feet are getting pretty itchy to start travelling again. Hopefully the next trip isn’t too far down the track

So that’s me, in a nutshell. For now.