On leaving school Fiona enrolled at the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney where she spent four years undertaking a rigorous training programme in drawing and painting. It took Fiona six years to complete her undergraduate degree in English and Italian literature, then another year for an Honours degree.

It took several more years, in which she did a teaching degree, taught in high school and ran her own art school, before Fiona finally engaged a literary agent and began to write professionally. Since 2009 Fiona has had five books published and has another four in progress. Fiona lives in Armidale, on the New England Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia with her family and many pets.