Rowena Harding-Smith is a writer of literary fiction, crime fiction, science fiction and fantasy. She has published short stories and creative non-fiction in various magazines and literary journals since 1993 and has received numerous awards. During 2017, which she considered to be a very good year, she received six awards plus publication for her short fiction.

A Cloud of Frozen Air is a domestic noir crime novel set in 1979 on Sydney’s Darling Harbour docks during a period of unparalleled corruption. It is a combination of sharp-edged wit with chilling prose and terminal family secrets.

Kiss Wife is a domestic noir crime novel. Seraphina finds the body of her hated neighbour at the base of the cliff and her marriage to Mitch goes terribly wrong. The fires that consumed most of the east coast of Australia in 2019 are burning along the suburban bush corridors. Can she rescue her children and herself before the conflagration reaches the oil tanks that sit on the Greenwich Point peninsula, or will her marriage and her life explode simultaneously?

Hard Men is an action/adventure novel. Simon Styles is a CIA agent on probation. He’s gone undercover, posing as a naked pole dancer on an island in the Great Barrier Reef, however getting his gear off will be the easy part. Escaping alive from this tropical paradise will be the challenge of his life.

Written by Rowena’s alter ego, Carlotta Snow.

Rowena has published two non-fiction books – Procrastinate Now! and Teaching Creative Writing To Reluctant Writers — and many articles about learning and memory. She has appeared on TV and radio discussing dyslexia, and ADHD. She has written two useful booklets on memory and study skills – Forgetfulness and Study Skills.

Rowena worked as an education consultant for twenty-five years specializing in helping students with learning difficulties. She has a BA in Psychology, an MA in Education, and an MA in English. She worked for many years with SPELD NSW on the board, as vice president and as Director.
She lives in Sydney with her dog in a small timber cottage beside the harbour.

Awards and publications:

• Awards include: First prize in the Sisters In Crime Scarlet Stiletto award (shoe award), The Thunderbolt literary competition, The Henry Lawson Collection, The Rhonda Jankovic Social Justice literary award, British Fantasy Society competition, FAW, Jugiong literary award, Sydney Hammond Memorial short story comp, Voices of Women Clearway flash fiction competition.
• Publications since 1994 include: Various literary magazines such as: Southerly, Island, The Famous Reporter, Imago, Mattoid, TSS publishing UK.
• Inclusion in collections such as: The Ninth Cut: Clandestine Press, It Happened off the Leash: Paddy O’Reilly (ed), Affirm Press, Writing Your Life: Patti Miller (ed), British Fantasy Society Journal, Reset anthology: Hawkeye books.
• Audio: ABC Earshot on Radio National, ABC Radio National Book Show, and 2CH (6-part non-fiction series on learning difficulties).
• Non-fiction: Articles in magazines including, Women’s Health, Sydney’s Child, and Woman’s Day (column).