Born 17 February 1968, Blaise van Hecke spent much of her childhood on a commune on the south NSW coast and speaks with love and wonder about the magic of her childhood. She went from being barefoot to wearing a uniform and enduring rigid routines at an all-girl boarding school in Melbourne where she learned to be a 'young lady'.Books and storytelling have always been at the heart of everything she does. Through Busybird Publishing, she runs workshops teaching writers the art of storytelling, and has helped over seven hundred authors publish their books. She is a champion of helping people find their voice.Her story, 'Eleventh Summer', came second place in the biennial short story competition with the Society of Women Writers (Vic) in 2007, which has since been published in the anthology, 'Mud Puddles', and the anthology, 'Thirteen Stories'. She's had other stories that have been published in 'Blue Crow Magazine', '21D Magazine', 'Fellowship of Australian Writers', and '[untitled]'.Blaise is also the author of 'The Book Book: 12 Steps to Successful Publishing' and co-author of 'Self-Made: Real Australian Business Stories', and a contributor to the health-conscious series 'Healthy Body' and 'Healthy Mind'.In 2018, she published a collection of short stories as a memoir about her childhood, called 'The Road to Tralfamadore is Bathed in River Water'. She then published her memoir, '50 Days for Fifty Years: Walking the Camino de Santiago', about walking the Pilgrim's Trail.She first began work on this novel, 'The Colours of Ash', in 2007, and would routinely revisit it around taking care of her family, running a household, and managing her business, Busybird Publishing (www.busybird.com.au).It is her first novel.