A shocking revelation set Australian Author Shelley Dark on a path to writing. Let’s meet her!
Q&A with Shelley Dark
Some years ago Australian Author Shelley Dark learned of her Greek connection and it changed her life–in more ways than one. Read on to find out!
ABOUT SHELLEY DARK
Where are you from?
I’m Australian. I grew up a city girl but fell for the Marlboro Man when I was twenty—and that was that.
Now my husband and I live on the subtropical coast of Queensland.
Tell us a little about you.
I swapped heels for riding boots and became a cattle rancher’s wife. I learned to reverse a ute, muster cows, and cook for a shearing team. Fifty-two years on? Still here. Still married. Before that, I was a high school teacher and a student pilot. While raising kids on the farm, I poured my creative urges into the garden—then, in typically obsessive style, headed to Europe to study the great gardens of the world, and came home to build my own mini-Versailles.
Do write full time or do you have a “day” job?
I’ve had more day jobs than I can count! I write full-time, which really means I stare out at my garden a lot and mutter to myself. When it’s going well, I feel like a genius. When it’s not, I tell myself to take up bridge. Or yodeling.
We’re retired, so I wander the beach with my iPhone and probably need therapy for a serious Instagram habit. When we moved here, I started photographing dawn. The captions got longer. Then someone said, “You should write a book.” I laughed. Then I wrote two. More to come.
TRAVEL TO GREECE
When did you visit Greece for the first time? Why?
I didn’t visit Greece until 2018. I’d just found out my husband might be descended from a pirate, and I wanted to see if he was a baddie—and whether criminal blood flowed through our children’s veins. But I was hoping for something between Zorba the Greek and Johnny Depp.
What made you fall in love with Hydra (Greece)?
I fell in love immediately and completely—as only someone travelling alone can. With the way the light fell on whitewashed walls. The intimacy of the port with its lack of pretension. The austerity of the architecture that hid secrets inside, the steep stone steps, the steeper hills, the sheer toughness of the landscape. The slap of rigging, the toll of church bells, the clatter of donkey hooves instead of reversing trucks. The timelessness, the history. The deep windowsills. Restauranteurs who cooked just for me. Even the chilly winter rain. But mostly, it was the warmth and hospitality of the locals who took in a stranger with an even stranger mission. Some of the kindest people I’ve ever met are Greek. I adored the formality of Greek good manners. And living andante. I loved the way the island made me slow down.
ABOUT WRITING
When did you start writing?
In a serious way? After I retired. Though really, I’ve been writing all my life—gardening notes, magazine articles, travel diaries. But writing with the intent to publish only started when I began running out of space on my Instagram captions. Now I can’t stop. Most writers talk about needing ‘bum glue’—pardon the expression—to stay at their desk. I need glue remover.
What inspires you?
Joy. Beauty. Travel. Small detail. The fabulous contradictions that make up a human being. Curiosity. Injustice. Memory. Old age. And the sheer stubborn joy of shaping chaos into story. I’m especially drawn to writers who use language with clarity and boldness, without trying to show off.
What do you like to write?
I love writing my Instagram captions, though I don’t post every day, when I do, I treat it as a writing exercise—like exercising a muscle. I try to make them entertaining because I like knowing I can start someone’s day with a smile. It’s a small thing—but it gives me joy too.
Beyond that, I write what I’d like to read: stories with heart and intelligence, humour, and a strong voice. Travel, memoir, historical fiction—if it moves or obsesses me, I’ll write it.
WRITING ABOUT GREECE
When did you know you had to write about Hydra?
Well, I fell hard—first for my husband, and then many years later, when we discovered his Greek pirate ancestor, for the country. We spent decades raising kids and running cattle before I finally had the time to dig into a story that haunts me: the tale of a son of a wealthy Greek ship owner turned pirate then convict—he’s my husband’s great-great-grandfather. I thought I’d write his story. Turned out he rewrote mine.
I had a diary in my drawer from my trip to Hydra and I turned it into this book because I wanted people to love Hydra and its people as much as I did. And I wanted them to know about Ghikas Voulgaris—who should be a folk hero. I wanted to make them laugh. And I wanted them to know that the trip inspired me to go on to write a historical novel about him too.
BOOKS
Tell us about your book.
Part travel memoir, part reflective essay, part historical rabbit-hole—it’s about heading to the island of Hydra alone to follow a pirate’s footsteps. I wrote it as a daily diary for readers who’d followed my beach walks, and it became a kind of love letter to travel, to language, to the joy of starting again in your seventies, and to the most beautiful rock in the Aegean. In the end, it became something deeper: a meeting with history, a message to my husband, and a reminder that it’s never too late to find a new career or a new passion
When did you publish it?
Hydra in Winter was published in November 2024.
How’s it being received?
Better than I ever could have hoped. Readers have really connected with it. It reached #1 on Amazon Australia in Travel Writing, Solo Travel and Humour Essays, and was named a Notable Book for 2025 by our national newspaper The Weekend Australian in its Review section. But the real thrill is the messages from readers who say it made them laugh, call their yiayia, or book a ticket to Hydra.
Have you published anything other than books?
No, this is my debut!
WRAPPING UP
What’s next for you?
My historical novel Son of Hydra is coming next—based on that very pirate, and the book of my heart. Inspired by the true story of my husband’s ancestor, it’s set between the whitewashed heat of Hydra and the frontier world of New South Wales in the 1830s. It’s a story about adventure and piracy, but also about family, male friendship, patriarchy, hubris, loss, and finding humility. There’s a love story at its heart, but it’s not the kind you’d expect. The themes of migration and displacement, cultural collision, and making a life in a new world make it feel surprisingly modern.
After that? There’s a sequel in the works, Daughter of Cork, the novel about Mary (the Irish orphan from Son of Hydra), and more travel memoirs. And The Cream Bun Lover’s Guide to Australia. My head’s always crowded.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Just this: it’s never too late to follow a wild idea. If there’s something you’ve always wanted to do, do it. If there’s a story burning a hole in your heart, start telling it—even badly. Bad writing can be fixed. Silence can’t.
CONNECT WITH SHELLEY DARK
Are you on my email list? Don’t miss all my latest news.
Complete the form near the upper right of this page. Get a free story when you complete sign up.
Read more: