I like to re-invent myself and have had a varied work life. I briefly worked as a secondary school teacher after graduating with an arts degree from Latrobe University in Melbourne Australia. As a theatre production photographer I toured Europe with Nigel Triffitt's Momma's Little Horror Show and captured many performances at Melbourne’s Last Laugh Theatre Restaurant. After a stint as a cinema publicist I founded a successful gardening business and then ran a Sustainable Communities Program for two rural shires.

Everything changed in 2012 with a leukaemia diagnosis. During the long recovery I turned my hand to writing, and Dainty Diva, the biography of my husband’s great aunt, Sydney soprano and vaudeville artist Dorothy Rudder, was the outcome. This book is richly illustrated with images from her archive and can be read for free on my website https://cathykoningwriter.com  

I recently self-published my second book LIFE BLOOD: Lessons from one woman who survived serious illness against the odds, the story of my ten-year leukaemia journey. I take the reader along with me from a patient’s point of view, reflecting on a daunting medical situation with humour, a bit of drama, education and philosophical meandering, and maybe a few tears too. Russ Harris, bestselling author of ‘The Happiness Trap’ provided the Foreword. 

I am currently researching my next book about a notorious American con artist whom Dorothy Rudder briefly crossed paths with in Borneo just after WW1.