I'm an Australian born and bred, one of the 'awkward generation,' that 1950s sub-group of the 'baby boomers' that's born towards the end; too young to join in the fun and social revolution of the 1960s and too old to enjoy the fruits of the flow on effects of that revolution into the school system. The youngest of three children born to a local truck driver and a mother with a rare eye condition that caused her to gradually go blind. Legally blind by twenty and totally blind by forty, before I went to school. I grew up in an environment where nothing breakable was ever left near the edge of the table. As the youngest, I spent a lot of time in the adult world acting as mum's eyes; thus having a more adult view of the world than my peers, and ending more isolated because of it.
I'm a self declared generalist with a varied working career. After leaving school at sixteen years of age, I worked at everything from door to door sales to law enforcement, and in between, ending up in administration and lower management in my thirties. During this time I completed my Higher School Certificate as a private study student and a number of work related training qualification. Retrenched in the late 1990s, due to staff cut backs within the Australian Department of Defence (where I worked as civilian administrative staff), I became a student. In five years of study I completed two Information Technology diplomas, a post graduate Certificate in Management, and several other certificates. Working as a casual contractor in administration and computer consulting since obtaining my first diploma in IT. And is now a writer with a different view of the world.
I grew up in Sydney and spent most of my life living and working in major cities (Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra), seeing life from both the bottom strata and from well up the middle class ladder. Giving me a varied perspective on life. Heavily committed to sports (soccer, cricket, basketball, and ten pin bowling) as a youth and young man, I gave up most of them when I started a family in my thirties, so I could concentrate more on them. Having been part of the rat race, I now seek a slower and friendlier lifestyle. Today I live in the rural town of Urana, NSW writing stories.
During my working career I wrote many reports and technical papers for work, and some short training documents. Now I can happily claim I write fiction and joke about having written millions of words of fiction before I started writing stories professionally. All stories are available only through my publisher www.lulu.com as well as here.
Ernest Bywater passed away on 2022-07-16 R.I.P