ABOUT RAE
OFFICIAL BIO
Rae Cairns writes crime with heart: thrillers featuring everyday people facing extraordinary circumstances. Her debut novel The Good Mother was shortlisted for Best Debut Crime Fiction in the 2021 Ned Kelly Awards and longlisted for the 2021 Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards. It draws on her background as a youth worker in Northern Ireland during the final years of 'The Troubles'.
Dying to Know, Rae’s second novel, is a standalone Sydney based thriller and centres around a woman’s determination to uncover what happened to her missing sister.
Rae has also co-managed a crisis refuge for street children, worked as Program Director for the Sydney Olympic Youth Camp and holds a degree in Performing Arts.
MORE ABOUT RAE
Storytelling has always been a huge part of my life, from my very first acting job in a shampoo commercial at eighteen months old through to writing my third novel, and while I came to writing later in life, each career I’ve had has focused on trying to work out why people do what they do and what makes them tick.
I sang and danced my way through my teenage years, including a stint at the NSW Conservatorium of Music and a year performing in North America and Europe. Following that I threw myself into a Degree in Performing Arts, but after graduating, I realised the entertainment industry wasn’t for me.
Instead, I applied for a position with Australian Volunteers Abroad and was sent to Belfast to mentor disadvantaged youth, many of them children of the paramilitaries like the IRA and UVF. This was during the final years of Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’. The people I met and the events I witnessed as an outsider in a country at war with itself stayed with me long after I returned to Australia, and ultimately inspired my first novel, The Good Mother.
After returning from NI, I co-managed a refuge for street children in Sydney’s inner city. A challenging, rewarding and ultimately life-changing experience that I can’t wait to explore in another novel.
After a few years in the refuge, I was invited to work as a Program Director for the Sydney Olympic Youth Camp. I was responsible for organising three weeks of activities for 400 children, each an Olympic team member, from all over the world. It was so different from anything I’d ever done but I loved every minute!
It was only after my children entered their teens that I finally found the time and head space to write, and I found that my varied vocations and experiences were amazing fodder for my fiction writing.
I’ve had to overcome some challenges as all artists do, such as initially struggling to find a traditional publisher for my debut novel. My path to publishing was twisty but it taught me so much. Being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis threw another spanner in the works - I’m no longer able to handwrite my novels - but as with many challenges, it’s pushed me to dig deep and find new ways of doing things.
I’m a member of a fabulous writing group called the Inkwells (affectionately known as the Inkies), Sisters in Crime, Writing NSW, the Romance Writers of Australia, the Australian Society for Authors and am an Associated Author for the Global Girls Online Book Club.
When I’m not playing around with the lives of my imaginary characters I love to read, hike and travel. I live in Sydney with my pilot husband, two adult children (who dash back and forth between university interstate and home), and Cookie, my dog, who snores at my feet as I write.
