Maria Honey has lived in Hobart for most of her life. The Willow Bend Mystery was written while she was at home as the full-time mother of a son and a daughter. Soon after it was finished, she resumed her career as theatre company publicist and freelance writer for television.

For more than ten years Honey worked with her writer/director husband in the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom, making documentaries for American television. On their return to Tasmania, they moved to the bush: 75 acres outside Hobart where they set up house with pet dogs, cats and possums. Honey began writing again and has had two novels very charmingly rejected. (Biographical information supplied by author 27/05/03).