About

Welcome to my blog.

Born in Burma, I migrated to Perth over fifty years ago, and completed my Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Western Australia. I moved to Canberra in 1971, and married Colin.

I obtained my Diploma in Education at the University of New England and taught at high schools for over thirty years. My time is devoted to writing, reading, gardening, bushwalking, and attending classical opera. Colin gives me every encouragement in my writing.

I belong to the following writing groups:

. Carindale Writers’ Group
. Omega Writers’ Inc.
. Queensland Writers’ Centre.

. Sunshine Coast Literary Association Inc.
. Victoria Point Writers’ Group
. Writers in the Ruff

My story Hunger, an excerpt from my memoir See No Evil: story of a war child, was short-listed for the 2013 Redlitzer Writing Competition and published in the 2013 Redlitzer Anthology. It was the beginning of my writing career.

The Chocolate Soldier was released by Rhiza Press in September 2016.

Book One of my memoirs Heaven Tempers the Wind: Story of a War Child was published by Armour Books in 2017. Both books are set during World War Two – the former in England and the Far East, the latter in Burma.

My memoir Heaven Tempers the Wind. Story of a War Child was one of the three finalists in the Australia and New Zealand-wide CALEB Competition of 2017.

Book Two of my memoirs, The Sides of Heaven, released by Armour Books in 2018 and was also a finalist in the 2019 CALEB Competition.

Count Your Blessings. Colin’s Story, Armour Books, 2020 too, was a finalist in the 2021 CALEB Competition.

Opera, Orchids and Oz, Armour Books, 2022, is the final book of my memoir trilogy.

My short story, “Hope Springs Eternal”, won Short Story Award in the Brisbane Book Fair Competition of 2021.

Many of my short stories have won awards and been published in magazines and anthologies.  I have given several author-talks at libraries, the local RSL Group, etc.

https://hazelmbarker.wordpress.com

Here is one of my short stories, from the Carindale Writers’ Group Seasons’ Anthologies.

The Seasons of Life

Unique are the seasons of life. Their lengths vary; sometimes cut short; sometimes, painfully prolonged.
Spring
How well I recall my Spring of life. A child of five, happy and free. Our ten-year-old brother towered above us, ready to fend off harm. The next, a year younger, laughed, pranced and sang. A source of joy. Then my sister. Two years and six months my senior, my dearest companion held a wealth of knowledge.
I trusted they’d be near forever.
Another sister arrived.
Then bombs tore us from home and Japanese invaders ended the Spring of our lives.
Summer
Summer was harsh. Our bodies scarcely grew in size except to swell and swell. Beriberi.
With bellies like pregnant women and feet twice their normal size, we thought we’d burst like balloons…
But still we were together.
My brothers, with boyish glee, roamed the countryside. Adventure beckoned. They ran wild in search of food and fun. The hot sun beat down upon them but on they tramped …
My mother, my sisters and I stayed home. The days passed. Our strength ebbed away. We longed for food – and slept.
My first taste of death.
Rats fed on the dead – dead birds, dead animals, dead people. Disease spread; entered our home and stole my sister. Plague.
My baby sister burned with fever; her body sprouted sores. No doctor. No medicine. For days and nights she burned. Smallpox.
Miraculously, she recovered.
The eldest shivered and quivered even in the hell of summer. Drank the bitter herbs we picked – but couldn’t eat. Emaciated and exhausted, he sank down, his strength sapped. Malaria.
Weak and tired. No food to eat. We lay in bed, awaiting death …
Far off we heard – not harps of angels greeting us – but sounds of bagpipes on the plains. It lashed our bodies like a whip. We rose in answer to the call.
Soldiers marched, kilts swayed, kettledrums flourished and pipers led the way. Hope and freedom followed in their wake.
My brother rose, like a ghost, cured by a dose of mepacrine. Saved – we thought.
Still in the summer of our lives, we moved back to the bombed-out city. We lived like squatters in a store, but went to school and learned much more …
Three years since the bagpipers played, God called the eldest to his grave.
The second death.
Years passed. Britain left and Burma bled. Anarchy raged. One by one we fled.
I remained. Alone, but poised to leave.
Finally, I stretched my wings and flew away; my studies incomplete. Torn asunder from kith and kin, what lay in wait, Down Under?
I drank freedom and breathed joy. With open arms love beckoned. I nestled there; content.
Autumn
Now in the autumn of my years, I listen to the songs of birds, inhale the fragrance of a flower with my dearest friend and lover.
Each day we watch the sun rise and set. It’s autumn. Will it last forever?
Winter must come, but when it does, we’ll meet the future hand-in-hand as we depart this glorious land.

A Synopsis of my memoir: Heaven Tempers the Wind: Story of a war child.