Milena Cifali's new book Mallacoota Time and how she is rebuilding after the bushfires

"My house has burnt down. Your house has burnt down. I've got to go."

The pair were up in Brisbane celebrating Christmas and New Year when they got the news that the South Coast bushfires had taken their Mallacoota home. The next day they turned on the television to be greeted with images of what little remained of their home.

"It was our slice of paradise and we would have liked to have returned to that slice of paradise," she says.

It wasn't until the couple made their way back to Canberra - where they had been staying after while Horvath was recovering from a stroke late last year - that they started to process what had happened. And it was right when Canberra itself had been placed in a state of emergency due to the fires in Namadgi National Park.

"We thought what on earth have we arrived to. We thought we were coming to safety," she says.

"That was very, very difficult to deal with all the smoke and all the red skies.

"Everybody I know has been affected by this over the summer. Whether you've been in the fire or know someone that has. Whether you've just missed those blue skies. Whether you've had a relative that has had to evacuate five times."

Eight months on and the couple is still based in Canberra, living in temporary housing and waiting out COVID-19. It's been during this time that Cifali wrote Mallacoota Time.

What started as a way for Cifali to process what had happened while in self-isolation, has turned into a book tracking her journey towards recovery.

"The way I best express myself is through music or art or writing or poetry," Cifali says.

"So for me writing was a very natural process and it helped me confront a lot of the reality of what had happened.

"And I also found that I had more insight into recovery and healing than I thought I did."

It was because of this insight that Cifali decided to release the book through Canberra publishers Echo Books.

She will be at The Artists Shed on September 6 from 5.30pm to launch the book as well as performing her songs and poetry from the book.