Multi-award-nominated author Inga Simpson has a strong affinity with nature, and the Guerilla Bay area between Batemans Bay and Moruya is still probably her favourite.
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Her parents built a holiday house in Guerilla Bay in the 1980s.
She holidayed there as a kid and while studying and working in Canberra.
After a spell living in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, Ms Simpson moved to Guerilla Bay in early 2017.
Ms Simpson's first five books revolved around nature.
Her sixth - The Last Woman in the World - "is a bit of a departure for me" Ms Simpson said.
"It is a thriller and has a horror element."
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Fire woven into the novel
The first draft was due in January 2020 but Ms Simpson was distracted by the bushfires that had been raging for months.
As part of her research for the book, she did lots of walking and a road trip around Queanbeyan-Palerang.
"I saw how hot and dry and ready to burn it was.
"I left one place because there was thunder and lightning.
"I saw the fire start - the mushroom cloud."
Ms Simpson got another six months to deliver her draft.
Fire became central to it as she found herself heartbroken by the burning national parks as fire consumed more and more of the country.
"A lot of the passages are pretty raw.
"I dropped them into the character."
Draft started 'softly environmental'
The lead character is a reclusive glass artist living on a river.
She is fairly cut off from the world but has a premonition of something bad happening.
When a woman knocks on her door, saying that everyone is dead and that her baby needs help, the central character must make a decision.
"It is a tough call whether to help them or look after herself.
"Together they make an unlikely duo who work together against the threat that is facing Australia and the world."
The character uses fire to make beautiful things and Ms Simpson drew out the beautiful quality of glass and fire.
"Initially I tried to write something sparse but I could not do it.
"There is so much bleakness yet the character is so close to nature and has the capacity to notice and appreciate beauty no matter how bad things get."
Ms Simpson said writing was rarely easy.
"A lot of it is just turning up at the desk and slogging at it, pushing through doubt and boredom.
"The good moments are really good. Those moments when it flows are what you live for."
Ms Simpson's seventh book, Willowman, will be published later this year.
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