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Welcome to ...

the official home of author & illustrator
Iris B.Willinger
Working across many
genres, Iris has authored and co-authored 14 books to date: novels, plays, short stories, poems and screenplays. A highly creative mind,
she also worked as a developmental editor and writing coach.
Iris is an award winning
poet from Austria. She is bi-lingual and wrote poetry since she was a young girl. It was her way of expressing how she perceived the world. One current project involves a new collection of her poems in English.
Initially Iris studied Fine Arts & Design in Vienna; art has always been her second passion. So, she started illustrating her own children's books and her novel covers. Iris also paints - digitally and loves to create card & oracle decks too.
Iris always has more than one project on the go and conducts extensive historic and scientific research for her new novels. She is either busy plotting new storylines, sketching new characters or chasing mindboggling mysteries.


Abou
About
About Iris

Iris was born in Austria as an only child - to parents who were also only children. So, there was not much family to go around. A rather unique set-up amongst her peers. To add to this, a lack of friends - due to moving around a lot - also weighed heavy. Hence, Iris turned to books as her best friends, writing and art. It was how she tried to make sense of her world, the lack of company and help entertain herself.
She grew up bi-lingual and has been published in German and English from an early age on. Iris describes her life as 'off the beaten path' - also because she considers herself an arch-introvert and eccentric. She always struggled with connections and relating to people - so became more of an observer of life. This is where her writing came in as a form of therapy too, and she openly admits, it saved her sanity and life on a few occasions.
Iris used to run the writing programs at the renowned Ardington Academy in Oxfordshire. In her early career she worked as a journalist and environmental reporter, and has a passion for nature and wilderness, that's why she prefers living far from the maddening crowd. She often goes on long adventures and spends many months as a true 'digital nomad', just travelling around, gathering new experiences and inspiration.
She is an autodidact, and the genres she writes in are vast. From historic thrillers to rom-coms, from sci-fi to children's books and fables as well as non-fiction, such as self-development books and historic biographies. She also worked as a ghost-writer for many creatives and ghost-wrote a historic biography of Caroline Chisholm (by Pat Connole) now in the Australian National Library - and collaborated on a supernatural trilogy over 3 years with a US client, as well as consulted on various screen plays and a Sci-Fi Saga.
Iris has been an avid world traveller and spent many years in France, the USA, Ireland and further afield in Africa and Asia. She is now based in North Wales ... "between the mountains and the sea", as she likes to comment. A keen photographer, she enjoys exploring also on her doorstep.
Most of her novels feature actual locations she has been to, from far flung destinations to street corners and cafe's. She is passionate about historic and geographical accuracy ... and listening to her own life story is like delving into an adventure novel itself.



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