Jane Harper's secret ambition was to write a book. Now she's sold millions

From The Age: 

When Jane Harper was invited to visit the set during filming of her first novel, The Dry, she took full advantage. The director, Robert Connolly, was on location in outback north-west Victoria and needed extras for a scene being shot in a small church. Harper didn't need to be asked twice, showing up with about a dozen friends and family ready to play grieving townspeople.

What particularly delighted her was that the tone was "pitch perfect" and Eric Bana great as her federal investigator Aaron Falk. "I really liked how it was so true to the book without being a slavish reproduction. Robert Connolly has taken the important essential elements of it and turned it into a fantastic film in its own right."

She has always been a reader and thanks her parents for not making a fuss about it when she was a child. "It was never a big deal, never forced or encouraged, it was just always there. I could see that was the way they relaxed, a genuine hobby, and I absorbed that, which I'm really grateful for."  Perhaps that's why she always had a secret ambition to write a book.

read more here @ The Age