When Chris Marcic won a couple of competitions at last year’s ARTfest, the prizes included having a book published by Harbour Books.

The result was her book Between Rivers – a compilation of short stories representing a mix between real life events and fictional pieces.

All the stories are connected to rivers and waterways, stretching from the Swan River in Western Australia of Chris’s childhood to Millard’s Creek of more recent years in Ulladulla.

In between there were many years spent in different places around Australia, including a long time in Alice Springs where Chris worked as a journalist for the ABC and the local newspaper, at one stage covering the Azaria Chamberlain disappearance.

Many years later she played herself in the movie Evil Angels – one of many brief appearances on the big screen along with Priscilla Queen of the Outback and several other movies and television shows.

Those experiences form part of the rich tapestry that has been put into the new book, although Chris admitted, “They’re all very different subject matters.”

She said she was delighted to compile the short stories, some of which had won other prizes, because, “It’s not very often you get a chance to publish drop on your lap like that.”

However the win and her first book had inspired more writing, and Chris said she was busily compiling a second book of short stories with a working title of Between Deserts.

Between Rivers has also been illustrated by Chris’s daughter Nova, a graphic artist, who will attend tomorrow night’s launch at Harbour Books at 6.30pm.