DJ STEEL
David John Steel was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 13 September, 1961. He lived in the city of Toowoomba as a child with his parents and four brothers and at the age of 10, his family wound their way to Papua New Guinea.
He attended boarding school in Charters Towers, North Queensland, for his secondary schooling years and then found work as a cadet journalist in Townsville with the North Queensland Newspaper Company. He also found work with the Queensland Country Life newspaper in Brisbane, as well as the now defunct Daily Sun. His last stint with newspapers was as a sub-editor with the Townsville Bulletin from 1996 to 2011.
In 1987, he travelled to Vanuatu to work with his family’s insurance broking business in Port Vila. He also lived and worked in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
He now lives in Townsville, North Queensland, and has retired from full-time work, concentrating mainly on his writing.
The first in the Destiny trilogy, Destiny’s Dream, was published in 2015. It was a long time between drinks for the second installment of the story with Destiny’s Journey published in 2023. The third in the series, Destiny Returns, is pegged for release sometime in 2024.
Single and living alone with his pet cat, Angel, David is writing an adult’s book, The Zealot’s Eyes, which he hopes to complete when the Destiny books are put to bed. He has many other ideas for stories which he also hopes to put down on paper soon.
Interests include walking, long dinners with friends over a glass of wine, classical and contemporary music, cinema, theatre and the occasional rock band experience.
His family are scattered over all parts of Queensland.
As a bequest in his will, David will be leaving the copyright to the Destiny books to the Australian charity, Make a Wish Foundation. His stories are all about children’s wishes coming true so it is an appropriate gesture.
David is of Australian Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander descent but his principal connection with indigenous ancestry is from the South Sea Islands. The rest of his ancestors come from Europe, mainly Ireland. His love of stories was nurtured at an early age, primarily by his now deceased mother, Veronica Joy.