The story behind the storyteller
A lifetime of listening. A love of history. A curiosity about the stories that shape us.
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Registered Nurse
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Speaker and educator
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Pastoral leader
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Writer
Before I wrote, I learned to listen
I am an Australian historical fiction author, educator, speaker and retreat facilitator.
Long before I began writing fiction, I was listening to the stories people carried.
I began my working life as a nurse, including time caring for people whose bodies had been injured by fire. As I tended their wounds, I became curious about the pain that could not be dressed or bandaged—the grief, memories and relationships that needed care too.
That curiosity led me into counselling.
My counselling practice is now closed. My work today centres on writing, reflection, speaking and retreats.
More than forty years of working with people, through nursing, counselling, education, pastoral leadership and retreats, taught me to listen beyond what was immediately spoken. I learned to notice the stories beneath the stories: what is remembered, what is silenced, what is inherited and what may be waiting to be understood differently.
I did not know then that those years were also preparing me to write.
The places we call home
Australia is home. It shaped my vocation, my faith and my understanding of what it means to serve.
But family has a way of widening the map of home.
In 2013, I set out on a forty-day pilgrimage, spending most of that time in Scotland, joining a group journey from St Paul’s to St Peter’s, and finishing with three days in Germany. The stories I shared helped open the door to later leading study journeys through Israel and Greece, bringing together history, spirituality, story and place.
I have returned regularly to Scotland since then. Today, I spend part of each year in Perthshire, sharing ordinary days with family, following questions and making room to write.
Two landscapes. A family across oceans. One continuing story of belonging and becoming.
The questions that led me to write
Scotland led me further still, into the Reformation and a time when faith, power and the lives of women were changing profoundly. I began to wonder about the women whose questions became dangerous, whose wisdom was mistrusted and whose voices were easier to silence than to hear.
What happened to their stories? What survived? And what might still be whispering beneath the history we inherited?
These questions now weave through Wisdom’s Unbroken Thread, the historical fiction quartet I am writing. The first novel, Whispers Beneath the Flame, is taking shape.
A letter from me to you
If you would like to stay connected, I’d love to welcome you into the Lyn Baird Circle.
Once a month, I share a letter with stories, reflections and glimpses of what I’m writing and creating.
