About David Hibbins
The Experiences Behind The Stories
I’ve spent much of my life chasing adventure, exploring new places, meeting people, and looking for what sits beyond the familiar. Those experiences still shape the stories I write today.
Adventure Has Always Been With Me
Long before I became an author, I was drawn to the unknown. Learning to fly, serving in the military, sailing Australia’s east coast, and later exploring Southeast Asia all became part of the life that eventually found its way into my writing.
My Journey
I’ve spent much of my life chasing adventure.
I grew up in a small country town in Australia, but even as a teenager I was always looking beyond it. I wanted to know what was over the horizon. I dreamed of cycling around Australia, flying aeroplanes, skiing in the Alps, skydiving, and travelling to places I had only seen in books.
Books were part of that curiosity from the beginning. I read war comics, adventure stories, and later the novels of Dick Francis. My father encouraged it, often stopping at second-hand bookstores on the way home from work so I would have something new to read. Long before I ever thought of becoming a writer, stories were already shaping the way I saw the world.
At fourteen, I decided I was going to cycle around Australia.I made it about forty kilometres. Then common sense finally caught up with ambition and I turned around and went home.
The trip may have been short, but the urge behind it never really went away.
By sixteen, my curiosity had moved from the road to the sky. I wanted to fly, and for a while I imagined a future as a pilot in the Air Force. That didn’t work out, but the fascination with aircraft never left.
I worked wherever I could, including the local fish and chip shop and a service station, saving every dollar for flying lessons. I eventually learned to fly in a Cessna, and earning my pilot’s licence gave me a sense of freedom I had been chasing for years. It also confirmed something I had already suspected: the world was much bigger than the small country town where I had grown up.
When the Air Force path closed, the Australian Army became the next chapter. It gave me challenge, discipline, leadership, and the kind of adventure I had always been drawn to. Injury eventually brought that part of my life to an end, but many of the lessons stayed with me.
After leaving the military, life moved in a very different direction. I built a corporate career and became involved in several businesses, including owning bookstores. Work became serious, demanding, and at times all-consuming, but books never disappeared from my life. Neither did the urge to get out and see what was beyond the next horizon.
Eventually, that pull took me back toward a more adventurous way of living. I spent years sailing Australia’s east coast, living aboard a yacht and exploring places such as the Whitsunday Islands. Life at sea taught me a different kind of independence and self-reliance. My love of sailing eventually led me to buy a sailing school, which gave me the chance to help other people experience some of the same freedom I had found on the water.
Travel later brought me to Thailand, and Thailand became much more than somewhere I had visited. Living here opened the door to Southeast Asia and gave me a new way of seeing the world through travel, photography, and everyday life. I found myself wanting to get out, explore, take photographs, write about what I was seeing, and keep learning from the places and people around me. Along the way, I also tried things I had never imagined as a younger man, including training in Muay Thai.
When I look back, the themes that keep appearing in my books are not ideas I chose for branding. They are the same things that have kept appearing in my life.
Adventure has always pulled me forward. Curiosity keeps me looking. Resilience has been tested more than once. Human connection is often what makes a place or experience stay with me long after I have left it.
Those things still shape what I write today.
What Shapes My Writing
Every writer draws inspiration from somewhere.
For me, it comes from a lifetime of experiences, challenges, conversations, places, and people encountered along the way.
The books I write are not autobiographies, but many are influenced by the themes that have followed me throughout life: adventure, discovery, resilience, human relationships, and the choices that shape who we become.
Travel has taught me that every destination has a story.
Photography has taught me to look beyond the obvious and pay attention to the details that others often miss.
Military service taught me discipline, leadership, and how people respond when circumstances become difficult.
Business taught me that success, failure, risk, and reinvention are often closely connected.
Together, those experiences provide the foundation for the stories I tell today.
Whether writing action and adventure fiction, creating photography books, or exploring travel-inspired themes, my goal remains simple: to create stories that transport readers somewhere new and leave them seeing the world a little differently.
Adventure
The pursuit of new experiences and life beyond the ordinary.
Exploration
Travel, discovery, and curiosity about the world.
Experience
Relationships, challenges, growth, and resilience.
Connection
Finding meaning in the journeys we take.
Published Books
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to write across both fiction and photography.
The books below represent different chapters of my journey as an author, combining themes of adventure, exploration, photography, travel, and human experience.
- Shadow Drift
- iPhone Photography Unlocked
- Whispers From Vietnam
- Nights Between Temples
- The River In A Dream
- The Storm King of Dnaliath
Each book reflects a different perspective, but all share a common thread: a curiosity about the world and the stories that emerge when we step beyond the familiar.
Beyond The Books
While writing remains my primary creative focus, storytelling takes many forms.
Alongside my books, I continue to explore the world through photography, travel publishing, and destination-focused content projects throughout Southeast Asia. These experiences provide a constant source of inspiration and often influence the places, themes, and perspectives that appear throughout my writing.
Whether through a camera lens, a travel article, or a work of fiction, the goal remains the same: to tell meaningful stories that encourage curiosity, exploration, and a deeper appreciation of the world around us.
Where Will The Next Story Take You?
Adventure has shaped much of my life, and it continues to shape the stories I write today.
Whether you’re discovering an action thriller, exploring a photography book, or reading one of the stories inspired by travel and human experience, every journey begins with a single page.