The Australian Women's Register

7 digital audio tapes (ca. 404 min.) Carmel Bird talks about the beginnings of her writing; childhood reading; extracurricular activities; her parents and family background; schooldays; attending University of Tasmania, Hobart; gaining an Arts degree, teaching diploma; her teaching career; her first commercial publication; her marriages; her first experiences outside Australia; the birth of daughter (1975); how her second book came about (published 1983); Sybilla Press; self-publishing and promoting, ‘Cherry Ripe’; McPhee Gribble; her writing career; developments in her personal life; Penguin Books; Random House; the impact of ‘The Stolen Children: their Stories’; using a pseudonym; her idea for anthology to be published in 2000; next titles; her crime novels; her books for children; grants; changes in government support and publishing; her future prospects; formative literary influences and attractions; Tasmania and its influence, Heaven’s Gate and the northwest of Tasmania; characters, features and themes of her fiction; her view of life; ‘The white garden’, its symbolic meaning; her creative process. Bird discusses fact and fiction; the effect of the dark side on the author; social versus private life; what she admires in other writers; the ABC book show; her love of teaching; tertiary creative writing courses; teaching in a private secondary school; her experience of casual university teaching; the place of sports and other celebrities in the book world; teaching and writing, allocating priorities; her enthusiasm for new technology and her website; writing essays; the practice of writing; necessary elements of fiction; film rights and films made her material; popular mystery writing, early 2000s; the financial reasons for writing psychological murder mysteries; satisfactions of writing popular fiction; critical reception of ‘Crisis’ and murder mysteries; Como Literary Festival; life at present; her happiness in solitary living, ability to find joy or entertainment anywhere; her creativity, quilt-making, wall hangings; editing work; her early editing experience; reflects on past, things she most treasures and things yet to do.