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Beverley MacDonald

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Beverley MacDonald grew up in a lot of small towns in Victoria, Australia: Nar Nar Goon, Morwell, Mildura, Murtoa, Rye and Corryong. Her father was a school teacher and they moved around a lot, experiencing the heat of the Mallee and the cold of the Snowy Mountains.

School was not a favorite past time of Beverley’s, which worried her parents. She liked reading instead. She once read the entire contents of the library so that the librarian would allow her to pick books from the adult section. She never imagined she would become a writer because, when she was growing up, girls did not do that kind of thing. Luckily, times have changed.

Beverley started writing because, she said, “[I] always loved to read, and spent a lot of time at school day-d...more Beverley MacDonald grew up in a lot of small towns in Victoria, Australia: Nar Nar Goon, Morwell, Mildura, Murtoa, Rye and Corryong. Her father was a school teacher and they moved around a lot, experiencing the heat of the Mallee and the cold of the Snowy Mountains.

School was not a favorite past time of Beverley’s, which worried her parents. She liked reading instead. She once read the entire contents of the library so that the librarian would allow her to pick books from the adult section. She never imagined she would become a writer because, when she was growing up, girls did not do that kind of thing. Luckily, times have changed.

Beverley started writing because, she said, “[I] always loved to read, and spent a lot of time at school day-dreaming and making up stories in my head when I really should have been paying attention. Eventually, I decided I should write these stories down; it's a lot harder to do than you think.”

Now, many years later, Beverley writes fiction and non-fiction for children and teenagers, as well as fiction for adults. She still likes to read and is interested in everything from Roman history to quantum physics—she is also very good at Trivial Pursuit.

A whole string of great authors have made her laugh and cry. They’ve shocked and surprised her, explained things in a way she could understand, showed her worlds and people she never knew existed, kept her spellbound and made her stay up very late at night, reading under the bedcovers just to finish the story because she couldn't bear to put the book down.

Beverley can still remember reading John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids and thinking, “Hello, this guy thinks about really weird stuff.” He made anything seem possible and made her daydreams look tame in comparison; she was absolutely enthralled by his book.

“The best thing about being a writer is the writing. It’s the actual sitting down and making up stuff in your head and getting the words right and doing some more thinking and some more rewriting until you've got a great story. It's the process of creating something. It's actually a bit sad when you finish and you're not quite sure what to do with yourself because you've been living and thinking about the story just about every day for years.”

If she weren’t a writer, she would change professions every month or so—fishing captain, police detective, soap opera star, or lace-maker. “Work is just an excuse to listen, observe and learn about people, places and new situations so that you can write about them.”

Beverley currently lives in a chaotic household in Melbourne, Australia, with her partner, children, and various animals.
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Books by Beverley MacDonald

Average rating: 3.47 · 19 ratings · 5 reviews · 5 distinct works

	Written in Blood: A Brief History of Civilisation by Beverley MacDonald, Andrew Weldon (Illustrations) 3.86 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2004	My rating:
	Small Sacrifices 3.00 avg rating — 8 ratings	My rating:
	It's True! Crime Doesn't Pay 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	Big Bangs 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	My rating:
	The Madigal 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	My rating: