Jackie French's writing career spans 14 years, 39 wombats, 116 books, 19 languages, 8 genres, 3,721 bush rats, over 40 awards in Australia and overseas, 6 possibly insane lyrebirds, assorted 'Burke's Backyard' segments, radio shows, newspaper and magazine columns, theories of pest and weed ecology and 27 shredded back doormats. The doormats are the victims of the wombats who require constant appeasement in the form of carrots, rolled oats and wombat nuts, which is one of the reasons for her prolific output: it pays the carrot bills.

Jackie wrote her first children's book `Rainstones' in a desperate attempt to earn $106.40 to register her car, while living in a shed with a wallaby called Fred, a black snake called Gladys and a wombat called Smudge. It was described by the editor at HarperCollins as the messiest, worst spelt manuscript they'd ever received.

The messiest was due to Smudge the wombat who left his droppings on the typewriter every night; the spelling was due to the fact she is dyslexic. She recommends all beginning writers to mispell their first book with a wombat damaged typewriter - at least that way it stands out of the pile!

The book was accepted (also shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Award and CBC Younger Reader's Book of the Year). In the same fortnight she was offered a regular column in a newspaper and a farming magazine and discovered that writing about flowers and fantasy was a heck of a lot easier than hauling manure in the old green truck to feed the peach trees. She has been a full time writer and wombat negotiator ever since.

She used to appear on 'Burke's Backyard' in a variety of disguises (but never sees the segment as she doesn't have TV) and does radio segments and writes magazine and newspaper columns (Women's Weekly, Earth Garden, Sydney Morning Herald, Burke's Backyard magazine, Wellbeing).

Doesn't see any real difference between fiction writing and gardening/pest control writing - both involve a close study of the interrelationships of the world, then forming them into patterns that might become stories or theories of weed ecology!

Books:
Books: There were 115 at last count, about the same number as we have varieties of apples. If something is worth doing you may as well go heart aand soul and boot leather ... I write for kids and adults, fiction, history, gardening, pests control , chooks..and some that must be a nightmare for book shops to work out what genre they are. Have a look at 'which book?' for a probably not quite up to date list of what is where and for whom.

Domestic life:
Married to Bryan, a deeply tolerant man who accepts marsupials in the kitchen and discussions about unicorns or chaos theory at breakfast; one son, two stepdaughters, two step grandkids.

Pets:
None. I suspect the local wildlife see us as pets, not the other way around! Close relationships with assorted wombats, chooks, wallabies, possums, echidnas (Bryan says: too close, and get that wombat off the sofa).

Hobbies:
Well, not really, as they all become ingredients in the slowly composting processes of my mind and turn into stories. Passionate plant collector - grow about 800 fruit trees, 266 sorts of fruit, 115 varieties of apples, many kinds of bush tucker, a few hundred herbs, and shut me up at this point or I'll go on about it forever....

Garden:
about 2 hectares surrounded by bush; inhabited by two humans, or three when Edward's home, 2-5 wombats, 1-3 wallabies, 127 species of bird at last count, 1 echidna, many species of frog, bat, snakes and assorted others ...
Our garden is designed so that animals have a slice of paradise too. You CAN grow just about everything without fencing animals out, and without using poisonous sprays. White cockatoos? The white goshawk keeps them under control. Possums? The powerful owls take care of them. See the books for other ways to design a garden that controls its own pests and weeds, more or less feeds itself, us, the birds and wildlife and many friends ... takes about half an hour's work a week.

Advice to younger writers:
No matter how good your writing style, you must have something to write about. Each book should be a small part of your heart and soil, plus about two litres of lifes blood. Work out what you love and are passionate about, whether it's hamburgers or history. If you're not passionate about anything you are a deeply boring person and should only write books for snails.

An Average Day
5.30 am - Woken by demented shrike thrush pecking at window.

5.32 -am - Swear at demented shrike thrush. Go back to sleep.

9.00 -12.20 - Write, with short breaks for aphid or fruit fly counting and mooching around garden.

12.30 - Swim in creek if water above freezing; greet chooks; lunch.

2 - 5.00 - Write; short breaks to pick asparagus, avocados or other stuff for dinner.

5.00 - ? - Mooch around bush or garden; say good day to wombat, cook dinner.

After dinner - Answer letters; feed wombat.

10.00ish - Say goodnight to wombat; go to bed.

10.30 - Say a very firm goodnight to wombat.

11.30 - Rescue chewed doormat and and mangled garbage bin from wombat. Speak sternly to wombat. Go to sleep.