As ‘Danielle Wood’, she teaches writing at UTAS and pens books with bite across genres. As ‘Minnie Darke’, she writes heartwarming stories about romance, family and fate, whose latest book is a personal tale about adoption.

Where did you grow up and where do you live now? I grew up in Lutana, and although I lived in Fern Tree for quite a while, I now live on the Eastern Shore, in Otago.

How did the story for your latest novel as Minnie Darke, Three Juliets, come about? Three Juliets is the result of both personal experience and a great deal of research. Although I’m an only child, my extended family is a big one that has both lost and gained members to adoption. I was born in 1972, which was the peak year for adoption in Australia, with almost 10,000 babies adopted across the country. This means I had and have a number of friends who were adopted, and in many cases I’ve borne witness to their struggles and to their reunions with birth families. Despite the amount of research I’ve done, Three Juliets is a work of fiction and I hope that it is, despite the sometimes heart-breaking subject matter, a novel that offers hope and redemption. I wrote Three Juliets so that it would take a nuanced view of adoption, and writing the stories of three adopted girls – Roisin, Miranda and Bindi – enabled me to explore a range of adoption scenarios.

How are your personal interests reflected in the book? While some mothers express their love for their children through cooking, I’m much more likely to express my love through knitting or sewing. In Three Juliets, a character named Claudie tries to stay connected to her lost baby by making a special garment for her on every birthday. Three Juliets LOCAL PEOPLE also owes a debt to women’s magazines, and my exposure to them when I was a child. My mother and both grandmothers always had a range of magazines floating around. In Three Juliets we see how women’s magazines in Australia have played a role in both reflecting and (sometimes) leading social change.

What’s the difference between Danielle Wood books and Minnie Darke books? The main difference is the kind of experience they promise. My books don’t promise you a happy ending, but Minnie’s do.

What are your writing habits and how do you stay motivated? I’d love to say that I write a certain number of thousand words per day, come rain, hail or shine. The truth is that I write in the middle of life, around the edges of three children and a university job. These days, my writing habits have more to do with seasons. There are months when I’m writing, then months where I’m editing, then the time when I’m taking a book out into the world. The only way I stay motivated is by reading and remaining in love with the incredible magic that you can work with nothing more than 26 letters, a handful of punctuation marks and some white space.

Who do you admire? I admire Annabel Crabb. She writes so well that I bet her shopping list is laugh-out-loud funny.

Favourite podcast or tv show? I binged the podcast Art History for All by Allyson Healy.

Secret vice? I own so much knitting yarn that I am potentially close to SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy).

What are you reading now? I Want Everything, by Domenic Amerena.

Do you have any pets? I have one dog, two cats, four guinea pigs, two alpacas, ten chickens and many thousands of bees.

What was your first job? In the deli at Purity supermarket in Glenorchy.

What are your daily news/social media habits? Every day, I do the Wordle and the Connections puzzle, read the local news and the political commentary on the ABC website.

Your favourite place for…

Breakfast: There’s a little spot I like to go walking, where I can have a buttered crumpet and cup of tea over a campfire.

Lunch: Little Missy Patisserie in Argyle Street.

Dinner: No need to go out. My daughter is a gun dumpling maker and my husband cooks a mean roast dinner (OMG, the gravy…).

Dream holiday destination? Somewhere up a mountain. There could be snow, but there would definitely be a little cabin with an open fire, an outdoor bath and a massive selection of books. And, my dog would be welcome.

Favourite Tasmanian secret? This place is waaaay too small for secrets, but in the spirit of the question…my father is Peter Wood from Lutana, serial pun-master on The Mercury Letters to the Editor page.

Parting words? Everything ever written was just something that someone, once, sat down and wrote.