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When
her family moved to the city, she attended a local
girls' school. There she illustrated her school
books for the entertainment of her friends, and
was always in trouble for talking. Annie initially
wanted to be an actor and trained at the University
of Southern Queensland. After a few exhausting
years on the boards, Annie retired to become a
speech and drama teacher. She now works at a girls'
high school in between looking after her husband
and three children as well as, of course, writing
and illustrating her series of seadog adventures.
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The
seadogs were inspired by the sandy expanses of
school holidays spent around Moreton Bay. The
exact location of Left Shoe's burrow is a secret!
Annie's first two seadog stories LEFT
SHOE AND THE FOUNDLING and MARIGOLD
AND THE DARK were released
in November 2005 and book three, SEA
GEM AND THE LAND OF ICE is nearly finished
and will be on the shelves later in 2006. This
new adventure follows Sea Gem's amazing journey
all the way to Antarctica, where she learns that
things are not always as they seem. In this incredible
tale of blizzards and bravery, icebergs and penguins,
Sea Gem saves the day and solves an intriguing
mystery.
Annie
loves pots of tea, long chats, and aspires to
keep chooks.
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From
students at Ascot Vale State School:
"I
think Mrs O'Dowd's talk was fantastic. She talked to
us about the publishing of her first two books and where
she got those fantastic ideas from. After she had read
us a passage from her second book, Marigold and the
Dark, she picked three people to play the characters,
gave them costumes, props and a script each... I really
liked her talk and look forward to reading all her books."
"I
loved Mrs O'Dowd's talk today. She inspired me so much.
I'm going to write my own book one day."
"I
really want to be an author when I grow up and to meet
someone who has been through all the processes really
inspired me. I learnt a lot about the cycle of writing
and I got some tips and ideas. I really enjoyed her
presentation and I hope I'll be able to write like her
one day!"
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