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Veronica Schwarz

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Veronica Schwarz

Veronica Schwarz was born in Darwin and spent her early childhood on a cattle station, Victoria River Downs. Since then, she has lived in many cities, towns and other countries. During her career as a teacher, she has taught people from prep to eighty years of age and loved it. She has also worked as a machinist in a trouser factory in Germany, an office clerk in London, a secretary in Canada, a taxi driver in Melbourne, and curriculum developer and policy analyst in the area of equal opportunity for women and girls in the Education Department of Victoria. She is an artist and a web designer as well as passionate traveler within Australia and around the world. determined to give Gulliver a run for his money.

Veronica has been writing for more than fifty years except for the many times that life got in the way. Her first short story was published in Woman’s Day in 1965. Since that time, she has published several books for teachers and school children, as well as non-fiction articles on travel, history, mythology, language, politics and philosophy, a children’s picture book and a self-help manual on learning. 

She founded, edited and published for ten years an alternative magazine for women entitled The Dawn after Louisa Lawson’s original nineteenth century newspaper for women.

She continues to write and publish non-fiction articles and short stories.

Her book of Joan of Arc told the story through a series of imaginary interviews with Joan. The book, entitled Ride the Wind. Choose the Fire, took some fifteen years of research and several trips to France. It is available online.

Her most recently published book, Down to Earth: Busting the Myths of Mars and Venus, blasts the lid off the constraints of gender roles and stereotypes and the damage they do to people and the planet. It also offers strategies for changing the lives of women and men, girls and boys, for the better. Told with blistering clarity, anecdotes and humor, highlighted with illustrations by the author and supported by ten years of research in fields ranging from anthropology to sociology, history to literature, folklore to psychology, medicine and neuroscience, myth and religion – and pretty much everything in between. This book offers the reader an unforgettable experience and could change your life. Once you see, you can never unsee.

You’ll find more about Veronica Schwarz and her writing here. https://www.veronicaschwarz.com/writer

IN THE AUTHOR’S WORDS

Author interview

Interview submitted .

What inspired you to start writing?

I have been a teacher of both children and adults, and I love learning and sharing. As a predominantly non-fiction writer, I found many useful, helpful, informative books almost incomprehensible. I set out to write interesting or helpful information in an enjoyable and understandable manner. Like telling a story. Feedback from readers tells me I am succeeding.

Who are some of your favorite authors and books?

Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet", Ray Bradbury, Agatha Christie, Ursula Le Guin's "The Dispossessed" and "The Left Hand of Darkness", Margaret Atwood, O. Henry's short stories.

What would you like to tell readers who have just discovered your books, but haven't read one yet?

I would say: I'd love you to read this book. I know you will enjoy it because I have written it for you, to give you pleasure and something to think about. It could also change your life.

Who is the favorite character you created, and how did they come into being?

Joan of Arc: I was sitting in the tiny church she used to attend more than five hundred years ago, looking at the stained glass windows of her life. So rapt in the first image, dying in agony in the last. I asked her a question and in my head she answered. I began to interview her, and it became the book "Ride the Wind. Choose the Fire." She was so much more than most people realise. Her strength and courage will inspire any who read this book.

What are your future plans as a writer?

I plan to continue to share the things I have learnt about people, to write about those who have been lost to history, particularly women, and to write in such a way as to bring them to life, to help readers get to know them as real people doing extraordinary things. My aim is to inform and inspire readers.

Books by This Author