Amanda has always loved reading and writing.
“I loved creative writing at school, but I adored science too.”
Choosing geology, she’s travelled the world, from the Equator to the Arctic. She went across West Africa, to Jordan, where she met her husband, and many other far-flung places.
“We’ve been based in Norway and in a houseboat in London, while we were travelling around to the remotest places mapping previously unexplored areas.”
She started her writing career with published articles on geology, and other topics.
“But the idea of writing fiction started after we’d moved to Ireland, at the Listowel Festival 7 years ago,” she says. “I realised that ordinary people wrote novels. I went home, pulled multi-timeline books off my shelf, studied them, and pulled them apart to see how they worked. Then I planned my novel.”
Who is Amanda Geard?
Date of birth: 1983, in Tasmania.
Education: Scotch Oakburn College, Tasmania. University of Tasmania, BA Science.
“I studied International Wilderness Guiding in Finland before going to university.”
Home: Sneem, County Kerry. “We came to Ireland on holiday with no notion of settling, but we saw a stunning derelict place with a ‘For Sale’ sign and ended up buying and renovating it. We’ve loved putting down roots and feeling part of the community.”
Family: Husband, Barry, 2 red setters Harry and Bertie.
The Day Job: Writing and Geology.
In Another Life: “I’d love to be involved with space exploration. I’ve explored earth, it would be nice to be involved with the next frontier.”
Favourite Writers: Kate Morton; Lucinda Reilly; Rachael English, Sinead Moriarty; Catherine Ryan Howard; Andy Weir.
Second Novel: “It’s a multi-time mystery set between Tasmania and Kerry as war in the Pacific rages. I’ve some more work to do on it yet.”
Top Tip: Keep going forward, don’t look back until written the end.
Website: www.amandageard.com Twitter:@AmandaGeard
The Debut: The Midnight House. Headline Review: €17.59. Kindle. €5.86
In 2019, Journalist Ellie Fitzgerald flees Dublin leaving behind a ruined relationship, her career in tatters. Finding a faded letter in a book, she starts investigating the disappearance of Charlotte Rathmore in 1940, at nearby Blackwater Hall. But could her discoveries give her a key to her own future?
The Verdict: This is a superb sweeping saga to savour.
Published in the Irish Examiner on 4th June.
© Sue J Leonard. 2022.
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