New England born Karen Treanor now lives in the hills above Perth, Western Australia, where she shares a home in the woods with her husband, two cats, eight bandicoots, assorted brush-tailed possums, lizards, and an occasional kangaroo. She is a regular contributor to Mundaring Magazine, which doesn't believe in spoiling writers by paying them. She also often contributes stories about her adventures with the various wildlife there to Storyhouse.
She is the proprietor and entire staff of a small publishing company, Quenda Books, which printed its first children's book, "Scoot,Scoot, Bandicoot" in 2004. It might, she thinks, some day way down the track repay the investment of time and money.
Quenda is the aboriginal name for the southern brown bandicoot, a small marsupial that looks a bit like a muskrat, but is rather more intelligent.
"So far I am a long way off having made $500 in any writing year, so I still count as an amateur for your guidelines, I guess.
"The update on my news is that my little publishing company, Quenda Books, has just sent its third book off to the printer. Following on the success of “Scoot, Scoot, Bandicoot”, I did a second book, “The Big Red Bucket” which also features the little southern brown bandicoots Bounce and Pounce. Now Book III , “Pounce’s Special Friend” is about to be launched. It has had good pre-release reports when ‘road tested’ at a local school and was also reviewed well by a local librarian, and I hope will prove to be a good seller. The original book went into its second printing in the early part of this year. I have just about recouped the cost of the first printing of the first book; if I live long enough, I hope to make modest profit from these books!"
