Bernard, Patricia 1942–

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Bernard, Patricia 1942–

(Trisha Bernard, P. Scot-Bernard, Judy Bernard Waite)

Personal

Born July 6, 1942, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; daughter of Robert and Edith Lack; married Kenneth Bernard, 1964; children: Marcelle, Shona, S'Haila, Tyru. Education: Attended Australian state schools. Hobbies and other interests: Travelling, reading, bike riding.

Addresses

Home—Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Writer and lecturer. Worked variously as a kindergarten teacher in the United Kingdom, a pavement artist, night-club waitress, fine-arts painter, grape picker, and au pair.

Member

Australian Authors Association.

Awards, Honors

Multicultural Award for Monkey Hill Gold; Aurealis Award shortlist for The Outcast.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

We Are Tam, Ashton Scholastic (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 1983.

Aida's Ghost, Corgi Books (Neutral Bay, New South Wales, Australia), 1988.

(Under name Judy Bernard Waite) Riddle of the Trumpalar, Scholastic (Gosford, New South Wales, Australia), 1990.

Challenge of the Trumpalar, Scholastic (Gosford, New South Wales, Australia), 1990.

Monkey Hill Gold, Omnibus Books (Norwood, South Australia, Australia), 1992.

The Outer Space Spy, illustrated by Mike Spoor, Jacaranda Press (Milton, New South Wales, Australia), 1992.

Dream Door of Shinar, illustrated by Garry Fleming, Harcourt (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 1992.

Kangaroo Kids, Bantam (Neutral Bay, New South Wales, Australia), 1992.

Jacaranda Shadow, Hodder & Stoughton (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 1993.

JB and the Worry Dolls, Hodder Headline (Rydalmere, New South Wales, Australia), 1994.

Outerspace Spy, Transworld, 1994.

Monster Builder, illustrated by Laurie McIntyre, Cool Dude Books (Paddington, New South Wales, Australia), 1996.

Spook Bus, HarperCollins (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 1997.

No Sooks on the Starship, Macmillan (Chippendale, New South Wales, Australia), 1998.

Duffy: Everyone's Dog (picture book), illustrated by Cathy Netherwood, Random House (Milsons Point, New South Wales, Australia), 1998.

Wolf-Man, Addison Wesley Longman (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), 1999.

The Pizza Caper, Addison Wesley Longman (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), 1999.

Jumping Dogs and Jellyfish, illustrated by Gus Gordon, Addison Wesley Longman (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), 1999.

The Stolen Giant Cheesecake, Pearson Education (South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), 2000.

Marcus the Mighty, illustrated by Penny Azar, Blake Educational (Glebe, New South Wales, Australia), 2001.

Cool Dude and Honey Magnet, Pearson Education (South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), 2002.

Basil Big Boots, illustrated by Nancy Beiman, Cool Dude Books, 2003.

Duffy and the Invisible Crocodile, illustrated by Nancy Beiman, Cool Dude Books, 2003.

Fords and Flying Machines: The Diary of Jack McLaren, Longreach, 1919-1921, Scholastic (Linfield, New South Wales, Australia), 2003.

Stegosaur Stone, Scholastic (Linfield, New South Wales, Australia), 2004.

The Mask, Scholastic (Linfield, New South Wales, Australia), 2005.

Also author of Into the Future, Temple of Apis, and Slap, Dash, Splash. Contributor of short fiction to educational anthologies, including Techno Terror, Addison Wesley Longman, 1999; Greening the Earth, edited by Paul Collins and Meredith Costain, Pearson Educational; and Sparklers 5, Blake Education, 2001.

"OUTCAST" TRILOGY; FOR YOUNG ADULTS

The Outcast, HarperCollins (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 1997.

The Punisher, HarperCollins (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 1997.

The Rule Changer, HarperCollins (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 1998.

FOR ADULTS

(Under name P. Scot-Bernard) Sex Is a Deadly Exercise, Transworld, 1987, published as Sex Is a Deadly Weapon, 1990.

Deadly Sister Love, HarperCollins (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 1998.

(Under name Trisha Bernard) With the Kama Sutra under My Arm: An Indian Journey, East Street Publications (Bowden, South Australia, Australia), 2006.

Also author of novel Not My Sister's Keeper, under pseudonym P. Scot-Bernard. Author of scripts for television and film. Author, under name Trisha Bernard, of travel books, including With a Maasai under My Arm.

Sidelights

Patricia Bernard left her native Australia at age nineteen to see the world, and has been working, traveling, and finding adventures and romance around the globe ever since. From sailing the Nile river to working as a pavement painter in Berlin, to driving across Alaska in a sports car, she was one of the first Australians allowed into China during the 1970s. Able to speak five languages, Bernard has visited over seventy countries and actually lived in twenty of them. An artist, she worked as a painter of landscapes and portraits for fifteen years, and turned to writing in the 1980s. "I started writing … when a friend asked me to write down the stories I was telling at a kindergarten," Bernard once told SATA. "Since then, every children's/teenage book I have written has been published." In addition to publishing children's books that include Jacaranda Shadow, The Mask, and the "Outcast" science-fiction trilogy, Bernard has also written three novels for adults under a pen name, and also written for film and television.

Discussing her career as a writer, Bernard once told SATA: "I hope to achieve racial and national harmony between children and parents in the linguistically diverse Australian schools, and to teach ‘even the smallest thing’ to the reader while they have a good time reading my books. I work from nine to nine, six days a week when writing, and longer when editing because I hate editing so much. My motto is ‘if it is not fun, don't do it,’ so when the sun shines I spend three hour lunches at the beach, editing and swimming, and I can be taken away from my computer by any simple excuse given by any friend who drops in and suggests a coffee, a champagne, or a swim. I also lecture in schools and to writers, librarians, and women's literary groups, mostly about myself, my books, and the benefits of turning off the television and reading.

"The purpose behind writing the ‘Outcast’ trilogy was to invent an entire world with the same tensions as our own, and through a hero and a group of heroes, fix it up. I don't know who has influenced my work, but my favorite authors are Isabelle Allende, Margaret Atwood, and Charles Dickens. The advice I would give to aspiring writers in Australia is ‘don't give up your day job. Our population is too small.’"

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Magpies, May, 1993, pp. 29-30; March, 1994, review of Jacaranda Shadow, p. 32; May, 1997, reviews of Duffy: Everyone's Dog, p. 28, and The Outcast, p. 37; March, 1998, review of The Punisher, p. 37.

Publishers Weekly, January 20, 1992, review of Kangaroo Kids, p. 66.