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This is the official bio you'll find in my books - Tess Woods is a physiotherapist who lives in Perth, Australia, with one husband, one son, one daughter, one dog and one cat who rules over them all. Her debut novel, Love at First Flight, received acclaim from readers around the world and won Book of the Year in the AusRom Today Reader’s Choice Award. Her second novel, Beautiful Messy Love, made the best books of 2017 lists for Readings, Booktopia, and Better Reading. When she isn’t working or being a personal assistant to her kids, Tess enjoys reading and all kinds of grannyish pleasures like knitting, baking, drinking tea and tending to the veggie patch. Tess loves connecting with her readers on Facebook and Instagram.
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Here I am being interviewed by Better Reading after the release of each of my books (or what I refer to as my own personal portfolio of evidence of my ageing and weight gain weight with the passing years!)
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Here’s lots more about me:
My other big passion apart from writing is social justice. I started a group in 2013 called Meals by Mums. We cook nutritious homemade meals for Perth's homeless people. We get together in our school canteen and spend a day cooking every term. Our meals are individually sealed and frozen and delivered to a drop-in centre where people who are hungry can drop in at any time and defrost one of our yummy meals. In 2018 we sealed the lid on our 2500th meal and we're still going strong!
I'm also an ambassador for the charity group "Share the Dignity". This wonderful organisation aims to return dignity to Australian women who are homeless by providing them with access to sanitary products. What started out as me writing copy for Share the Dignity led to me being part of the committee that formed the West Coast Fiction Festival (November 2018) . This event brought together 60 best-selling authors and over 250 readers, and raised $18,000 - enough money to buy two Dignity Vending Machines that have been placed in high schools in low socio-economic areas in Perth. These machines dispense free pads and tampons.
I'm also an ambassador for the charity group "Share the Dignity". This wonderful organisation aims to return dignity to Australian women who are homeless by providing them with access to sanitary products. What started out as me writing copy for Share the Dignity led to me being part of the committee that formed the West Coast Fiction Festival (November 2018) . This event brought together 60 best-selling authors and over 250 readers, and raised $18,000 - enough money to buy two Dignity Vending Machines that have been placed in high schools in low socio-economic areas in Perth. These machines dispense free pads and tampons.
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In 2018 I created Generation Girls. This is the name of the group of twelve wonderful girls who I mentored at Ballajura Community College in Perth. The girls, aged between 14-16 years of age, haven't grown up with privilege and have faced big challenges in their young lives. The girls and I formed a book club and they took part in creative writing workshops I ran with the result being their anthology, Generation Girls - a heartwarming book of stories, poems, letters and advice written by the girls to inspire other teens. We raised enough money in pre-sales of the book that on release day, the girls were able to donate $1,000 to the charity, Books in Homes, to give new books to underprivileged school children. You can buy a copy of Generation Girls from Booktopia here.
In 2019, I joined 12 Buckets as a volunteer mentor to a primary school student in need. 12 Buckets mentors commit to at least 12 months of spending one-on-one time at school once a week with the child they are paired up with to develop a close bond over time and to be a support person for that child. I feel incredibly lucky to be part of the 12 Buckets team and to be given the chance to walk beside some very girls who have come into my life through the programme. In 2020, my friend Lisa Ireland and I ran a social media campaign called #7dollarsfor7years in support of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. We named our campaign in honour of the people seeking asylum who in 2020 had been held in off-shore detention for seven years. We asked people to donate only $7 with the hope that as a community coming together, lots of people donating a bit would add up to a lot. We were absolutely delighted by the support for the campaign which raised an amazing $7000! |
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Apart from my social justice work, something else that's pretty key about me - I love to talk. I don't shut-up. Ever. My poor husband!
I’m Egyptian born, I migrated to Australia as a school child and I lost my Arabic surname when I married an Englishman. Our engagement party could easily have been a scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I wrote a piece for SBS Australia about my Arab-Egyptian upbringing that you can read here.
I love languages. I speak and read French and I can get by in Italian and Arabic.
I'm obsessed with the British Royal Family. OBSESSED I tell you!! I especially love Princess Kate. I wish we were neighbours and we could have tea and talk about royally things. I tried to write the royals into Love at First Flight. The folks at HarperCollins cut them out. I tried again in Beautiful Messy Love and the HarperCollins editors once again nixed it. My husband had to stop me buying a "Sparkle like Markle" T-shirt last time we were in the U.K. So instead I wrote Meghan and Harry's wedding into Love and Other Battles. And it stayed in there! I think my editors finally gave up trying to talk sense to me about not randomly adding royals to my books :)
Monkeys terrify me. Cold sweat just typing the word monkeys.
Parallel parking also terrifies me. Not as much as the monkeys.
I was the class clown as a kid and now, as an adult, I’m the school-mum clown. Everyone thought my books would be funny. My books make you cry, not laugh. Go figure.
I’m Egyptian born, I migrated to Australia as a school child and I lost my Arabic surname when I married an Englishman. Our engagement party could easily have been a scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I wrote a piece for SBS Australia about my Arab-Egyptian upbringing that you can read here.
I love languages. I speak and read French and I can get by in Italian and Arabic.
I'm obsessed with the British Royal Family. OBSESSED I tell you!! I especially love Princess Kate. I wish we were neighbours and we could have tea and talk about royally things. I tried to write the royals into Love at First Flight. The folks at HarperCollins cut them out. I tried again in Beautiful Messy Love and the HarperCollins editors once again nixed it. My husband had to stop me buying a "Sparkle like Markle" T-shirt last time we were in the U.K. So instead I wrote Meghan and Harry's wedding into Love and Other Battles. And it stayed in there! I think my editors finally gave up trying to talk sense to me about not randomly adding royals to my books :)
Monkeys terrify me. Cold sweat just typing the word monkeys.
Parallel parking also terrifies me. Not as much as the monkeys.
I was the class clown as a kid and now, as an adult, I’m the school-mum clown. Everyone thought my books would be funny. My books make you cry, not laugh. Go figure.
Here are a few of my favourite things. Do we have things in common?
Authors: Maeve Binchy, the queen - all hail the queen. Other authors whose work I adore are Melina Marchetta, Elizabeth Strout, Marian Keyes, Mhairi McFarlaine, Sally Hepworth, Rosamund Pilcher, Nicholas Evans and Kent Haruf.
Books: Everything Maeve Binchy ever wrote (especially Evening Class) but my all time favourite book is The Bridges of Madison County By Robert James Waller. Other books that have stuck with me over the years are The Thorn Birds, Big Stone Gap, On the Jellicoe Road, The Help, Snow Falling on Cedars, Miss You, The Shell Seekers, Tully, The Horse Whisperer, Rachel's Holiday, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Growing up I was addicted to the Sweet Valley High books. You can find more of my favourites here
Magazine: WHO magazine. I LOVE this mag and have been a subscriber since before I was married in 1995! It's hard to put into words how excited I was when I flipped open a page with royals on the cover (ROYALS!!!) to see that my publishing team had surprised me with a full page spread. And then the following week after the big surprise spread, I made the WHO'S Hot 12 list with PRINCESS freaking DIANA! Two years later, I was back in WHO with a five star review!
Books: Everything Maeve Binchy ever wrote (especially Evening Class) but my all time favourite book is The Bridges of Madison County By Robert James Waller. Other books that have stuck with me over the years are The Thorn Birds, Big Stone Gap, On the Jellicoe Road, The Help, Snow Falling on Cedars, Miss You, The Shell Seekers, Tully, The Horse Whisperer, Rachel's Holiday, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Growing up I was addicted to the Sweet Valley High books. You can find more of my favourites here
Magazine: WHO magazine. I LOVE this mag and have been a subscriber since before I was married in 1995! It's hard to put into words how excited I was when I flipped open a page with royals on the cover (ROYALS!!!) to see that my publishing team had surprised me with a full page spread. And then the following week after the big surprise spread, I made the WHO'S Hot 12 list with PRINCESS freaking DIANA! Two years later, I was back in WHO with a five star review!
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Quote: ‘You’re my own personal brand of heroin.’ Edward to Bella in Twilight. (Stop judging - you know you secretly loved Twilight too!)
Song: Pretty much every Christmas carol! From about September. Played loudly for the neighbours.
Band: The Police. When Sting had hair he once flicked it around while he was on stage and his sweat landed on me in the audience. I haven't washed my face since that day thirty years ago. It's best to air kiss me for sanitary reasons.
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Celebrity: Tori Spelling. The woman is my Oprah. All of my friends know of my lifelong obsession with Tori so when I was sent an article about her on a messenger chat from a friend of mine, I was excited and happily began to read. Then I scrolled down and saw that the photo accompanying the article was Tori HOLDING MY BOOK. And now I am dead.
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Movies: Dirty Dancing, The Notebook, Jerry Maguire, Under the Tuscan Sun, Bridget Jones, Music and Lyrics, Notting Hill, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Love Actually. If you're one of those miserable people who moan that Love Actually is awful and that when he holds up the signs and pretends to be carol singers that that's actually stalking, and that there's no way you could fall in love with someone who doesn't speak your language even if they jump in a freezing eel-ridden lake to save your manuscript pages, please just go away. I mean it.
TV show: Friends. I've watched all ten series at least ten times, maybe more. I'm in an "Unagi" group chat where we do nothing but relive Ross's greatest moments over and over again. For me, it's Mona and the holiday card. "To sum up, you look young, we're having fun."
Sports star: Pat Cash. I hate sport. Hate isn't too strong a word here, like I really HATE sport. I especially hate tennis. Dullest sport in the world, except for maybe cricket and golf. I've watched dozens and dozens of hours of Pat Cash playing tennis. I sleep in a Pat Cash Tshirt. Over thirty years on, Pat Cash doesn't know I exist and I feel that this is not right. If you know Pat Cash, message me. I will pay you in rocky road and I promise not to implicate you if he seeks a restraining order against me.
Place: Venice. I have thrown tantrums to rival any two-year-old whenever I've had to leave. On our next trip to Venice, my husband reckons he's packing sedatives to slip me for the vaporetto ride back to the airport.
Food: Potatoes. Made any way. Just hand over the potatoes and I'll love you forever.
TV show: Friends. I've watched all ten series at least ten times, maybe more. I'm in an "Unagi" group chat where we do nothing but relive Ross's greatest moments over and over again. For me, it's Mona and the holiday card. "To sum up, you look young, we're having fun."
Sports star: Pat Cash. I hate sport. Hate isn't too strong a word here, like I really HATE sport. I especially hate tennis. Dullest sport in the world, except for maybe cricket and golf. I've watched dozens and dozens of hours of Pat Cash playing tennis. I sleep in a Pat Cash Tshirt. Over thirty years on, Pat Cash doesn't know I exist and I feel that this is not right. If you know Pat Cash, message me. I will pay you in rocky road and I promise not to implicate you if he seeks a restraining order against me.
Place: Venice. I have thrown tantrums to rival any two-year-old whenever I've had to leave. On our next trip to Venice, my husband reckons he's packing sedatives to slip me for the vaporetto ride back to the airport.
Food: Potatoes. Made any way. Just hand over the potatoes and I'll love you forever.