T L Whalan is a ranga who likes dogs, chocolate, and small hobby farms. Her pigmentation relegates her to an inside life, where she has found writing interesting-enough that she does it quite a lot and even made a website about it.
Ultimately, T L Whalan is a writer who draws on her experiences as an educator and dog trainer to create diverse fiction, primarily targeted at young readers. She is currently working on her fourteenth unpublished novel.
Whalan went to university and graduated with a Bachelor of Education (with Honours), and was suckered into writing non-fiction for a good number of years. This included writing her political and sometimes-angry blog, Some Thoughts About Dogs. In November of 2014, Whalan partook in her first NaNoWriMo and experienced the satisfaction of (finally!) completing an entire novel. From there, she has written many fiction novels, compulsively. It sometimes makes her wrist hurt.
In 2021, Whalan has had three of her short stories published: two in The Mirror as part of the 2021 Stringybark Short Story Competition, and one in Spicy Bites:Denim (under a pseudonym). Last year, her flash fiction story was shortlisted in the Australian Writers Centre February 2020 Furious Fiction competition.
Because Whalan likes eating chocolate, she partakes in a paid job as a facilitator. In the past, she has maintained her chocolate-habit by working in and coordinating school-based programs, and working as a first aid trainer. Whalan is well-versed in public speaking in schools, libraries, and other venues. Her favourite piece of feedback she ever received was when someone wrote that “The trainer tried to be funny”. It seems that attempts of humour manifests in other parts of her life, too.
Whalan was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and then stayed there. She lives with her husband, border terriers, and other pets. Whalan has never used her uterus and has no intentions to. Sometimes she leaves Adelaide to go to other places in South Australia or into other states, especially when pursuing her hobby of dog showing (that is, weird dog-beauty-contests).
Other hobbies Whalan partakes in include reading (as all good and even mediocre writers must). Whalan reads a lot of middle grade and young adult fiction in an attempt to distract herself from getting old. Throughout her childhood, Whalan enjoyed many animal-related books. She has fond memories of reading the Animorphs series (K A Applegate), the Redwall series (Brian Jacques). As an adult, Whalan also has a love of historical fiction, and has for many years claimed Bernard Cornwell as her favourite author.
Aside from writing, reading, working, and all things dog, Whalan tries to keep the dust down on a 7 acre property in the lower north of South Australia. She is very good at using Pinterest to remind herself of projects that she will never actually attempt.
