Personal life
Wendy Brennan
Wendy (born 28 November) has an Honours degree in Latin and worked as a high school English teacher. She was reputedly the first woman computer programmer in the southern hemisphere.
Frank Brennan
Frank Brennan was a businessman. He died in 1995.
The marriage
Frank Brennan and Wendy married, and she left her job. The marriage had three sons. They are voracious readers, and they decided to write their own novels under the pseudonym Emma Darcy.
Widow, Wendy now lives in New South Wales, Australia with 5 grandchildren and 3 grown-up sons all who she adores.
Writing career
As Emma Darcy, they sold her first novels in 1983. Darcy sold 60 million books from 1983 to 2001, and averages six new books per year.
In 2002, Darcy's first crime novel
Who Killed Angelique? won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Novel. In 2003, the next novel,
Who Killed Bianca, was a finalist for the Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel.
Emma Darcy Award Contest
In 1993 Frank and Wendy Brennan created the "Emma Darcy Award Contest" to encourage authors to finish their manuscripts. It had a prize of $2,000 and a guarantee that the manuscript would be seen by an acquiring editor.
Winners:
- 1994 - Tracey Cooper-Posey
- 1995 - Ginny Gibbs for The Last Resort
- 1996 - Bronwyn Jamesonfor For Love or Money
- 1997 - Fiona Brand for Cullen's Bride
- 1998 - Jill Watkinson for Black Pearl
- 1999 - Yvonne Lindsay for The Father Deal
- 2000 - Lucy Forster & Danielle Ellis
- 2001 - Laura Ruch for Full Circle (retitled The Tie that Binds)