……Meet Our Gold Coast Anthology Authors………..Betsy Roberts

Betsy Roberts captures the essence of the beach in the 1960’s.
Crowded beach scene, Burleigh Heads, Queensland, circa 1959 [picture] / G. A. Black, photographer.
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What are you reading at the moment?
At the moment, I am reading John Safran’s Murder in Mississippi., a compelling investigation into the killing of a white supremacist leader in the Deep South. Written with the same incisive, brilliant and witty style that characterizes Safran’s TV documentaries, it is not only a murder mystery, but character study and travelogue – everything I love in a book.
What is your connection with the Gold Coast? And favourite place?
My family moved to Tweed Heads in 1952, just as ‘The Gold Coast’ was becoming an idea. (I remember thinking the kidney-shaped pool at El Rancho Motel was the height of luxury). I grew up on a farm in what is now called Bilambil Heights (then Highfields), but Dad always made time for bushwalking and the beach, so I have a soft spot for both the old original O’Reilly’s cabins in Lamington National Park, and for Rainbow Bay. Most of my working life has been with the Gold Coast Public Library Service.
Describe your story in one sentence.
No Lime Ice Cream is a miniature snapshot of teenage angst, framed in a sixties Beach Kiosk.
What atracted you to this particular photograph?
What attracted me to this particular photograph was that it pretty much replicated what could be seen on all the southern beaches on any given weekend back then. Hopefully, No Lime Ice Cream gives an impression of beach life as it was back in the sixties. But of course, pain, embarrassment and desperate crushes did not fade away with The Beach Boys.
What else have you published?
I have had one story published in the Australian Women’s Weekly, another (also inspired by a Gold Coast photo) in the GCAC Gallery Catalogue, and a travel article in Vacations & Travel.
What are you writing now?
I am in the process of polishing/redrafting a novel, set in the local area, that has growing up and leaving home as its main theme.
Anything else to add?
I love reading short stories (particularly Australian and writers of the American South), and most of my writing has been short fiction.