If there's a punchline to be had, Gretel Killeen will go for the knockout, writes Christine Hogan. There are two words, among a number, which could fairly describe, in a nutshell, Gretel Killeen. First, the writer/voice-over artist/public speaker is prolific.

Given that she is the single mother of two children nearing adolescence, it seems positively over-achieving that tomorrow she will launch her latest book, Hot Buns And Ophelia Get A Bloke. There's some doubt about the number of books she's written so far. She thinks 19, but on a recount it seems to be her 15th and the first in a series of four dealing with the adventures of two thirty-somethings on the lookout for fun, true love, men, money and breasts which point forever skywards.

The second word for Killeen is eccentric. Here is a 38-year-old who has discovered that she has to stand out rather than fit in and is happily plotting an individual course, even if sometimes it's a little uncomfortable out there on the edge. That strategy started early, despite (or perhaps because of) her middle-class, Methodist background, and the fact she was captain of Ravenswood, a private girls' school on Sydney's North Shore. "It was a vote by the students," remembered Killeen. "The result might have been a little different if the teachers had had a say." Her fellow students recognised the fun factor in Killeen.

Her thirst for adventure saw her last just six weeks doing law at university - she knew almost instantly that this was not the world for her creative soul. She got married in her early 20s because she thought it might be fun, had her children for the same reason - and she believes she was certainly right about them. "I often do things because there is simply no choice," she said.

That might seem a little cavalier for those who choose a more conservative path in life, but Killeen is totally individual and extremely creative, which is part of what informs her prolific output and how she conducts her private life as well as, most obviously, where she lives. From the outside, Killeen's house looks pretty normal for an inner-city terrace. Normal, if you ignore the plastic flowers stuck in the bars of the windows, that is. They tend to make it look rather like a funeral home somewhere in the back blocks of southern Italy. As with Killeen herself, you have to get past appearances and appreciate the detail.

Inside, the single-fronted terrace has a larger personality and is a little more complex than you'd expect. To the immediate right of the front door is a large print of Christ. Straight across from that is a wall-filling mirror which was once in pride of place at Le Trianon restaurant in Potts Point. It goes nicely with the little chandelier. Somehow, the eclectic whole works with the two surfboards (she's learning, her son is already adept) and the skateboards hanging off the edge of a vintage cane day bed.

Move towards the back of the large sitting/office/family room and kitchen and you'll find some more religious icons, along with a certificate from the Brownies, another from The Sun-Herald Juniors notifying Gretel Killeen, then aged eight, that she'd won three points in a poster competition, along with some family memorabilia..There's a print of Jesus of the Sacred Heart hanging near one of the Last Supper over the benches. "That's appropriate, don't you think?," asked Killeen, who lives here with her children, Zeke, 12, and Eppie (short for Epiphany), 9. She believes in faith, she said simply, adding: "And I believe that if there is a God, He would want us to believe in ourselves."

There is an unexpected benefit to all this visual piety. "It's amazing the service you get from Catholic builders once they see all this stuff," she cracked, though that's not the reason she collects and displays some unusual objects on her walls. "I like the colours," she said. There's a sparkly Jesus from Vietnam, which used to light up when the image was plugged in. But it started to smoke, said Killeen. She took that as a sign and hasn't switched on the glittering icon since.

Killeen says she finds writing lonely. She's disciplined about it and writes every morning after she has dropped Eppie off at school. Often she sits down and produces a thousand words. Recently she did that for 55 days straight. Result, two finished books.

Now she's got decorating on her mind again. She's looking for a buddha to add to the decor, but hasn't been able to find one in the right shade of pink to go with the mosaic tiles which cover one of the weight-bearing joists in the large room (the other one has green tiles which would not be out of place in a swimming pool). It took her ages to get the right colour for those tiles.

"I don't do shopping therapy. That's why I can't shop for clothes. I'm very sensitive to colour," she declared. So much so, that if a man presents himself at the front door to take her out on a date and he's wearing the wrong colour shirt, she simply can't go. Fortunately, she's got something of a wardrobe of acceptable garments into which the style-challenged dates can change. Ditto goes for shoes. She cannot go out with a man who is wearing boat shoes. "They always make men's feet look small, which seems not the point at all," she explained. So, she's still single, then? "Obviously, yes, but I fall in love all the time," she replied.

Single, but hopeful. The liner notes for her book declare that she wouldn't mind getting a bloke (because she has some heavy furniture which needs shifting). But where to put one in a life which is already full? "The children and I were sitting on the couch the other day, wondering if there were a someone else, where would he sit," she said. "We couldn't work out where he'd go. "Fortunately for the heavy furniture challenge, Zeke is turning into a strong young man, and so a furniture removalist is not a pressing need right now."

There are not many moments in her life which Killeen won't save for potential grist to her creative mill. One of her books is entitled My Life Is A Toilet. "My ex-husband Mark said that once, describing his own life," Killeen said, "and I thought, hmmm, there's a good title for a book." He now lives in America and she and the children spend holidays with him, his new wife and their new baby, so his life clearly didn't stay in the toilet. Last year they spent a skiing holiday in Vermont at a farm owned by his new wife's ex-husband. "It's very modern, isn't it?" Killeen said.

She followed the Toilet title with My Life Is A Wedgie, in which she writes about the adventures of 15-year-old Fleur, with a tone of voice which is alarmingly accurate. And there was also Visible Panty Line, another bestseller. Among her other titles is Baby On Board, one of the early ones, written during a pregnancy. There's the author, on the cover, all hair and maternity smock and stomach ready for the hospital.

There are even six children's books in the My Sister series, which star Zeke and Eppie. The last four were illustrated by the children, who did their work with pens and paper at the Last Supper table. "I'd say to them, 'I need a drawing of a big toe and a unicorn for here, who wants to do it?'. They'd groan and say they didn't want to, and then one of them would give in," Killen recalled. "They're talented, these children, just like their mother. They're children's book illustrators," she said with a certain maternal pride. "They had contracts with the publisher of the books. But they don't get royalties."

Like their mother, they also do voice-overs for TV and radio commercials. "It's a great lesson in humility for them," she said. "You have to be able to listen to what any number of people are telling you to do, then interpret what they want." It's a talent which makes Killeen one of the busiest, best-paid voices in the business. Like most of the breed, though, she is unwilling to name the clients for whom she works. In this business anonymity, not ego, is key. Let's just say that she is happy to lay claim to any voice in any ad that you think is great, even those ones which sound as though they are done by men, she said.

Like her house, Killeen looks pretty normal from the outside. She's got a fit, lean body, which doesn't look any the worse for the passing years or the effects of childbirth; a strong face with faint traces of a devastating car accident she survived when she was 20; and a wide and ready smile.

"I've just come back from a writers' festival in Vancouver", she said. "In some ways it was just like any social gathering - people only want to talk to you if they think you're important or they want to sleep with you. Because I was probably the least famous person there, and I wasn't a blonde with large breasts, I ended up with no-one to talk to." Things went better for Killeen after the writers did their cabaret turn. Then, the stand-up comedian, who loves public speaking, got a chance to show her true mettle. "That's what I love about public speaking. If you've got a big personality, there are very few places where you can show that, in a social sense. But when you speak in public, there is an acceptance of who and what you are."