Interview with Children's Author Edel Wignell

When did you first know you wanted to be an author?

In 1973, when I was teaching, I was invited to write a monthly column for an education journal. At the end of the year, I left teaching to try some of the arts: drawing, painting, gold and silver smithing. I continued writing the column and, as I enjoyed writing, I branched out to write for newspapers and magazines, as well. In 1979, a friend wondered why I wasn't writing for children and I believed I couldn't do it. I looked at some magazines and tried. Soon I was writing short stories, articles, plays and poetry – a fulltime writer. Goodbye forever to teaching and art!

What is your educational/professional background?

I am a trained infant teacher - taught in primary schools in Victoria and London for eight years and in a Teachers’ College for seven.

Did you encounter any obstacles when trying to get published?

Did I ever! Have always done so! Hundreds of 'returns' since 1979. (The word 'rejections' isn't in my vocabulary!) I believe in my work and never give up. There are dozens of reasons why splendid manuscripts are returned – nothing to do with the quality of the work. A picture-story, Big Eyes, Scary Voice, illustrated by Carl Pearce, was published in the UK by Tamarind Books on the 54^th time out. Available from Random House Australia, www.randomhouse.com.au

Please tell us about your most recent book and what inspired you to write it?

Bilby Secrets, illustrated by Mark Jackson ('Nature Storybooks' series, Walker Books Australia) was released in July 2011, shortlisted by the Children's Book Council of Australia for the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books, 2012. ISBN: 9781921529320(Hb); http://www.walkerbooks.com.au/

Little Bilby is born in a burrow in the spinifex of the Pilbara in Western Australia. He sleeps safely in his mother's pouch until he has grown large enough to explore the burrow – two metres underground. Soon he grows up and accompanies his mother on foraging trips, learns about predators and how to avoid danger. At last he has grown up.

I'm interested in endangered wildlife. The bilby, which once lived nearly everywhere in Australia, is now confined to scattered populations in remote areas. Walker books asked whether I would be willing to change my manuscript to make it suitable as a 'Nature Storybook', a series popular in the UK. Bilby Secrets is the first in the series in Australia. For classroom extension ideas click here.

Tell us about other books and published works.

I have about 100 books published in both trade and education. The following were published in 2011:



Edel Wignell (left) with a buyer at the Ringwood Highland Games, April 2012.

Christina's Matilda, illustrated by Elizabeth Botté, historical non-fiction for ages 10-110 (Interactive Publications) ISBN: 978 1 9214798 7 8 (Hb); 978 1 9214798 8 5 (ePub).

Many people know that the Australian poet, A. B. ('Banjo') Paterson wrote the words of 'Waltzing Matilda', but few know that the tune, 'March Craigielea', came first. A Melbourne woman, Christina Macpherson, who had heard it played by a band at the Warrnambool Races in 1894, played it on a zither at Dagworth Station, Queensland in 1895, and Banjo heard and liked it. Orders:  http://ipoz.biz/Store/orders.htm

Long Live Us!, illustrated by Peter Allert, a fractured folk tale for readers aged 7-10 years  (Interactive Publications) ISBN: 978 1 9214794 6 5 (Hb); 978 1 9218690 7 5 (ePub)

Long Live Us! stars a very hungry Troll (from 'The Three Billy-goats Gruff') who interacts with characters from other folk tales, hoping to enjoy a delicious meal. He gets hungrier and hungrier… The ending is a surprise to both the Troll and the readers. Orders: http://ipoz.biz/Store/orders.htm

How would you describe your writing style?

I have many different writing styles, depending on the genre and the readership. My journalism for adults is direct and economical; I try to suit the house style of a newspaper or journal. In fiction, whether short stories or novels, I write to suit the age level and the genre, whether it's adventure, mystery, humour or a serious narrative. Many of my scripts feature choruses, giving everyone in a class an opportunity to participate. I write both free and rhyming verse, and especially enjoy writing story poems and humorous verse. I write lyrics for songs, too, hitching them to well-known tunes. The three books released in 2011 were launched with songs, everyone joining in. More details: www.teachingsolutions.com.au

What did you enjoy reading as a child?

My mother and my aunt gave my sisters and me Mary Grant Bruce's 'Billabong' series as birthday presents. I read them aloud to my three sisters. We swapped with cousins who had the 'Anne of Green Gables' and the 'Pollyanna' books. At my rural school we read books from a travelling library which arrived monthly. I read every one.

Where do you like to write?

In my study in my unit in the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges, east of Melbourne.

  

What's next?

More journalism, poetry for children and adults, fiction for children.

Interview with Children's Author Claire Saxby

When did you first decide you wanted to become an author?

It was more about when I first decided to write really. I was doing a training program at school that was for parents as partners in the journey to literacy (so we could be trained helpers in the classroom) and at the end of it, the teacher running it, suggested I might like to investigate doing more. I think he was responding to my doing too much homework and wanting to go much further than the classes allowed! That was when my first son was in about Year 1 or Year 2 I think and now he's 24.

What was your journey to publication like?

Once I realised that it was children's writing that I really wanted to do, I did a 'Writing for Children' subject at TAFE. I submitted one of the chapter books I'd worked on in class to a small educational packager and they accepted it. (I'd submitted it to other educational publishers without success. About 6 months after that, it appeared. And I thought the reset was going to be easy. I also had a picture book accepted not long afterwards but the company ceased to exist just as the proofs were going to print. It was four years before another picture book was accepted. I did have many educational titles accepted in that time, including one that was accepted by one company, edited by another and published by a third (sequential takeovers)

Congratulations on receiving The Crystal Kite Award for 2011 for your picture book, There Was An Old Sailor. Did you come across any challenges writing in rhyme?

Thank you! It was lovely to win the Crystal Kite, a peer-voted award, with Old Sailor. It is to date, my only book with rhyme! Working in rhyme is like adding an extra layer to the construction of story. It was both really interesting to work with in the rhyme frame, and really challenging. Nothing else that I've worked in rhyme has (so far) worked as well as Old Sailor.

When and where are you most inspired to write?

Usually when I have least time! But I can't really afford to wait for inspiration, I have to seek it. This is a job for me and I try to keep workman hours. If I get stuck in one manuscript, I'll change to another. I tend to have several stories going at any time, in different stages. So if first draft isn't working on one, I'll move to edits on another.

I've noticed on your website that you've written many school readers. What do you enjoy about writing for this market/age group?

I have written quite a few school readers. When I started writing, they were a good place to start. Education publishers have clear briefs and short timelines - good 'exercise' for a writer. It's not so easy now to get work as a writer for Education publishers, but I still do a few.

Do you present to children and aspiring authors, if so, what do you focus on sharing?

Yes, I present to pre-schoolers, primary and secondary students and adults. Every group is different, so I tend to have a broad focus, unless a specific topic has been requested. For aspiring authors, I will have drafts and notes and editor's notes and the like to show. I'll talk about the magic of creating a story, and the challenges. I talk about the importance of reading in learning how to write well. And I tell them what a wonderful thing it is to see others enjoy your stories.

What's next?

I have two picture books in production and due for 2013 release. I have poems accepted by School Magazine that hopefully will appear in 2012. I have manuscripts being considered. I have many stories in draft form, and even more ideas scribbled on paper or in my diary. I'm looking forward to further sharing 'The Carrum Sailing Club' and 'There Was an Old Sailor' with readers of all ages!

Interview with Award Winning Author Meg McKinlay

Meg McKinlay is a Fremantle-based author. Her publications include picture books, illustrated chapter books, and novels for upper primary, all published by Walker Books Australia. In a past life, she was an academic, teaching subjects ranging from Australian Literature and Creative Writing to Japanese. Basically, she just enjoys pottering about with words.

When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

Would it be odd to say that I'm still not sure? I started writing for children because I was reading books to my daughter and had a story idea, rather than because I had decided I wanted to be a writer. Once I had one idea, I kept getting others, and the only way to quiet 'the voices' was to write them down. I guess I'll keep writing until I run out, which doesn't look like happening any time soon! I should add that I've always been a collector of fragments, jotting down interesting sentences and observations about bits and pieces. I never really saw those as the beginnings of anything though, not parts of 'story' as such, so wasn't really thinking they might make a writer of me one day.


What was your road to publication like?


A near miss on my very first submission (a picture book manuscript), which gave me a false sense of how the industry works ie "Write story, send it off to one publisher, who writes back with an editorial report and expressions of enthusiasm. Revise book and wait for launch date." That near miss (brought about by a 'change of direction' in the publisher's list, which I can only interpret in hindsight to have meant 'away from you'), was followed by years of submission and rejection, peppered with the occasional personal note and encouragement to keep going, send future work and so on. That kept me going long enough to eventually snag that first contract in 2006, with the newly opening Walker Books Australia.


Congratulations on being shortlisted for this years 'Young Readers Award' for your book
'Duck for  a Day'. Can you please tell us about it?


Duck for a Day is the story of Abby and Noah, and of Max the duck who arrives in their class along with their new teacher, Mrs Melvino. Everyone wants to take Max home for a day, but a duck is no ordinary class pet and there are all sorts of demands that must be met before Mrs Melvino will part with him. Abby, who has never had a pet of her own, wants to be first. But so does scruffy Noah, who lives over the back fence with his chaotic family. And every day Mrs Melvino's demands become more ... demanding. Getting a duck for a day turns out to be harder than Abby had ever imagined. And when she does, things don't exactly go according to plan.

This is a story I'm personally very fond of, so it makes me very happy that it seems to be striking a chord with readers. People often ask me where I got the idea for the story and I think the very beginnings of Duck for a Day formed when I saw an interview with the cartoonist Michael Leunig, who draws lots of ducks. He was talking about how people  are sometimes confused by his ducks, wanting to know what they’re about, and he said, “I thought everybody would understand what a duck is about, and it’s just ... there is the duck”. 

That line stayed with me. It had a certain weight - the idea of “the duck” who was just “there” refusing to explain himself, but just being. A duck character began to form in my head, and one day the line “The duck was different. The duck had demands” came to me and I stopped in my tracks. Because I knew it was a line that had fallen out of a story, one that I was going to write. I had no idea what it was going to be about, other than that there would be a rather glorious and stubborn duck in it, but eventually other ideas came along and attached themselves to it and slowly, the story began to form.


When and where do you write?


All over the place and in whatever time is available. I was working in academia full time when my first novel, Annabel, Again, was published, but was feeling like it was time for a change. I now do very little teaching work but have taken on other arts-related jobs, which means I usually have perhaps 2-3 days a week of potential writing time, and that is often eroded by other responsibilities. I guess I seize whatever time is available, though when I have a day, I try to discipline myself to make the most of it. Otherwise, I guess I just squeeze it into the cracks of other things.

Location-wise, I'm very fortunate to have recently moved out of a cold, pokey, wall-facing corner into my own home-office, a north-facing, sunny (and warm!) room that looks out onto our native garden and its many lovely birds. I also often work at a kind of treadmill desk I've set up in a corner of another room and on a writing day I try to do at least a couple of hours there. This probably sounds very odd but it's a great antidote to the excessive sitting that is otherwise part and parcel of our work, and I find that moving also helps to shake ideas loose, which is handy.


What in your opinion determines a books success?



Of my own work, I would say the most successful for me on a creative level have been Duck for a Day and my recent novel Surface Tension. What that means for me is that I think those books leave the reader with the feeling I wanted them to have at the end of the book, which of course is not about the ending as such but rather the product of a whole range of things that go on in the narrative itself.


When I start writing, I never know how the story is going to end in terms of the plot, but what I do know is the feeling I want the reader to be left with. And I think I managed to do that in those books, so they feel successful to me on the most important level. For Duck for a Day to have also found success in the marketplace is very gratifying and I can only hope that Surface Tension will find its readers in the same way.


What do you like to read?


I'm drawn to lyrical, quiet books which have at their heart a concern with observations about life, the human condition, the way we relate to each other and the world. I love poetry and even in prose I want to read work that values the medium - the language - rather than simply constructing or advancing a story. I've heard some authors describe themselves as 'storytellers rather than writers'. That's not me. I generally don't care much about plot, or at least it isn't central for me as a reader. This causes all sorts of problems for my own writing. I'll happily write a whole book simply because I've fallen in love with a particular sentence or an idea and the story or plot becomes a rather elaborate scaffolding for that one thing. Likewise when I'm reading, as long as there's one compelling image or observation I can take away with me, I'm not concerned if nothing much happens plot-wise.


How do you develop your ideas?


"Develop" is far too orderly a word for the way I go about things! And mostly I don't start with an idea as such. An image will take hold of me, or a line of prose that sounds interesting, or I'll 'hear' the voice of a character saying something that sounds intriguing. All of those bits get thrown into a massive file I call 'slush' and they bump around in there until eventually something pushes its way to the front, begins to look more like part of a narrative, rather than just an isolated fragment. I find that often what seem to be disparate fragments end up fitting together and that's where a story starts. 


Once I think I might have the beginnings of a story, I start a document for that project and I guess I think more actively about that idea from that point. I spend a lot of time throwing bits and pieces that seem like they might go into that story into the document and then when I have a mess that looks like it might have the elements I need hidden in there somewhere, I start trying to shape things in a somewhat more focused way. I'm emphatically not a planner, though. I tend to just dive in and try and work things out as I go. I've tried outlining/planning and find it impossible. I have no idea how to work out what a story needs to do without being in the middle of it. I used to get frustrated with myself for not being more organised (I do a lot of rewriting!), but I've come to accept that this is just my process, even if it feels nothing at all like process and everything like chaos.


What has been the biggest highlight of your career?


I'm not sure. I struggled with this question for a while and realised it was because of the word 'career'. I don't think of what I'm doing in terms of 'career' and I think a word like that leads me to think about more tangible outcomes than really matter to me - sales, industry recognition, that sort of thing. Those things do matter, of course, but I wouldn't want them to sit at the centre of things. 


I think really my highlights have been things like finding what felt like the absolute right final line for Duck for a Day, or managing to wrestle Surface Tension into shape when I thought it was dead. That's what matters to me - creative satisfactions; they're the highlights. And I suspect that's as it should be for me, because it's the daily stuff that needs to be satisfying if I'm to keep going. I can't look for that in the external validations that come along with a word like 'career', because I have no control over those things at all.