Christmas Interview with Author/Illustrator Christina Booth

It's a delight to welcome popular children's author and illustrator Christina Booth to Books for Little Hands.


How did you celebrate Christmas as a child? 

I grew up across the road from the beach and I spent summer in my bathers and thongs. Christmas started for us when the tree went up, usually on Christmas eve. Then we would get all dressed up and go to a midnight service and sing carols. My brother and I would be out of bed well before our parents and poke around the tree. My Dad would go and collect my Grandad from the nursing home and then we would have a yummy lunch (not a traditional one as my Mum is Dutch) and then we would spend the afternoon opening presents and playing with our new treasures. No presents were opened until after lunch! Sometimes the kids from the area would all meet up in the afternoon at the beach and share our bounties and go swimming. One year we took the boat out and went fishing or in the evenings (it didn't get dark until after 9 pm) we would go for a family walk with friends and watch the kangaroos and wombats in the bush.

Do you have a family Christmas tradition? 

A newer tradition we love is that our family gets up for a Christmas breakfast. Because my husband works at a hospital he often has to work on Christmas day so this is a tradition we began so we could have a Christmas meal together before the day was over. We all sit around in our pyjama's and have a yummy leisurely breakfast together, a rarity in our house as we are all coming and going at different times and during the year my son lives away for uni. 

We hang our stockings on our chairs and set the table ready the night before after we get beck from church. Some of us get up early to prepare the food. Last year a Nerf gun war occurred to get the sleepy heads out of bed! We all buy a small gift for the other members of the family, something that is special to them, and put them in the stockings. Over breakfast we open our stocking gifts as often we don't get back together as a family until the evening. We choose to wait to open our tree gifts until 'Dad' gets home so he doesn't miss out on the fun. Our breakfast has become one of the most anticipated parts of our Christmas day.

Have you celebrated Christmas in another country?

 Yes, twice. Once as a teenager and a few years ago when we took the children to Europe to celebrate my Opa's 90th birthday. We also travelled to London for a few days and loved the winter Christmas atmosphere, putting those traditional Christmas cards in perspective.

We celebrated in Holland. A very different experience from Australia. They have first Christmas and second Christmas. First Christmas is spent with immediate family and any other family you can gather with. Food is an important part of the day and the whole day is spent preparing it. Small gifts are exchanged in the evenings (well, they were in our family) once everyone had arrived. The gifts were tokens, things you needed, not the huge expensive items that seem to have swallowed our culture. 

Second Christmas, our boxing day, is spent doing it all over again. Lots of food preparation and a huge meal spent with the family you didn't see on Christmas  number one and friends.
Everyone goes back to work as normal and even back to school after that. Then they prepare for the next big celebration with yummy traditional foods, New Years Eve!

What will you be reading over Christmas? 

My plan is to squeeze in some of the books on my to read pile that is steadily growing taller. I have to work over the holiday season illustrating two books but hey, I love it. Some of the books on my pile (certain to be added to after Christmas gifts are given) is the Roald Dahl Biography, The Book Thief (to be re-read for book club), Piano Lessons (Anna Goldsworthy), The Perks of Being a Wall Flower (recommended by my son), Twenty Years A-Growing (Maurice O'Sullivan) and Shade's Children (Garth Nix). My Husband recently purchased some weird comic books I am expected to read as well, Dr. Who meets Star Trek! Supposedly they are really good....

Happy Reading and Happy Christmas everyone!

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!