Interview with Kevin Burgemeestre, Author/Illustrator

This is Kev at a library visit, yep that is a pencil through his head
This is Kev at a library visit, yep that is a pencil through his head. Photo: Nadine Cranenburgh 2013

Today, I’ve got Kevin Burgemeestre visiting my blog, celebrating the release of his new book ‘Kate’ published by Morris Publishing.

Kevin has illustrated over 50 children’s books since 1985. He wrote his first book ‘B is for Bravo’ in 2003 and illustrated it using amazing dioramas. He loves doing workshops for all ages. His other titles include ‘Antarctic Dad’ with Hazel Edwards and ‘The Uncle Eddie’ books with Lucy Farmer (Walker Books). Kev is an absolute performer at school workshops. Children (and adults alike) love him. He’s funny and inspiring, encouraging children to have a go at writing and drawing.  

I was lucky enough to meet Kev as part of my Maurice Saxby Mentorship last year and he’s very generous in his support of emerging writers.

Congratulations Kev on the launch of your new YA novel, ‘Kate’.

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A dangerous boy, an abandoned dog and one girl’s perilous road trip to personal growth. Meet Kate.

This is a story of growth and mistakes. Kate’s lucky to find Wilde, a battered, heroic hound she rescues from the streets, and Mal a troubled young man with a dark past. When things go really wrong they’ll need each other and they’ll have to run!

“Kate dug her hands deep into the pockets of her hoodie and sniffed; she hated how the cold weather made her nose run so freely. Her eye caught a motor-oil rainbow shimmering across the soft sheen on the damp asphalt and wondered briefly how it was that ugly things could sometimes appear so beautiful.”

‘Kate’ is also an illustrated novel, dotted with beautiful, dark and gritty, black and white images reflecting Kate’s dire situation.

I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Kate’ and read it in one sitting. I’ve got a few questions for you Kev… just hang on a tick while I get myself together. Okay.

1. Tell me, how did you evolve from being an Illustrator and becoming an Author/Illustrator? Did you always write?

Good question Neridah. Perhaps I didn’t always write, but even in primary school I told stories. If they were a little exaggerated perhaps I knew even then that even though I had deep enthusiasm and respect for non-fiction, fiction would always be my thing. I wrote remarkably pretentious, wordy and impenetrable poetry through my secondary years and wrote years of correspondence back to Australia whilst living and studying in Holland. It was all preparation for eventually taking up the pen and key and wielding the word.

For example, I illustrated Susan Kurosawa’s column in the Australian Newspaper for years. When I heard she was going on holidays I sent an email suggesting that I take over the writing of the column while she was away. So, whilst the editor had enough sense to not even acknowledge my offer (what did he know?) even then I felt that it was inevitable.

But wait, there’s more. I have always listened to and copied others speech patterns and am a little too probing when asking about people’s lives and experience. I love to stretch a tale, and am still a tad too pleased when I can make myself cry when writing. Are they the marks of a writer or what?

 Absolutely they are. Making yourself cry is a skill.

2. How did the idea for Kate first come along? It feels and reads like a true story. What’s your advice to writers trying to achieve this?

Firstly, thank you for that compliment; I appreciate that specific endorsement of my characters from another writer. Kate feels real to me because she is an amalgam of girls I knew when I was growing up. She is also in part the friends of my children, my children, and young women I speak to when visiting schools.

I feel for the profound challenges they face growing up in our time. There is so much scrutiny and intrusion into their lives and yet they face so many disturbing chapters of their lives unseen and alone. I don’t think we manage the transition to puberty at all well and Kate reflects this.

We over protect them right up to pre-puberty, and then suddenly all ties are off. They have phones, almost unfettered access to the internet, an aggressive media modeling bizarre behaviour to them in prime time and magazines that describe a model of femininity that’s prime material for psychotherapy.

I also really like women and have many female friends, and they are all strong and capable. They are not without their insecurities but in spite of this they achieve highly, and on top of this they are loving, loyal, and at times very brave. Here’s to them.

How do you write characters like that? Pick some sound female friends. And don’t be afraid to listen to them.

Good on Kev. And I agree the challenges facing our teenagers are so different from our own.

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3. You obviously love dogs, because Wild is a gorgeous creature. Do you have a dog? 

When I was young both mum and dad worked, and after schools it was often our two very large dogs who greeted us when we came home. They were excellent companions, jealous protectors and entirely forgiving of our mean tricks and callousness.  They taught us to be better people.

They were also a very soothing presence. School was such a confusing experience, and as a migrant others were often not as gracious as they might have been. Having a dog around you after a bad day is like taking an aspirin for a headache.

I don’t currently own a dog but speak to them often and everywhere. And of course as you might know money from this project goes to the lost dog’s home. We have never had an animal that hasn’t been rescued or inherited.

 It’s a wonderful cause. Check it out at Lost Dogs Home in North Melbourne.

4. I found your book pretty fast paced. How do you approach writing that sort of action and dialogue? Do you stop to sleep?

ZZZZZZZZZZ. Oh sorry, I seemed to have dozed off.

Michael Dugan, whose work I illustrated early in my career was a perceptive and generous mentor. When we drove off into the country to conduct workshops we talked about all things.

He was a very successful writer and gave me some excellent advice. He said that especially when writing for young people it was important to make something happen on every page. As it turns out that’s not bad advice for any writer. When writing Kate I tried to keep pushing my characters Kate, Mal, Jess & Wilde into situations beyond where they were comfortable. It manufactured a tension that I kept trying to resolve in the writing. It created a sort of roller-coaster effect.

The other thing he stressed was to keep the language simple, sentences short but not to be afraid to launch into complex subject matter. When writing Kate that’s what drove the process.

Dialogue is very important to me. I am impressed how both Michael Dugan and John Marsden write clipped, elegant dialogue that infers so much more than it says. It is something I will always aspire to.

I agree, they’re amazing writers.

Well, thank you so much Kevin for so generously giving your time to answer these questions for me. I feel I know you so much better and there is some great writing advice in here. Good luck with your next project, I can’t wait to read to see it.

Kev & I at Toorak Library where I watched Kev take a school workshop. He was awesome fun!
Kev & I at Toorak Library where I watched Kev take a school workshop. He was awesome fun!

If you’d like to buy a copy of Kate, she can found in any good bookstore or you easily can buy it on-line at Morris Publishing Australia.

Also, at this site you can read the first Chapter of  ‘Kate’ and read a great review by Jill Smith.

Check out some of Kev’s other books. They’re absolutely wonderful.

‘B for Bravo’

Is an alphabet book that teaches the phonetic alphabet, celebrating 100 years of Australian aviation.

Published by Hachette/Lothian, 2003
Published by Hachette/Lothian, 2003

‘Antarctic Dad’ written by Hazel Edwards & Illustrated by Kevin Burgemeestre

Published by Hachette/Lothian 2005
Published by Hachette/Lothian 2005

‘The Uncle Eddie’ Books written by Lucy Farmer & Illustrated by Kevin Burgemeestre

Published by Walker Books
Published by Walker Books

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Interview with Nadine Cranenburgh, Children’s Writer

Nadine and I first met last year as mentees of the 2013 Maurice Saxby Mentorship. We had a ball together and are now firm writing buddies.

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Nadine is a versatile and talented author, writing picture books, middle fiction and Junior Fiction through to YA and her current, awesome project: a hybrid Graphic Novel. She has been widely published in the Herald Sun, Magpies Magazine, Comet Magazine, Alphabet Soup and Ladybug Magazine in the U.S. Nadine’s work is clever and funny and sometimes downright scary! She also lectures in Children’s and Adult Writing at the University of Ballarat.

When Nadine’s not writing, she’s often seen out and about with her trusty camera, gathering stories in a different way. She takes the most beautiful and intriguing images. She didn’t take this one below though, her friend Ambrose took it while she was taking a picture through a water glass. I told you she was creative!

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Thanks for coming on to my blog today, Nadine. How are things in sunny Ballarat?

Beautiful today! A little chilly, but I’m never complaining about the cold again after this blazing summer.

I agree, it was far too hot.

Now, I’ve got a few questions for you…just hang on a tick and I’ll get myself organised. Okay, Nadine tell me…

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

I grew up in a house full of books, and my Mum was an English teacher, so I guess I’ve always been making up stories and dreaming about seeing them in print. I entered my first writing competition when I was five and scored runner up. I still have the prize (but not the story). It was good though, lots of small animals, mess and all kinds of trouble!

That’s so cool.

Do you have a writing background?

I got a bit sidetracked after leaving school. I applied for a journalism course but spent too long on the question about why I wanted to be a journalist and didn’t leave time to do the test! My second choice was Engineering (I was a big fan of McGyver) so I went with that. After uni I joined the Navy and did lots of other exciting things involving sailing and mountains before settling down to have a family. That’s when I decided to buckle down and make writing my career. I enrolled in the Professional Writing and Editing course at RMIT and haven’t looked back.

I loved McGyver too, he was very resourceful (and good looking)

Could you tell us about some of your publications?

It’s funny, but although I’ve always written and entered competitions, I only really thought about sending my work out to publishers when I started studying at RMIT. The first thing I sent out was a short story about dating (which was a bit of an anti-romance, really) and it was published online for the princely sum of $45.

I’ve also had a couple of short stories for kids published in Alphabet Soup and Comet magazines and articles in the Herald Sun, Magpies and Victorian Writer. I’m also very excited to have a poem and short story in the new Charms trilogy which is a joint venture project pulled together by the lovely Sally Odgers. Charms draws together work by many writers into a three part fantasy novel about a magical story-telling crock that a group of five children discover in a house their parents are trying to turn into a boutique hotel. The best part is that each book in the trilogy is aimed at a different age groups: the first is for lower to middle primary, the second middle to upper primary, and the third young teens (it’s a bit darker).

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I’ve been lucky enough to have proof read Nadine’s ‘Charm story’ and awesomely spine tingling…

Where do your ideas come from?

That’s a good question… I daydream whenever I can (and sometimes when I shouldn’t, like when I should be making tea, or working) and things kind of mush together in my brain and make interesting questions. Like ‘what if a barbeque was REALLY carried away by flies’ or ‘what happened to poor Puff the magic dragon after Jackie Paper grew up?’. I think we all have amazing ideas, and the trick is catching them and turning them into stories before they escape. I always carry a notebook.

Me too. It’s a good idea.

What do you like to read?

I have two little kids, and really enjoy reading picture books with them (and by myself). When Sally Rippin was my teacher, she really opened my eyes to what an incredible medium they are, and that it is fine to be ‘grown up’ and still love them. I’m also a big fan of young adult books, I’m proud to say I enjoy them more than most adult fiction (although I loved The Rosie Project). At the moment, I’m half way through Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Where the Streets had a Name. It’s awesome. Also the kind of graphic novels that don’t have super heroes in them (there are lots!)

Nadine storytelling at Literature Alive last year as part of the Maurice Saxby Mentorship. That's Kevin Burgemeestre holding her story up. Good on you Kev!
Nadine storytelling at Literature Alive last year as part of the Maurice Saxby Mentorship. That’s Kevin Burgemeestre holding her story up. Good on you Kev!

When and where are you most inspired to write?

Not enough! It’s really hard to find the time between kids and all the other distractions in my life. I find I get really inspired after being around other writers and talking about their stories and ideas, so I try to get out to book launches and festivals when I can.

I wholeheartedly agree. 

As to where – somewhere far away from my very distracting house, and near a window. Don’t ask me why!

What are you working on at the moment?

I’ve been working on a project that is part graphic novel, part novel, and part carwash with all the trimmings (that last bit isn’t true). I’ve been at it for a few years (in between poetry and picture book manuscripts) and have just finished a very rough first draft, which is exciting. I’m calling it a hybrid graphic novel, because that sounds cool.

It sure does.

It’s called ‘Dark Room: Do Not Enter’, and is the story of 15-year-old artist Matti Maguire, who goes to her mother’s abandoned photographic dark room to draw and remember. When she realises remembering isn’t enough, she sets out to solve the mystery of the accident that sent her mother to a nursing home nine years ago.

Wow. I want to read this…

If that sounds too deep, it also has a Star Wars re-enactment involving paper planes and a dance inspired by Cocoa Pops. And a really enigmatic black cat.

Now I’m sold.

I’m not illustrating (although I may do some photo collage for part of it), so the graphic bits are written like film scripts.

It sounds thoroughly original and unique. Congratulations.

What is it about the graphic novel genre that fascinates you so much?

Like picture books, graphic novels have infinite scope for telling stories, and I love their filmic qualities. Bruce Mutard has said that he makes films on paper and Nicki Greenberg’s version of Hamlet was ‘staged on the page.’

Unlike film, you can include things that would be extremely expensive or impractical to shoot, you can ponder over the frames and pick up the fine detail, and you can carry them on the train with you and flick through their pages (and go back to check the things you’ve missed).

I love the breadth of graphic novels coming from Australian creators – from the very personal and Melbourne-centred work of Mandy Orr, to Shaun Tan’s amazing The Arrival. They can take years to create, and I guess that’s why I’m looking at a hybrid format. To make things easier for my illustrator!

Do you think that Graphic Novels are a medium in which ‘darker’ stories can be told?

That’s a really interesting question. I guess you can tell dark stories in any medium, but (thinking on my feet here) I guess the pictorial story-telling in graphic novels can allow you to imply darker elements of a story without explicitly stating them and let the reader’s imagination enhance the mood. Or you can represent darker themes in a way that is visually easier for readers to deal with. The famous graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman is a good example of this: Jews are mice and Nazis are cats. I’m not sure if that was his intention, but I found the grim subject matter easier to deal with because the victims were not human. It was also handy for working out who was who.

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I also loved ‘Jane, the Fox and Me’ written by Fanny Britt and illustrated  by Isabel Arsenault . I’m a tragic Jane Eyre fan. This story revolves around a school bullying incident; it’s refreshingly wonderful.

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What was your 2013 Maurice Saxby Mentorship experience like?

Unforgettable. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who is trying to get a foothold in the kids or young adult writing industry. Or looking for some inspiration and a reality check! (I’m sure you would too).

Absolutely. It’s been invaluable.

When I got the email letting me know I had been accepted, I had to read it a few times before it sank in. I’d followed Jackie Hosking’s mentorship through her blog and was really excited (and honoured) to be selected.

It came at a time when I was a bit despondent about my chances of making it in such a competitive industry, but spending time with the wonderful creators involved (Elizabeth Honey, Kevin Burgemeestre and Mark Wilson) and watching them in action made me realise that enjoying the process of writing and sharing your work was really important, and something I had control over. So I’m focusing on that!

Me too.

I also met the lovely Helen Chamberlin, ‘the best children’s book publisher in Australia’ and have really enjoyed her support and words of wisdom (which she gives so generously).

Yep, Helen is an amazing person.

The most important thing I got out of the experience was my fellow mentees (including you!) who have been amazing new writing friends. Slaving over a hot computer can be lonely sometimes.

It sure can be. 

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today, Nadine. Keep up the good work, I can’t wait to see what happens next with the ‘Dark Room: Do Not Enter’. It sounds amazing…

You can check Nadine out at her website and follow her blog too.

Possum Magic is 30!

On Saturday night, Books Illustrated hosted a celebration for the iconic picture book ‘Possum Magic’ written by Mem Fox and illustrated by the amazing Julie Vivas 30 years ago.

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It was a full house attended by many and with the wine flowing, open fires burning and the original artwork from Possum Magic hung around the place, it was a joyous occasion.

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I met some old friends, my Maurice Saxby Mentor, Anna Walker and Erica Wagner from Allen & Unwin and I made many new friends including, Julie Vivas, Sue De Gennaro, Jane Tanner, Craig Smith, Francesca Rendle-Short and Sally Rippin. I also met the lovely Geri Barr from the Australian’s Children’s Literature Alliance and the gorgeous Justine who works for Ann and Ann at Books Illustrated.

Everybody was so friendly and happy to talk shop, it was great fun for me to gain an insight into how illustrators go about their work. I have to admit I was particularly relieved to hear about other’s people struggles with colour palette and character development.

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We all enjoyed hearing more about Julie Viva’s journey in illustrating ‘Possum Magic’.

‘Possum Magic’ was originally called ‘Hush the invisible Mouse’ and after being rejected by nine publishing houses (yes, nine I hear you say) Omnibus in Adelaide took a chance on it. They had just published Kerry Argent’s ‘One Wooly Wombat’ and were looking for other stories with an Australian theme. So, the mice became possums. Mem Fox reworked the story and Julie created new illustrations and the rest is history.

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At first, Julie began drawing real possums. She used to go to the night house at Taronga Zoo. She drew brush tail possums in every position until she got a feel for their body proportions and how they moved. She also looked at the injured baby ones at the Zoo hospital, too. After this, Julie then felt a bit braver about inventing her own possums. Julie explained that doing Hush as invisible was tricky but something as basic as using a broken line seemed to work.

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Julie simplified her possums, making their bodies big spheres and their heads small spheres with triangular faces. Tails and arm and legs were used for expression.

When Julie hung Grandma up by the tail she could see how this worked. In this form, not looking like real animals, Julie was able to ease them through their bike riding and their umbrella boating without it jarring too much.

“The human emotions that the possums go through are possibly easier to cope with in their visually unreal form. Early in the process, I realised real possums’ eyes are so big they take over. I felt that they took attention away from everything else in the picture, so I did adjust their eyes and this was another step away from reality.”

When it came to the colour palette Julie said she was afraid of large areas of strong colour, but colour roughs helped her decide, as the characters came into another life when the colours were applied. Using blues and purples in the fur seem to give relief from the expected brown and grey. The shape is so important, and Julie didn’t want anything to distract from that. Everything changes in a drawing when solid colour is used. The use of darker grey for the koala helps convey the weight of this character. Julie said it’s often difficult to get the balance that she had in the drawing when she start to paint.

Fascinating stuff. Stay tuned, as Julie Vivas will be the featured illustrator on my blog next month.

Julie also had on display some of her gorgeous illustrations from her latest picture book Davey & the Duckling soon to be released through Penguin Books and another of her well loved picture books Let the celebrations Begin has just been released in the Walker Australian Classic series. There was a lot to celebrate!

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We also got to see some of the amazing books and artwork collected by Ann and Ann at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair this year. Some of them very dark in colour palette and fascinating in there concepts.

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Thank you so much to Ann and Ann and Justine – it was truly a beautiful and inspiring evening.

You can read more about it on the Books Illustrated Blog http://booksillustrated.blogspot.com.au

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Reference: an extract from an interview with Julie Vivas, Scan Vol 23, no.2

Day 9 School workshop with Mark Wilson at Malvern Library

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Mark started his talk by asking the Year 3 & 4’s from St. Joseph’s Primary School in Malvern, what do they like to do?

Sport pretty much came up first. And what do you do to become good at sport?

Practice.

To do something well, we all need to practice, says Mark.

Drawing is the same, Marks tells us. He also tells us that he wasn’t a natural artist, but because he practiced a great deal and drew things over and over, he became a good drawer.

“There are no rules in drawing, you can draw anyway you like. You’ve all got it in you. You can do it,” Mark tells us.

Mark is incredibly encouraging and the children are poised and listening (as a result they’re very quiet!).

Mark has an impressive array of published books on display.

“What do you see in these pictures?” he asks.

– History (I told you the kids were switched on)

– Adventure (Yay!)

– Animals (Aww)

Mark’s mission in life is to save endangered animals: quolls, turtles, penguins, whales, dolphins, snow leopards…he obviously loves animals and has such gentle way explaining their habitats and how they are at risk of being destroyed.

“But I’m only one person. What can I do?” he asks the children.

Tell people.

Tell more people, and this is called a…

Chain reaction (these kids are great).

Mark tells them that if there’s 36 of them, and they all go and tell a person each, that’s 72 people, and when 72 people spread the message, then 144 people know about it and so on and on.

Very cool…the kids loved it.

Mark tells us a bit about his book ‘The Last Tree’. This was his childhood home in East Gippsland, where he grew up. The forest is being cut down at a rate of the size of the MCG a day (this got the message through) and there’s no-where for quolls to live anymore.

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“Why else do we need trees?”

Oxygen. (Brilliant)

‘My Mother’s Eyes’ is another book written and illustrated by Mark. It was about his great Grandfather going to World War 1. He was 15 years of age and lied to get into the army. When he got to France, his commanding officer had him pose for a photograph in front of a machine gun to send home to his mother because the young ones always died first. It was incredibly moving.

Check out this website for ‘My Mother’s Eyes’ www.mymotherseyes.com.au/teachers.html they have wonderful Teaching Resources.

Mark then got the children drawing and he did it in the simplest of ways. He drew shapes and the children followed his lead. He drew half a watermelon, then a circle, then two socks and before you knew it a turtle had emerged! The children were wrapt!

Mark runs a truly inspiring and beautiful workshop. He’s interesting and funny and the children loved it. What a treat for them!

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About Mark Wilson:

Mark is a highly acclaimed author/illustrator Mark Wilson’s with many picture books to his name including ‘The Penguin Shore’ (a CBCA Notable Book in 1996), ‘The Castaways of the Charles Eaton’, ‘Yellow-eye’ (winner of the Wilderness Society Award in 2002), the Extinction Series: ‘I Saw Nothing: the Extinction of the Thylacine’ (a CBCA Notable Book in 2004); ‘I Said Nothing: the Extinction of the Paradise Parrot’; and ‘I Did Nothing: the Extinction of the Gastric Brooding Frog’ and ‘The Last Tree’ (2006). The Extinction Series also won a Wilderness Society Award and a Whitley Award in 2004, and ‘The Last Tree’ won a Whitley Award in 2007. Mark lives in Frankston, Victoria.

www.markwilson.com.au

www.windyhollow.com.au

www.hachette.com.au

www.walkerbooks.com.au

Day 8 Maurice Saxby Mentorship

Day 8 Readings Bookstore, Lygon Street, Carlton

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This afternoon, we met with Emily Gale at Readings Bookstore in Lygon Street Carlton.

Readings is an independent bookstore with six retail shops in Melbourne. They have a real literary scene going on as they regularly host a ‘calendar of events’ including book launches, authors-in-conversation, panels, signings and performances. Their website and blog is very snappy too, free shipping for books bought on-line and great book reviews on their blog.

Anyway, Emily is a Children’s and Young Adult Specialist at Readings. She knows a lot about book selling and tried to give us an idea about how it works. There’s a section in the Children’s Books area that’s set up for new titles and it covers four levels. The top level is for new books and the other books on the lower levels are books that Readings sell at least once a week.

The shelf life of a book does vary but four months is about average. Some distributors have certain conditions; such as the bookseller only has a year to sell them before they stop accepting returns.

To remain in the bookstore, to remain in Readings, a book needs to sell at least one per month.

Thankfully, I found my book from One Day Hill Publishing. It went into paperback at Christmas; so I was relieved and happy to see it there.

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www.neridahmcmullin.com

www.onedayhill.com.au

Emily spoke about writers coming in and saying ‘hello’ and how much they enjoyed this, and that this sort of was promotion was still a good way to get your book into a bookstore.

Heather asked a very valid question, how could we get our books reviewed by Readings? Just ask, they said and all books would be considered. Yay!

Emily also gave us the heads up on what sort of children’s books people are asking for:

  1. Decent Mother’s Day books that are not pink and fluffy and full of perfect women.
  2. Toilet training books that don’t mention the word ‘potty’
  3. Junior/Middle Grade fiction is always popular.

Then we found out that Emily is a published author herself (this is her first YA book launched in Australia, she’s from London) and it’s the ‘book of the month’ at Readings.

Congratulations Emily!

It’s called ‘Steal my Sunshine’ and it’s published by Woolshed Press (Random House). This is Emily’s very cool website and there’s a sample chapter on there to read! www.emilygale.co.uk

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Readings is an awesome bookstore, thank you Emily for your advice and expertise on Children’s books and thank you Readings for supporting emerging writers.