Thanks
for having me! I am an author of children’s and young adult books, and have had
eleven books traditionally published so far, with another picture book due to
be published next year. I have been lucky enough to win awards both in
Australia and the UK. I love writing for young people. I love the way their
minds are so open wide to possibilities and how ready they are to explore.
Which
children’s book are you currently reading?
This
week has been a huge reading week for me! It started with Danielle Binks’s
debut MG book The Year the Maps Changed, then to Nation by Terry
Pratchett, followed by a Sonia Hartnett book – Thursday's Child. That
was sold as YA, but I actually feel is it more of an adult book, and last night
I started reading Ghost Bird by Lisa Fuller.
Can
you tell us in two sentences what the book is about?
Ghost
Bird
is about twin sisters living in a remote Australian community. When one of the
sisters goes missing, the remaining twin starts dreaming of what has happened
to her.
How
much did you enjoy/are enjoying this title?
I
have only just started reading, but I am hooked! I love the intertwining of
real and possibly imaginary, the family and cultural stories handed down and
how they are eeking into the everyday, and the voice of the character is
wonderfully strong and appealing.
What
made you choose this title? Was it a review, advertising, the cover, the blurb,
the author/illustrator, or the subject/genre?
I
saw Ghost Bird recommended on Twitter by a friend whose reading advice hasn’t
yet led me wrong. And as soon as I looked up the blurb, I phoned my local
bookshop to set a copy aside for me. It promises excitement, mystery, and
hinted at magical realism which is a genre I love. I was also excited to read a
new YA voice on the scene.
What
other titles are on your bedside table /To Read Pile?
It
is a very large pile at the moment! I have just started a PhD, so a lot of the
books are non-fiction – The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben; The
Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane; and A Field Guide to Getting Lost by
Rebecca Solnit. Then I have the fiction pile! Everything Under by Daisy
Johnston, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, The Way We
Roll by Scott Gardner and Night Waking by Sarah Moss are a few of
the ones on the top of the pile, along with a handful more by Terry Pratchett
(I am a relatively new fan...). And then there is my writing craft pile! I have
a couple of books on writing by Urusula La Guin, and two more by Terry
Pratchett, as well as my old favourite by Margaret Atwood called Negotiating
with the Dead, which has to be one of the greatest titles for a writing
craft book that has ever been written.
How did you come by these titles: personal choice/request, publisher’s review copy, or other?
All
of the titles mentioned there are personal choice, or were books recommended to
me by someone (although I do have a couple of ARCs waiting to be read too!). A
few I heard mentioned on podcasts with authors I admire, or after hearing an
interview with the author themselves.
Do
you have a favourite genre? If so, what is it, and why do you prefer it?
I
love magical realism, and always have. The way the lines between what we know
and what we don’t know blur, the surprising direction stories can take, the
fantastical and the real overlapping – all of it! I find it a very exciting
genre to read, and it has definitely influenced my own writing. The first
author I read in this genre was Isabelle Allende, and she was writing about
serious issues and politics, and what struck me was that the same seriousness
was given to the magical elements. She took the magic seriously, and that is
what makes it work.
Do
you read from printed books or some other medium? Please expand a little on the
why of your choice.
If
I could choose, I would always go printed. I love the tactile sense of holding
a book in my hands, the smell of the pages, the heaviness of the book in my
bag. Also, when I read I am often book-marking pages for myself – when there is
a particularly beautiful turn of phrase, or a subject that I want to
investigate further, I will dog ear the bottom corner of the page so I can go
back to it and think about it a bit more. And although there is the bookmark
function on a kindle/ipad/etc I find it not nearly as easily accessible to go
back and find again. (Having said that, I am sure that is probably in all
likelihood, much easier on a device...)
However!
The wonderful thing about using a device to read on, is how quickly you can
have the text in front of you. I use a kindle a lot for my PhD, purely because
otherwise I would have to wait days or weeks to have the book in my hand.
