On being published …
So many questions asked! Here are some answers …
When did you start writing stories?
The first story I clearly remember was when I was nine years old. My teacher, Mrs Pearce, left my face red with the praise heaped on me. The story scene was Uncle Jack’s farm. A severe storm whisked the pigsty roof up into the air, flipped it over the fence and plonked it down in the field beyond.
I tell the story in Piglet Pandemonium.
What shaped your writing?
What influenced my writing is not what influences young folk today. There were no personal computers or computer-type toys, nor cell phones, Facebook or similar facility. Owning a TV was rare even when I was 10 years old, although by the time I was 15 most folk seemed to have one. I watched documentaries, but books dominated my childhood and still do for leisure pleasure or writing research. They influenced my imagination. At age 12 the Famous Five series were handed down to me to read and reread.
My reading took in non-fiction books borrowed from my nearest public library; like all five books it stocked about Tibet. Why Tibet? It was in the news when the Dalai Lama had to flee because China overran his mountainous homeland. It was almost a ‘secret’ place because so few folk had ever been there. Fascinating!
I read about the Andes Mountains, the Amazon River, Tierra del Fuego and places about which only a little seemed to be known. I consumed books about explorers and sailors ancient and modern, about the sea, and much, much more. I was a book-worm! I love the feel of a book in my hands, turning a page to see what it will say. What I read helps form backgrounds for my writing.
When did you begin writing properly?
When my youngest daughter started school, I decided I would write ‘with serious intent’ and hopefully be published. I brought to this my professional and practical skills and a lot of enthusiasm. I gave myself five years for it to come together and it did: children’s radio and magazines; books a little later.
What happened then?
I was a member of Cambridge Writers. After I moved to Tauranga, I founded Tauranga Writers for Children (1990) to share my love of words and writing fr children with other writers, and we all shared that love with primary school pupils. Since the 1980s I have also been involved in BOOKRAPT, the Bay of Plenty branch of the Children’s Literature Foundation.
From 1998 to 2001, TWC provided an original story each week for the Bay of Plenty Times Q-Phone ‘Storyline’ gratis (at no charge). Young listeners could hear a story at no cost if they lived in the local free-call phone area, although we did have rings from many NZ places. It was hugely popular and we received great feedback. Storyline ended after four years because no sponsorship could be raised to mend the equipment we used. For several years after that loss, TWC provided the BOP Times with an original story for each day of its December-through-January Summer Holiday Programme. A new editor ended that when 28 stories went in a drawer, unread, unacknowledged, forgotten.
Between 1999 and 2008 TWC published five collections of short stories in a Stories for Kiwi Kidz series. A grant financed the first book; sales of each edition paying to publish the following one. Thecost for members was simply what we love doing, writing and sharing stories with children. Illustrations for four books came in different years from pupils at Mount Maunganui, Tauranga and Papamoa Primary Schools, the latter giving the title The Book with No Name which was illustrated by local artist, Caren Glazer. Caren drew all our other covers and allour much loved kiwi characters like this one …
What stories are published under your name?
Bob and I were New Zealanders by adoption, our three daughters born Kiwis. Owning land proved how many aches there can be to the acre, and camping, tramping and sailing took us to out-of-the-way places. Our experiences provided the raw material for stories like The Dory broadcast on EARS (Radio NZ). Also on radio have been A Bird’s Egg, Jamie’s Sunfish, Ghostly Gecko, Zoe’s Treasure and Rescue Mission. The sound-story Clickety Clack is for pre-school listeners. The Destruction of Hell-Hound’s Lair comes in three parts on RNZ and forms the first section of the six-part The Journeyings as yet unpublished.
These stories are still aired on National Radio’s Storytime. You can listen in each Sunday after the six am news and/or sign up at Now and Then for a regular story to read.
In 1992 Hic! was in Where’s the Bus? published by Sunshine Books (Wendy Pye Publishing). Popcorn was in the non-fiction section of their 1995 Adventure and Discovery Series and in 2015 Dame Wendy released an updated edition Popping Corn for older readers, included in their Classics series.
Originally to be published separately in a series that did not make it to print, Shortland Publications put two manuscripts together in Fun with Fizz and Frost (2001) and in 2003 Oxford University Press published Glorious Mud. These latter titles are non-fiction science.
Adult and children’s articles and short stories have appeared in children’s magazines Allsorts/Jabberwocky and Kiwikids, in School Journal, in Organic NZ, the NZ Women’s Weekly and other publications.
Postscript
For two decades, 1998 to 2019, I set aside writing for children to work as a Co-ordinator for Physicians and Scientists for Global Responsibility New Zealand, a Charitable Trust; www.psgr.org.nz.
In general, I researched and drafted ready for expert vetting submissions to Government, Ministries, Food Authorities and other official bodies. I worked on establishing a website, kept members regularly informed, and readied material for use in the bi-monthly ‘Science Watch’ page in Organic NZ.
For a decade I worked beside Bob. Check out his website www.connected.gen.nz.
When I laid down my PSGR responsibilities in 2019 it was to return to writing stories for children. For me that is challenging and fun. During Lockdowns, apart from reading stories to my wee grandsons over the phone, I wrote and wrote and wrote. Writing is my bliss!
Also see http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/ChildrensAuthors/list.asp.
On Storytime Radio New Zealand listen to the latest and greatest children's stories and songs from New Zealand writers; ngā pūrākau me ngā waiata nā Aotearoa.
You can go on line and follow a podcast https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/best-of-storytime-rnz
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