CONGRATULATIONS
Wellington author Fleur Beale has won the
2007 Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a 
Much-Loved Book
with her first novel for children, Slide the Corner.

This award honours a book that has been in print for more than five years and has proved itself a favourite with New Zealand children. "It was instituted in 1998 by the Storylines Children's Literature Trust to commemorate the life and works of writer Gaelyn Gordon."

Fleur Beale will receive the award at the Storylines' annual Margaret Mahy Day on 31st March 2007.

 
AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Do you illustrate/write everyday and is there a pattern to your writing day?

When I am working on a book (which I don’t do all the time) I tend to work on it most weekdays. There is no particular pattern - some days are spent mostly in research, some in writing. When I have a painting to do I concentrate on it, which in the case of a complex painting usually means I spend three or four days at a stretch on drawing and painting.

Do you prefer to illustrate/write in a quiet solitary environment?

I definitely prefer a quiet environment. It is essential for the research phase, and preferable for the painting phase. If I have the text clear enough in my mind, however, I can write it in bits and pieces while interacting with other people.

Can you share with us why you choose to write books as well as illustrate them?

When I was about 12 years old, I came to Auckland, and was surprised to find that the city was built on lots of little volcanoes, but no one I spoke to knew anything about it. When, years later, I wrote my first book, it was about those volcanoes, and was in fact the book I would have liked to have been able to read when I was 12. Most of my other books have also been written for the benefit of my childhood self. It is only be writing and illustrating my books that I can be sure they will be the way I want them to be.

What art mediums do you work with and which is your most favourite?

 I always paint using gouache. This is a water-based paint, a bit like poster paint, but with a wider range of colours. I use it because it is quick drying, and goes on thickly, allowing me to work fast. However, I also do colour work using colour pencils, especially when I am drawing for fun, I like to work in pencil or drawing pens.

As a child what were your interests and what books did you like to read?

I always loved drawing, although until my teens the subject was entirely animals, and I could never be bothered doing backgrounds. I also loved reading books, both fiction and non-fiction, about animals.

When writing do you re-write as you go or do you revisit your work at a certain point?

I do both. I usually read what I have written almost as soon as I have written it, and tidy up the grammar and improve the sentence structure. Then I come back to it later, when I am re-reading all the book, and make further changes. I also make changes as I discover new facts which need to be inserted, or realise that information which I thought I would include elsewhere should be put in here.

 How do you relax?

I enjoy tramping and mountain biking. I have just started to learn to play the French horn, which is really difficult but great fun. I like reading poetry, and the occasional novel or non-fiction book, often on history. I draw and paint, and make models, usually of prehistoric animals.

Were there any teachers you particularly remember that had a significant influence on you?

The most influential teacher I probably ever had was my 5th form maths teacher who not only did wonders for my maths but also had a great philosophy on life - all about seizing opportunities, doing what you want and not worrying too much about the future.

Is there any one book—either children’s or adult—that has had the greatest influence on you?

Lots of books for lots of different reasons. The first book I ever bought with my own pocket money -Animals of East Africa, which I still have, was instrumental in establishing my love of animals; The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a book I have re-read again and again since I first discovered it in my early teens. It's just a great adventure story, with lots of dinosaurs, and a lovely gothic Victorian feel. The books on prehistoric life illustrated by the brilliant Czechoslovakian artist Zdenek Burian were something I assiduously collected while they were available. He worked from the 1940s through to the 1970s, and is rather out of date now, but his paintings are still better than [a lot of modern paintings] of prehistoric life.

Which of your books do you personally like the most?

That's hard to say. I think my latest - Dinosaur New Zealand - is a really attractive, information-packed book on the subject, and my earlier book, Prehistoric Animals of New Zealand, is also a book I am very proud of. I re-read my first book - Fountains of Fire - recently, and was quite impressed by it.

If you could give one piece of advice to a young yet-to-be published author and/or artist what would it be?

 Don't spend years writing and/or illustrating a non-fiction book (this advice does not apply to fiction) and only then try to find a publisher. Instead spend about a week writing a description of your book, a list of chapter headings, and an example of how you would write it, and the sort of illustrations you plan on doing. Take that to the publishers, and wait until you have their agreement to publish, and their requirements as far as size, contents, etc, are concerned before doing the real thing. It will save you a lot of grief and frustration.

In addition to your illustrating and writing you also construct life-like models. What attracted you to this field and can you briefly describe the process and what medium you use?

 I started making models while at intermediate school. The first were not of animals but of, um, Thunderbirds. In those days you could not buy toy Thunderbirds in the shops, and I wanted to have some to play with. I made them out of plasticine. I soon moved on to animals, and eventually learnt how to construct wire frameworks to stop the plasticine models from collapsing. I used to make lots of do-it-yourself kits, so had plastic modellers’ paints, which turned out to work perfectly for colouring them.

Now I make small models out of polymer clay such as Du-Kit. They still have a wire skeleton, and are bulked out with tin foil, then after baking are painted with modellers' paints. The life-size dinosaurs are carved out of polystyrene, and painted with the same   paints that are used for house painting.

And finally – and I just have to ask this –

What is you most favourite food, movie, author and time of day?

I'm not sure if it is really possible to answer this. I like pizza, and fudge, and apples. I suppose my favourite movie might be Ben Hur (can't beat that chariot race!). Author? Well, perhaps Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - not only The Lost World, but also Sherlock Holmes stories, and a wealth of other short stories. Among more modern authors George McDonald Fraser stands out. I don't really have a favourite time of day - it depends entirely on what I am doing.

DAVID HILL

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Making things. Maurice Gee [another brilliant New Zealand children’s author] once talked about the realisation, after getting up from your chair at the end of a morning's work, that you have made something that never existed before.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a writer?

I wrote a lot during my primary school years and was always aware of a vague ambition to become a writer. It was during the early years as a high school teacher that this vague ambition edged closer to becoming a reality.

Do you write everyday and is there a pattern to your writing day?

I do write everyday (or almost everyday) Monday to Friday with a little bit in the weekends. I find I suffer withdrawal symptoms if I don’t! I write usually from 8am to about 1.30pm and then some in the afternoon.

I understand you don’t use the computer to write but still use long hand. Does this help in the writing process?

I find there is nothing like the movement of the pen across paper to make ideas come. Also, I find it much easier to dart about the page making changes using pen and paper and it enables me to leave in multiple versions of words which I can then revisit and select from later.

Do you listen to music while you write? If so what?

No, but I do talk to myself during the writing process – mutterings, usually in the form of expletives, exhortations, or cheers, expressing how my writing is progressing. 

Does a little bit of your own personal history settle in your books or do you write about events, problems etc that happen to others?

A mixture really based on what is happening. I think it is inevitable, as when writing you are constantly thinking about what a character would do in a certain situation and the character I know best is me. Particularly since many of the main characters in my books are boys and the boy I knew best was me.

To what extent has your teaching experience influenced your writing?

A LOT. As a high school teacher I observed events, kids, tone of voice and behaviours. Getting the tone, the cadence right is important to make the characters realistic/ acceptable to the audience.

Do you re-write as you go or do you revisit your work at a certain point?

With novels I write a chapter a day and re-read this first thing the next morning to remind myself of events etc and to make a few quick changes at this stage. Once the first draft of the novel is complete I do MANY edits, and A LOT of changes then I will do a more thorough edit which is often followed by a few more changes. I'm an endless self-editor.

Why do you write for children and teens and do you find one of these audiences more challenging to write for? No I don’t, though I agree with Brent Southgate, past editor of the School Journal, that writing for 5 year olds is very difficult as each word must be right.  Each word must hold enough meaning yet not be too challenging for the child’s vocabulary.

A number of your books, for example See Ya Simon, Cold Comfort and Running Hot are appreciated by children aged 11 to late teens. Do you have an age group in mind before you start writing or is the final readership defined during the books creation?

No I don’t think of this when writing – it just happens.

Do you test your manuscripts out on children before submitting them for publication?

I didn’t as a teacher but I do now. Every manuscript I write I give to teenagers to read (and I pay them) to comment on. They are great at guiding and directing in terms of cutting down blunders and endorsing strengths. I ask them to put a tick along anything they think is right, a cross besides what they consider to be boring or wrong in some way and a question mark if they don’t understand something. Most important is that the characters are convincing. It is great when I get comments from these teenagers about how they perceive particular characters almost as if they were real.

Do the complex themes that your books often address – self discovery, responsibility, death, and illness, emerge as the characters evolve or do you begin writing with an issue in mind?

I usually start off with a setting or a group of people that interest me. Working through certain concepts creates ideas for relationships and events. I discover a lot as I write and put a lot of these discoveries into my books.  Though I do have to be careful that I don’t write a university paper instead of a novel as an editor once observed me doing commenting about a recent manuscript of mine “David, this isn’t Archery 101’. I do think, however, that boys in particular like to learn from reading fiction and this motivates a lot of the non-fiction content in my work.

How do you relax?

I read a lot. I enjoy archery, astronomy and gardening. Plus I have two wonderful grandsons aged 4 and 6 years.

Were there any teachers you particularly remember?

Yes, a teacher at Napier Boys High School, Brian O’Connor. He was my English teacher for three of my five years there and he recognised that I could write (if I wasn’t so lazy) and encouraged me to send my writing to the school magazine for publishing. He was a great motivator.

Is there any one book – either children’s or adult – that has had the greatest influence on you?

There are a number of influential authors, such as Joy Cowley, Margaret Mahy, Jack Lasenby and Maurice Gee but one particular book does remain at the forefront of my memory. The Boy From London by Peter Lethbridge. It is about a young boy, alone in London just after WWII. It ‘worked’ because of the ingredients, e.g. a child without parents, and adventure. There was a sequel called The Beresfords in Tarndale but it paled in comparison and demonstrated to me how disappointing sequels can be.

I was so impressed by the formula of the book that I was motivated to find out more about the author but even though I have contacted his publisher I’ve been unable to find anything out about him. The search continues.

Which of your books do you personally like the most?

See Ya Simon will always be a very special book because it has close family significance. But I like all of them. In fact a book I wrote called Afterwards was so enthusiastically picked up by the publisher that I wrote my acceptance speech for when it won the New Zealand Post Book Awards. Unfortunately, it wasn’t even nominated - but I still have the speech.

And finally – and I just have to ask this – What is you most favourite food, movie, author and time of day?

Favourite food:  Fried potatoes – I grow potatoes.

Favourite movie: Magnificent Seven – classic from the 1960s,

Favourite author: Aldous Huxley, who wrote Brave New World, has always been one of my most favourite authors.

Favourite time of day:  I don’t have any particular favourite time of day but I do like rainy late afternoons and clear mornings at about 6.30am. And, I wait in anticipation for the post every day – you never know what might arrive.

Janeen Brian

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Creating with words and, thereby, creating images in peoples’ minds. “I love the malleability of words” and to be able to create endlessly with them. I enjoy working with and re-working words that were created thousands of years ago to create different stories. “The joy of words is more than what they create…I love the taste, smell, sound, and sight of words.”

When did you decide that you wanted to be a writer?

What happened really, was that I began writing and kept writing – and being published. Now I consider myself a ‘wr-author’ – both a writer who works with words and an author who works with stories.  I don’t recall making a conscious decision to become a ‘wr-author’. I never dreamed I would be. I started writing at 30 and was very interested in looking at the other side of words i.e. writing as opposed to reading. I was fortunate to be invited by an educational publishing house to write a series of ‘Early Readers’ and my writing career has grown from there. Writing is very rewarding but you need determination and ‘stickability’.

Do you write everyday and is there a pattern to your writing day?

I write everyday except weekends, though I often write one afternoon a weekend depending on the weather, my mood, deadlines and flow of work. Though time-out from writing allows for a fuller more balanced life I often feel the computer drawing me back to it. A typical ‘work’ day for me involves an early morning walk then, to warm up, I conduct a brief writing workshop to help prompt the flow of ideas. I usually work from around 8.30 am to about 4 or 5 pm with several breaks in between and tend to do the creative side of writing in the morning and then research in the afternoons.

Do you write notes through out the day of things/ideas that you think you might one day write about?

I have notebooks in which I record thoughts, snippets of conversations and observations. These entries give me ideas and inspiration for stories, characters, events etc. Even the smallest thing observed can lead to a new story. I keep all my notebooks so I can revisit them at any time.

When writing do you use a computer or long hand? Does this help you in the writing process?

I use both - moving from one to another – but this can change from day to day. I tend to find that typed work appears more finished even though it may not be. Writing directly onto the computer somehow reduces the story/detail/exploration of the story line, of characters. Long-hand produces more gems, more ideas – they seem to flow easier. I transfer written drafts on to the computer to sharpen them up. I use single line spacing at this stage as double line spacing gives more of a sense of completion.

Do you listen to music while you write? If so what?

No. I work in complete silence though I do have a phone in my work room. I like a solitary quiet environment to work in.

You have accomplished a lot in your career and have been involved in theatre, you’ve travelled extensively and you were a primary school teacher for 20 years. Did any one of these influence your writing more than the others or do you find you draw on your experiences from all three sources?

Sadly I have used less of my overseas experiences than I perhaps may have. Except, that is, for my year here in New Zealand. I found that my time here has been very inspirational for my work and have used, and will use, many of my experiences in stories. I like to draw on local events and characters and work with situations that may help to clarify life for my readers.  The theatre group gave me the opportunity to write, particularly plays, and my teaching career has provided a myriad of observations of life being played out. The school playground and the classroom gave me the opportunity to witness the dynamics of groups, of how people/children interact. This is invaluable to an author when developing characters and consequences of actions for a story. I developed empathy for children and an understanding of how important it is for children to believe in themselves. Again, this helps when writing for children as it assists in making characters more real, more believable.

One of your books, ‘Dog Star’ was based on the antics of your own dog Nell. Does a little bit of your own life and experiences settle in most of your work or do you usually write about things that you observe about other people?

This is where my notebooks are invaluable. I use ideas from observing my own family, people in general, witnessing events, seeing things on my walks and even from reading about something – my new book for young readers aged 11-14 titled Cross Currents was inspired by a newspaper article. I note down anything that has a potential for a story.

Do you re-write as you go or do you revisit your work at a certain point?

I find that reworking my writing too much to begin with can stall the writing process. However, I do need to get a sense of voice and tone of the book before I can move on. At the beginning of my working day I revisit what I have written the previous day often rewriting parts of it before I begin writing any new work.

You write both fiction and non-fiction. Do you find one easier to write than the other?

 I do tend to write more fiction but enjoy writing non-fiction about subjects that interest me. I was originally asked by an educational publisher to write non-fiction books and he wondered if I would be interested in writing about ‘natural disasters’. I jokingly replied – “Why? Is that how you see me – a natural disaster?”  I found writing Hoosh! Camels in Australia, the hardest, most challenging yet most rewarding book I have ever worked on. I was involved in collecting and collating all the maps, photos, and information – this material alone filled 30 folders. Total accuracy is required. The research for non-fiction books is immense yet fascinating.

How do you relax?

“Having my feet up above my head!” Besides that I love to read, walk, listen to music, work with mosaics, word puzzles, knitting and needle craft, gardening and yoga.  I visit museums, art galleries and the theatre.

Were there any teachers you particularly remember?

My Year 7 teacher, Miss Wiese taught us songs and poems and, thereby, opened up previously starved areas of language for me. In High School, there was an Irish teacher, Mr Luke, who, though gave no overt praise, had a teaching style that stimulated/motivated the whole class. Mrs Holden obviously loved English and I enjoyed writing in her class.

Is there any one book – either children’s or adult – that has had the greatest influence on you?

Yes ‘The Story About Ping’ by Marjorie Flack had a profound effect on me.  I remember my mother reading it to me when I was about 4 or 5. I cried afterwards and looking back now realise the tears were for a number of reasons. I cried not only because of the story, but also for myself. I felt this overwhelming grief because I was afraid that my mother may never read me another story – I feared that I would never again be privy to such a joyous, rapturous experience. In addition, it was the first story I recall gaining a sense of story from.

Which of your books do you personally like the most?

If I had to choose one it would be Where Does Thursday Go? This story resonates with the mystery of life. And has a satisfying resolution for the character as the latter develops its own perception, its own answer about things we don’t understand.  It conveys the joyous inevitability of the rising sun – the inevitability of a new day. I’m delighted with the illustrator, Stephen Michael King. His illustrations perfectly capture the active optimism of Splodge and the reassuring, loyal presence of the ever silent Humbug. I feel privileged to have received a lot of positive feedback about the book and that it has been translated into ten languages.

And finally – and I just have to ask this – What is you most favourite food, movie, author and time of day?

Favourite food:  Anything! But in particular, on a cold night I love a roast pork dinner with apple sauce.

Favourite movie: An Angel At My Table the story of the New Zealand author Janet Frame and Whale Rider – a film based on the book by Witi Ihimaera.  I find myself drawn to movies with a strong New Zealand theme.

Favourite author:  Oh, but there are so many – Joy Cowley, Margaret Mahy, Gary Paulsen and Jacqueline Wilson come to mind

Favourite time of day:  The beginning, as it brings with it all the possibilities of a new day.