Australian writers rock. We know it, and we love them. But it’s not always easy to discover the Australian talent that is right under our noses.
From Australia With Love Blog Hop introduces you to 18 Aussie authors across a variety of categories and genres. Each author is hosting three of their fellow blog hop participants between now and Valentine’s Day to let you find out more about them. So follow them on twitter, like their Facebook page and visit their blogs during the blog hop period to discover more great Australian writers.
And to show how much these Aussie authors love their readers, they’ve donated some great prizes for you to win!
Today we have much beloved Aussie Chapter Book writer Melissa Gijsbers stopping by.
1) What drew you to write Chapter Books?
In 2012, I
participated in the 12x12 in 12 challenge with Julie Hedlund. The challenge was
to write 12 drafts of a picture book in 12 months. As part of this, I was
invited by Becky Fyfe to participate in the Chapter Book Challenge. In March
that year, I wrote my first chapter book and loved it. I participated in 2013
and am planning to participate again this year.
As part of
the challenge, I’ve found that telling great stories for primary school kids is
challenging and important.
I have two
boys who are advanced readers. It has been hard finding books for them to read.
I use them as my beta readers and they have given me some fantastic feedback to
make the stories better as well as help me realise how important it is to cater
for advanced readers.
2) What are the key elements to make an
entertaining Chapter Book?
Characters that spark the imagination of the
reader.
Stories that suck them in.
My two boys
have very different tastes in books, and these two things seem to be what they
all have in common. If the characters make easy dress up characters for book
week, that’s a bonus!
3) Tell us a bit about your characters and
how you came up with them?
I write a
variety of different stories that have different characters in them. Most of
them have been inspired by my kids, though the chapter book I’m currently
working on has a main character based on me.
4) Which author(s) inspire you?
Where do I
start? There are so many. Most recently, authors like Adam Wallace has inspired
me, I have to admit to having a ‘fangirl’ moment seeing his books on the shelf
at the educational bookshop I went to to pick up books for high school and
thinking “I can’t wait until I see my books there too.”
5) How do you get over writer's block?
One is to
write something else for a while. This could be complete rubbish or the start
of a new story. Often this works to clear the road block.
The other way
is to do something else. This could be housework, watching a DVD, kicking the
football with my kids, or having an early night. Sometimes I just need to clear
my head and the writing starts flowing again.
6) What projects are you working on that
you're excited about?
Right now,
I’m working on a story about bullying. I’m at the editing stage and it’s coming
together really well.
Melissa Gijsbers is
a Melbourne based author who writes chapter books, picture books, flash fiction
and non-fiction. In 2013, she had eight stories published in three anthologies,
her first published work since high school! As well as writing, she is the
mother of two boys and works as a bookkeeper. You can read more about her on
her blog www.melissawrites.com.au, her author website www.melissagijsbers.com (launching in March 2014) or connect with her on Facebook.
Melissa has eight flash
fiction stories published in three anthologies. Teapot Tales: a collection of unique fairy tales features three
fractured fairy tales, Jingle Bells:
tales of holiday spirit from around the World also features three stories
with a Christmas theme, and Tales by the
Tree features two Christmas stories.
You can read A Magical Moment, from Tales by the Tree here.
Wonderful interview, Melissa! My girls can't wait to read the new story!
ReplyDeleteYay Melissa. I didn't know about this blog hop until you showed up in my feed. :) Thanks for sharing with us.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great interview! Loved the chance to learn a little more about you, Melissa.
ReplyDelete