Interview With Bonnie Ferrante

Meet The Author Who Inspires Self-Esteem Through Humour

 

Bonnie Ferrante

 

What inspired you to write your first picture book?

 

I wanted more books for young children that merged good values and female protagonists into fun and interesting stories.

 

When did you start considering yourself a writer?

 

When I was hired to write a weekly humor column for a regional newspaper which I did for more than three years.

 

Out of the books you've written, which is your favourite?

 

Rumpelstiltskin's Child is my favourite because I enjoyed researching medieval items and illuminated manuscripts for my illustrations.

 

How do you feel about being interviewed by a children's book character? (That's me, Destiny!)

 

It's charming. :-)

 

What are you working on next?

 

I have several irons in the fire. I'm illustrating my children's book "No More Red". I'm sketching ideas for my protagonist and her pet for "Where is Jayda?".  I'm practicing drawing cats for "Pirate Smells." All are picture books. I'm also working with an editor to finish my YA book for Tradewind Books.

 

Can you share a little of your current work with us?

 

"No More Red" is about a little boy who dislikes red so much he wants it to disappear.

 

Out of your own characters, do you have a favourite?

 

I love Sunny in "Rayne Shines." She brings her own fun wherever she goes. She's happy with what she has and she's patient with Rayne, who has been taught to be unappreciative and gloomy.

 

Do you have any advice for other writers?

 

Take classes and read books. Treat it like a career. Join a critique group. Get a lot of feedback on your writing. Do not try to jump straight to self publishing. The market is flooded with work that was released prematurely.

 

What do you do when you are not writing?

 

I read a lot. I love playing with my granddaughters. I illustrate. I've changed from acrylics to digital illustration because I've developed Parkinson's Disease (like Michael J. Fox).

 

If you had to live in one of your books which book would it be?

 

The Amida Tree.

 

What was your favourite book when you were a kid?

 

I loved old fairy tales. I read Heidi eight times.

 

Anything you would like to add?

 

I was a grade school teacher for thirty-three years. One of the things I miss the most is reading to the class. I love public readings with small children. That's when my books really come to life, when they are read aloud.

 

Thanks for joining us, Bonnie! It was great to have you!

Interview With A.J York

Meet The Author Who Makes Us Want To Dust

 

A.J York

 

What inspired you to write your first book?

I was about to move out of a flat that I had been renting. It was an old place with a room off the kitchen, where the maid would have once slept. I was giving the place a good clean, when I started to wonder who the maid might have been and what her life would have been like. I was disastrously dusting a book shelve when I started to imagine Delilah and her special powers over dust.

When did you start considering yourself a writer?

I guess this would have been after I published Delilah Dusticle, as I started to add writer to my professional profile.

Out of the books you've written, which is your favourite?

I love The Delilah Dusticle Adventures, but my favourite piece of writing I have done so far is actually a poem called The Exhausting Perils of Should. It is about what we feel we should be doing/not doing/thinking/not thinking/being/ not being, etc. I have uploaded it onto Goodreads for anyone to read.

How do you feel about being interviewed by a children's book character? (That's me, Destiny!)

I think it is great! I studied drama at university, so interacting with a children’s book character is a lot of fun for me.

What are you working on next?

I am busily writing Delilah Dusticle and the Cursed Tempest. I have added a sample chapter at the end of book two to whet your appetite.

Can you share a little of your current work with us?

The next story is set in India and I am doing quite a bit of research. I have been looking at the landscape, types of storms and what regions they affect. I am also reading up on Indian myths and Hindu gods. It is very interesting and I would love to travel to India one day.

Out of your own characters, do you have a favourite?

The spiders. I am actually quite afraid of them in real life, yet they keep appearing in my stories.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

I still feel very new to writing to be giving advice. The best advice I have received was from another author. She said that I should write about things that genuinely interest me, and not what I think others think I should be writing.

What do you do when you are not writing?

I love hanging out in cafés and luckily for me Gothenburg is full of them. Some cafés have special afternoon tea events, others have piano players and fantastic cakes!

If you had to live in one of your books which book would it be?

I think it would be Delilah Dusticle’s Transylvanian Adventure. I would really like to go to the Hallow Eve Ball and join in with the food fight.

What was your favourite book when you were a kid?

I love Pippi Longstocking. When I was very small I would visit my Grandmother in Sweden and watch Pippi programmes in Swedish. At that time I only spoke English and I had no idea what they were saying. It really didn’t seem to matter as I still happily watched all the episodes.

Anything you would like to add?

Thank you for having me on your blog!

Thank you for joining us! It was good to have you!
A.J York's website: http://www.ajyork.com
Twitter: @delilahdusticle
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/delilahdusticle

 

  

Interview With Odd Sock From The Top Of The Wardrobe Gang!

What exactly are you made out of?

 

Oh *blushes*, that's a little bit personal Destiny...

Destiny's note: Sorry!

I'm a bit bigger than you might expect for a sock toy, as I'm made from the long part of a big fleece sock. (One of a pair that Melinda was given by a friend to keep her feet warm when sleeping in the mountains, I like to think that my lost twin is still having happy adventures in the big mountains of the Himalayas!) 

 

Apart from my very important purple sock part, I have pink and red fleece paws and ears, nice soft squishy stuffing, and a couple of red buttons for eyes.

 

How old are you? 

 

Billy (who owns me) has just started school in England, and he is five years old, so so am I. Billy's Nan made me when Billy was born, so we are the same age.

Are you really the star of the book (but sh! Don't tell the others!) 

I don't think any of us really star in our books. So far we have concentrated on writing our poems about other people, or monster characters. I think my friend PD Monkey perhaps starred in our first book, because he interviewed us all, so he let himself have more pages! (The rest of us thought that was a bit naughty!)

 

What made you wanna write poetry?

We find things that rhyme are often more fun to read, and we have a lot of fun writing them too! 

I heard you've been to Twitter jail. What is it and how exactly did you end up there?

 

Oh, you heard... I'm very lucky because I'm the only one of the gang who has been allowed their own Twitter account.

 

If I send messages too often in a short space of time then the Twitter police lock me out and put me in "jail", I don't understand why, and it makes me sad. It means I can't send anymore messages out to my friends for hours. Melinda has to come and rescue me, and then she sends out a message to my friends so they won't worry about me suddenly disappearing (and they send me messages back, to cheer me up).

It's happened twice already. Once after my first twitter flight with #theaviators, and again after my first choir practice with #tweetchoir. I love having new friends, and I love visiting other toys and animals at #teddyembassy. Please come and follow me at @OddSockTOWG. (You could also follow Melinda at @TopOWG, but she's much more boring!)

Your next book is about monsters. Have you ever been chased by a monster?

Oh yes, in my nightmares definitely! We've made most of our monsters in the book very friendly, but a few are scarier, and those are based on ones from our nightmares... 

I did once think I was being chased by a REAL monster, but it was Terry Tiger playing a trick on me in his Frankenstein Halloween costume... He really scared me, and I was very cross with him at the time. Burton Bear made TT apologise though, so we are friends again now.

Do you think you and the gang will ever make a print book or are you just sticking to eBooks?

We'd love to print books, but we don't have enough money in our piggy banks. Melinda says that if she can put our books somewhere called Amazon then we might be able to have our books printed just one at a time for people, by a Createspace company? We'd like that, but we know it's hard for Melinda to spend any time at a normal computer, so it may be difficult for her to do that for us. (I'm hoping a Publishing company will spot us and do print books for us, but Melinda says that I shouldn't hold my breath...)

 

I would like to see a book where you and the gang go on an adventure. Do you think you all will ever write a book like that or will you just stick with poetry?

Oooo, we'd love to write about ourselves, and we already have lots of ideas... Oscar Rabbit says that we aren't famous enough though. For now we will concentrate on our poems. If people find out about us because of our poems then who knows...

(I'd really like to do a spin-off "Odd Sock Series" too. I'm thinking of poems aimed more at younger kids, and maybe a poem just about me too... I've got a silly rhyme that I'd love to make into a  rhyming "Picture Book" for little ones... Perhaps with other poems added after...)   

Destiny's note: I think that's a great idea, Odd Sock!

How hard is it to come up with rhyming words for the poems?

If we get stuck then we take turns bouncing up and down on the trampoline in our back garden. Then one of us soon gets an idea! 

What will you do once you're famous?

Hmmm... I really want to campaign for sock rights, and better treatment for lonely odd socks throughout the world. I think it's terrible that so many odd socks get tossed out into dark scary bins when humans can't find their twins anymore. I want to set up a charity to help them all find new second lives, as loved toys, or in other roles. I've already made my own small start to this in my local community, and Billy's Nan helps me. 

Thank you for interviewing me Destiny, this has all been very exciting (and the rest of the Top of the Wardrobe Gang are all a teeny bit jealous).

Destiny's note: Thank you for letting me interview you! (and sorry to have made anyone jealous!) It has truly been fun! Good luck with your campaign for sock rights!

All covers and illustrations © Melinda Kinsman. All images used with permission.