As part of our Stop.Write.Now series we asked our authors a few questions - here's what Hazel Edwards had to say.
Q1. What are you writing at the moment?
Because I write for children AND adults, I always have about five simultaneous projects at different stages. Currently I’m finalising the 10th version text for picture book ‘Hurrah, There’s a Hippo on the Roof Having a Birthday Party’ out next year with Penguin to celebrate the 30th anniversary. Sydney based Illustrator Deborah Niland and I have had lots of emails this week regarding the gender and age of the child and whether the hippo will be on roof or ground due to OHS qualms! Readers assume that short books can be done quickly, but there’s actually more work behind every word in a picture book.
‘Let Me Eat Cake,’ says Roof Top Hippo’ is my unconventional Q and A based on fan letters to the hippo character.I’m going to put instalments up on my website and maybe consider later print publication. This is quirky ,fun writing from the viewpoint of an anti-bureaucratic hippo.
As part of a China-Aust Electronic Writer in Residency, organised by Australian Aileen Hall who is currently Principal at a Nanjing International School, I’ve been working with Templeton Primary on ‘Easy Over, The School Turtle’ picture book which is translated into Mandarin to swap with the Nanjing International School, who are creating a comparable English-Chinese school story, based on my sleuth characters from ‘Gang O Kids’ which is about children who solve non violent mysteries on site. Also working with Highvale Primary about their sleuths Hi and Vale and the Sanctuary Saga based on their animal sanctuary garden. Gang O Kids is set against an orienteering background, which is a sport in which my family has been involved and many schools are using it in literacy programs because students like to create their own active plots based on the character dossiers at the front of the book. Recently Alice Springs students created an extra, Jo an indigenous tracker kid for their Alice based story around the Gang O Kids sleuths
I write a monthly Writing a Non Boring Family History online column for aboutseniors and wrote about using family history in the writing of eulogies because I’d been to many funerals recently. My website also has a section on How To Write articles because I get so many requests on technique from new writers of all ages.
‘Making a Killing at the Pokies’ is a satirical performance script about pokies addiction which has had one dramatised reading, but I’m looking for a community group to perform it.
An international Travelling Exhibition for the 30th anniversary of the Hippo has been proposed and I have to collect support material for that.
My ‘Fake ID’ a cyber family history mystery is being translated into Tamil at the University of Madras and I’ve been asked to Chennai in India next year and also to Nanjing where several of my books are being translated into Chinese.
Out this month, ‘The Flight of the Bumblebee’ DVD of audio (read by Antonia Kidman) music, story and printed book has been a delightful classical ‘Music Box’ project in which to be involved.I was commissioned to write a new story for the wellknown Rimskay Korsakov music, and the sound flooded my study for weeks.Loved that.
Q2. Can you give us an idea of your typical writing week ?
Readers image authors write new stories all the time. Probably only about 30% of my time is ‘new’ original writing.
On average I probably spend about 50 hours per week on author related work, but some of it is really fun, like autographing books, meeting readers or doing quirky activities in connection with my children’s book characters. Like driving up the freeway with a large hippo strapped in the passenger seat. Participant observation research is a fascinating and necessary part of writing realistic backgrounds so I visit places and interview ‘experts’ on subjects as diverse as pyrotechnics, plumbers, platypus and pokies gambling.
The reality is that I have 180 published books, and so, much of my time is spend in the ‘administrivia’ of the marketing , publicity, legal and business side of being an author.. I get hundreds of fan e-mail (which I answer) and requests for project information ( those answers are on my website) but also international and local requests for talks or interviews. In writing answers to a blog like this I try to answer in a way which is relevant for you, but that I can also use again.That’s why I have generic ‘How To Write’articles which can be downloaded from my website and which have been written in response to earlier requests.
I teach ‘Writing for Children’ and ‘Non Fiction Projects’ at Holmesglen TAFE in the Diploma of Professional Writing and enjoy seeing those adult students place their work. A couple of them have had family history based projects and being required to produce a weekly chapter for workshopping is good discipline to get their books finished. We share a champagne when they have a success. Alcoholic or non alcoholic.
Whenever I have new book out, such as ‘The Flight of the Bumblebee’ I do interviews and talks and occasionally writing workshops for adults or children, depending upon the title. The Gang O Kids workshops , where the participants create mysteries on site have been very popular.
I also speak at conferences and recently gave a keynote at Latrobe Uni in Bendigo about multi-media from an author’s perspective. This included Braille and Auslan signed DVDs for deaf children.
Sometimes organisations approach me with writing projects and sometimes I initiate my own.
I just finished a project with the Royal Children’s Hospital on health-related ‘magabooks’ which are midway between magazines and books in design but have lots of medical factual content presented in an accessible way for mid primary. So I’ve learnt a lot about gender, nutrition, obesity, diabetes etc recently.
Q3. What do you do when you are not writing?
Swimming, bellydancing, reading , travelling and meals with friends and family.My 9 year old grandson is here often, and he recently taught me DanceFit’ which was very energetic.
Each month I try to do something new, so I won’t be boring in my old age. In 2001 I went on an Antarctic expedition as writer , and have been entranced by icebergs ever since.An iceberg is like writing a book, only one tenth of the work shows. This month I went to a jewellery auction, to observe , not buy. Participant observation, where I do in order to write accurately, enriches the life of an author.
Q4. What are you reading right now?
I often listen to audio books in my car. Enjoyed ones by Inga Clendinnen and Liz Bryski recently.
Q7. Anything you would like to add?
Hazel Edwards
www.hazeledwards.com
Latest Books: Gang-O Kids
Cycling Solo:Ireland to Istanbul
Outback Ferals
Red Day (Chinese translation)
Coming:
Flight of the Bumblebee DVD
Script Solutions (classroom plays)
Dramatics
Thanks Hazel.
Hazel is speaking about Writing a non-boring family history at Hawthorn Library on Thursday 30 October @ 7.30 pm.
