Never forget how important freedom is to children. As a kidlit author you must consider this every time you write.
One thing that’s often missing in children’s stories
My Slow Living Experiment
Slow living, how it worked for me. Planning my days, running my biz, writing books.
How to write a picture book, a novel, a blog post or something else that’s cool.
A few years ago, my friend, muse and partner in crime, Mitch Vane, said, 'Jen, you should write and illustrate your own picture book.' Me? Illustrate? Scoff. Splutter. Blush. I have NO QUALIFICATIONS. I'm not a REAL illustrator. I failed art. (Mostly because I never turned up...) I haven't done 5000 hours of life drawing. …
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Compelling characters. Imposter Syndrome. Make a Million in Menopause.
Creating great characters in fiction, flourishing in menopause, dealing with imposter syndrome.
Dressing your Characters. Why Clothes Matter!
How you dress your characters makes a huge difference to your story-world.
How I Became a Kidlit Author, and How I Can Support Your Kidlit Dreams, too
Early in the 1980s when I was working as a nurse, I decided to write a children’s book.The first story I wrote was about a rat. A rat that lived inside a muddy riverbank, wore a suit and —worked in the stock market (go figure). I think it was some kind of Wind in the Willows rip-off.I …
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Why I don’t mentor people
A writing coach recently asked me why I don't mentor people one-on-one. Okay. So in the past five years, thousands of authors and illustrators have come through girl&duck. Whether they've joined the Scribbles Academy, hung out in the Duck Pond, completed one of my online 'capsule courses', read my blog or simply watched my videos …
Stop Looking at Me, Oprah! Or, Why Settings Are So Important to Your Stories
This time last year, (it was winter, I remember it well ), I went down to Melbourne for the weekend. I was catching up with family, having dinner with my publisher, doing a spot of shopping. All the nice things. Instead of staying in a hotel, I decided I try an air bnb, city stay, …
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A Little Rant About Kidlit Imposters…
Years ago, when I was working in kidlit publishing, we used to receive enormous bundles of unsolicited manuscripts in the mail. Bloody truckloads. Hard copy. You with me? So many manuscripts that I had a large cardboard box (the kind that nicely holds 15 bottles of wine...) full of potential children's books, sitting at my …
The Secret Language of Rejection
We had an amazing thread going in the Duck Pond, last week. We were talking about ‘quiet’ books. You know the type. Gentle, nuanced, often deep. The kind of books that leave a mark, make you think. Perhaps even make you clever… Manuscripts (whether adult fiction or kidlit) often get rejected on the grounds …