Visit Faiz’s website at: www.childrensfunnybooks.co.uk
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Margaret Pearce
I lurk in an underground flat in the Dandenongs, peaceful enough for me to keep writing.
I love reading and writing fantasy. I intend my next book to make the world of fairyland more creepy and a bit scary. I am still thinking about what sort of child is brave enough to face very scary adventures after dark.
I have published mostly for the eight to twelve age group. www.writers-exchange.com have released as print books my Jumping into Trouble trilogy:
Wanted a Horse
The Circus Runaways
Missing a Horse
and my Belinda Robinson trilogy:
Belinda and the Witch’s Cat
Belinda and the Missing Will
Belinda and the Holidays it Rained
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Elizabeth Smart
What noises do you hear outside your window at night?
When I was little I heard dingoes howling! My home was in the red earth centre of SA where the haunting cries of crows and the creak of the windmill filled the hot, dusty days. On visits to Adelaide friends often asked what the birdies said. I would race around flapping my wings shouting ‘raaah raaah’ – and they all laughed at me! My home was hours away from the nearest town. Our food and mail arrived once a week on a train and we had an airstrip in case we needed a doctor. Our only contact with the outside world was a crackling radio and a telephone.
Later, in country Victoria, I attended a very small school with one room and one teacher. Many of the older children left school when they turned 14. I was sent to boarding school. When I was 18, I worked as a part-time sewing mistress at another one teacher school. Luckily for me, there wasn't any sewing, as I wasn't very good at it! My love of teaching began then. To get there, I hitched a ride with the mail/delivery van that passed our front gate. Squeezed in beside the driver, I was surrounded by fresh bread, mail bags and very smelly vats of cream for the butter factory. After Teachers College, I taught in London before settling in Melbourne where my career continued for thirty years.
I began writing a diary when I was seven and the spelling was terrible! I laugh when I look back on it now, but I enjoyed describing exciting moments in my life. Writing even cheered me up when I was feeling sad or lonely. While I was teaching, I occasionally wrote stories to amuse my class but it wasn’t until I retired that I found time to begin writing seriously – in between minding grandchildren, volunteering at the Royal Children’s Hospital, travelling, walking, talking and enjoying many cups of coffee...
As a teacher I tried to help children with their problems, their unexpected ‘bends in the road’ (birth, death, divorce, bushfire, new relationships etc.) When I retired, my first stories followed this theme. They were written to help children understand their feelings and to know they were not alone.
In Andre’s Surprise a boy struggles to deal with his feelings when his much loved Grandpa becomes sick.
Fatima’s Caterpillar, which is now a reader in schools, is a story about a girl arriving in Australia and finding everything is different. Thanks to a dancing, wiggly caterpillar, she finally feels accepted.
Some of my stories have been in online magazines. When I became a grandmother, I began writing picture books for little children. As each baby was born, I gave them a book I had written, illustrated with photos.
My story writing now follows these ‘two bends in the road’.
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Lizbeth Klein
Lizbeth knew she wanted to write books when she was in primary school. One story she wrote back then was about a boy who discovered he was an alien. It was the first of many terribly written stories and none that were ever finished. She loves reading adventure books and soon will be creating her own adventures by travelling around Australia in a caravan.
After years of writing short stories about everything from women pirates to magnets, Lizbeth finally published her first Young Adult fantasy novel—Firelight of Heaven. It’s full of excitement and dangers for two brothers and their quirky companions: a feisty Elf girl who carries heaps of hidden weapons, and a Toggle, a smallish bear-like creature with very sharp claws.
The second book, Greenheart of the Forest, is also a riveting story exploring the mystery behind the brothers’ unusual destinies. Both books have won the Classic Seal of Approval by the Literary Classics International Book Awards and Reviews.
If you’d like some more information about them, or just come for a visit, here’s Lizbeth’s website: bethloria.com.au.
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Joanne Pummer
My name is Joanne Pummer. I used to be a primary school teacher, but now I write children’s books. In a couple of schools I worked as a teacher librarian. That meant I could do my all time favourite thing – read stories to children all day! With a whole library to choose from, what did I usually read? I didn’t read Andy Griffiths’ funny books. Not because I don’t like funny books. I love them. These books disappeared off the shelves like magic, so I knew the children were reading them. I chose books that I knew the children would love – if someone would read them.
I read Winnie the Pooh stories and verses, the Just So Stories and many of Grimm’s Fairy Stories. All the children, from year two to year six loved them. I know a year six class who wouldn’t leave the library until I read The Elephant’s Child! What could I do? I didn’t want to call the Deputy Principal and have them removed from the library, so I read it – again and again and again – and I loved reading it as much as the class loved hearing it!
If you liked It’s an Illusion, you’ll really enjoy my next book. It’s called Will’s Flying Skateboard Mystery. It’s about a boy who buys a skateboard from a second hand stall and discovers it can fly – but only if he can work out the password. See if you’re clever enough to work out the password before Will does! It’s being published by Jo Jo Publishing and you’ll see it in the shops in second term 2016.
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Carole Lander
Carole spent many years as a teacher of drama and theatre studies. Following this, she was a curriculum writer and school examiner in Victoria. In 2012, Carole graduated from RMIT University with a Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing. Now she works freelance, editing educational books. This lifelong passion for education motivated her to write stories for young readers.
Carole has written a book called Little People Big Lives about people who live with dwarfism. This has sold well in schools, libraries and to the general public. Getting to know these short-statured (little) people brought the realisation that there are few books with heroes/heroines who live with disability. Carole is trying to turn that around with a series for primary school readers.
Full details of Carole’s writing can be found at www.checkword.com.au/writing
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AT Davidson
AT Davidson is a freelance writer, illustrator, poet and playwright. AT has written and/or illustrated children’s books for Storm Cloud Publishing and Learning Island. AT’s poetry and plays are suitable for mature readers. AT also has published short story collections for mature readers.
Pipe Dream is AT’s first short story for children
The Scarecrow is AT’s first novel for children. It was written and illustrated by AT.
The scarecrow in the Williams’s field was certainly scary, and not just to crows. Bobby couldn’t say why exactly he found it as scary as he did. He just did. He told himself it was only some material filled with straw. It couldn’t actually get anybody, could it?
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Storm Cloud ebooks
By Any Other Name – for readers 15 years upwards
Under the Bridge – for readers 8 years upwards
Girls Can’t Play – for readers 8 years upwards
Slimming Down Santa – for readers 8 years upwards
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br /> The Great Tadpole Hunt – for readers 6 years upwards
Scully the Cat – a rhyming book for readers 6 years upwards
Who’s Scared of the Dark? – a picture book for 18 months upwards
Grandpa’s Hat – a picture book for non or beginning readers
Short Tales – a short story collection for readers 8-12 years
For information and updates on Storm Cloud books, writers and illustrators, visit the Storm Cloud Publishing page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/StormCloudPublishing?fref=ts
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Short Tales Page 6