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Melinda Szymanik

Children and Young Adults' Writer, profiled in The School Library, Issue 3, 2009

As a child, one of my favourite things to do was to disappear into a good book. I loved exploring new worlds, and discovering how people lived – whether it was in another time, another country, another world or another dimension. I learned so much, and had such a good time doing it, I decided I wanted to write the kinds of things I loved to read. I read heaps of books, and then wrote heaps of stories, which I never showed anyone. As much as I wanted to be a writer, for a long time it seemed like something only other people could do, which is one of the reasons I love being a part of the Writers in Schools programme.
I wish I’d had a chance to meet an author when I was first dreaming about being one myself. My favourite books were so wonderful, I thought the people who wrote them must be magical in some way. Now I know authors are just everyday people, like me, who work hard to make good stories, and visiting schools gives me a chance to tell children this. I can answer their questions, and show them that they too could be a writer, if they really wanted to.