Tu`akoi, Feana

writers in schools information

KAPAI Children’s questions for writers

General

Where do you live?
I grew up in the South Island, in a town surrounded by crystal clear rivers that sometimes ran out of water; where people thought that it was rude not to stop and tell your life-story to pretty much anyone who passed.

Now I live in the North Island, in a city divided by a mysterious green river that never runs out of water; where people think that you should only have conversations with those you already know.

What books do you read?
If it’s got words in it, I’ll read it. I’ll even read packaging, if I’m desperate!

I love to read newspapers, journals and magazines, and I always have both fiction and non-fiction books on the go. I also love to read children’s books.

Who is your favourite writer and why?
I have lots of favourite authors – too many to choose from – but I particularly enjoy New Zealand writers for the clarity of their writing and their ‘New Zealandness’.

I love Maurice Gee, Joy Cowley, Fiona Kidman, Janet Frame, Patricia Grace and David Hill, for the way that they use language and create pictures in my head. I would love to write like they do.

My favourite book as a child was I am David by Anne Holm. I loved it, even though it made me cry. A favourite children’s book, that I read as an adult, is See ya Simon by David Hill – another tear jerker, but with lots of great humour.

How do you think up your ideas?
People say you should write what you know, but I find that if I write what I don’t know, I have lots more to write about – so I often get ideas from reading and researching.

My What is a…? series came about because I read that anything with feathers was a bird. I hadn’t thought about it like that before, so I found the idea very exciting. And if something interests me, I think that other people might be interested, too. So I started researching the characteristics of all the vertebrate groups.

I’m very interested in what’s going on around me, so I watch and listen for ideas. I pay attention to the way people behave and the interesting things that they say. And I love to notice funny things. Freaky Fish was based on some of the funny things my son and his friend did, when they had to enter a wearable arts competition at school.

I also like to ask myself 'What if…?' 'The Santa Fairy' (broadcast on Radio New Zealand) came about because I asked myself, 'What if Santa and the tooth fairy swapped jobs?'

I don’t always think of my own ideas. Sometimes I borrow them from other people, and sometimes editors ask me to write about something in particular. But how you get your ideas isn’t really important. It’s what you do with them that counts.

What is the best thing about being a writer?
My favourite part of the writing process is the editing. I love to go through a piece, over and over again, getting rid of unnecessary words and changing things around. I like it because the hard slog is over. The story’s already there. I’m just making it the best it can be.

My favourite part about being a writer is seeing my work published. I never get sick of it. It’s as exciting for me now, as it was the very first time.

Primary School Students

What sort of pets do you have?
We have the sort of pets that make life… interesting.

Skooby is a German Short-Haired Pointer, crossed with something really big. When he’s not asleep on the trampoline, he’s plotting how to get into the house to steal food (he’s on a diet). And, embarrassingly, he’s really scared of cats.

Jaws is an attention-seeking cockatiel, who screeches 'Hello Jaws!' if he thinks he’s being ignored. He loves to scream when people are studying or doing something quiet. And he loves to hiss at people and chew up anything within reach. People think he’s cute and they put their hands out to pet him, but they’re braver than I am. He was called Jaws for a reason…

What is your favourite colour?
I like bright in-your-face colours, like tomato red, not the namby pamby ones. My favourite at the moment is strong purple. I like to wear it and have it around the house. I even painted my dining room purple!

What is your favourite food and why?
It’s too hard to choose!

I love to eat, and I really enjoy my food. I love seafood and sushi, and pretty much anything with sugar in it. My favourite drink is ‘otai, which is a delicious mix of watermelon, coconut cream, pineapple and (dare I say it?) sugar!

What is your favourite movie?
I really enjoy old black and white movies, especially from the 30s and 40s. I like the fashions and streetscapes of the era, and the way the actors talk and interact with each other.

What is your favourite game?
I love to play games, especially word games, like Upwords or Boggle, and logic games like Othello or Sudoku (does Sudoku count as a game?)

I don’t like sports games at all – mainly because I’m really bad at them and they involve moving. But everybody else in my family is sports-mad (I blame my husband!), so I spend most of my weekends at sports games anyway.

How do you make books?
I don’t make books. I just write the words and let the publishers do the rest (with my input, of course!).

Where do you go for holidays?
We’ve only just started going for holidays. We used to always stay home, because it was such a relief to not have to rush around like we do in term time.
Now we try to go on holiday for a few days each year. We always choose a small town, with a supermarket nearby. The supermarket is very important, because we eat so much that it costs us a fortune to shop in a dairy. And we can’t take a lot of food with us, because by the time we pack all the people into the car, there isn’t much room for anything else!

This year, we went to Opotiki. It was a great place for a holiday – lots of fishing, swimming and mud-sliding. Not that I did any of that, of course. I sat on the beach with a book!

What was the naughtiest thing you ever did at school?
I was a real goodie-good in a class of not-so-goodie-goods, so I thought I’d be the perfect person to play a practical joke. The teacher would never see it coming!

I got a fountain pen (not easy to come by) and filled it up with invisible ink. Then, when the teacher came to check my work, I squirted ink all over his flash new shirt. It wasn’t until I saw his horrified face that I realised I should have tested it out on fabric first, to make sure it would come out.
T
hose few seconds were the longest of my life. I don’t know who was more shocked – him, the class or me. There was a collective intake of breath and then complete silence, until the stain started to fade. Luckily, the ink disappeared completely. I was so relieved that I went straight back to being a goodie-good and left the trouble-making to the experts.

Secondary School Students

How did you get started?
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t write. I wrote my first ‘book’ (an action-packed teenage detective novel) on a mighty pad when I was ten. And I’ve always enjoyed writing diaries, letters, lists, plans, stories, rhyming verse, essays and assignments.

Writing was part of my everyday life. From the time I could do it, I did it. So, when I was at home, looking after our four pre-schoolers, I decided to try and get paid for it.

I was prepared for rejection. I’d read somewhere about an American writer, who’d had 312 rejections before his best-seller was finally published. So, I sent my first script off to the School Journal, with the idea that I only had 311 to go.

Luckily for me, that first script was accepted, but I’ve also had my share of rejections. I’ve way since passed the 312 mark!

Who inspired you when you were getting started?
My husband – he thought it would be too hard to get published. I really wanted to show him!

What advice would you give to an aspiring young writer?
Read, read, read. Write, write, write. And learn to love rejection!

Is it difficult to make a living writing in New Zealand?
I read somewhere that most New Zealand writers ‘have a job to support their habit’, and I think that’s probably true.

What were you like as a teenager? Tell us a story!
I was a tall, gawky egg-head – all arms and legs, and no control – and I was always falling over things. So, obviously, I took up skate-boarding and spent the rest of my teenage years in bandages or plaster.