New Zealand Writers
JORDAN, Sherryl
Jordan writes with passion and dramatic imagery.
Author entry from The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, edited by Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie (1998). About the Companion entries View list of Companion contributors
JORDAN, Sherryl (1949– ), children’s fantasy writer, won the national competition in 1980 for illustrations to Joy Cowley’s The Silent One, but soon abandoned illustrating for writing. In five years, she produced twenty-seven picture books (three published) and four novels (none published). Finally, with her fifth novel, she gained the 1988 Choysa Bursary Award, and the futuristic Rocco (1990) won the 1991 AIM Book of the Year. Through time-slips to the future, Rocco learns basic survival skills in a mountain environment, reverence for non-violent, spiritual living, and the urgency of anti-nuclear strivings.Afflicted with Occupational Overuse Syndrome in 1989, Jordan recovered enough to continue writing novels for teenagers and junior readers. All up to 1995 have been shortlisted for awards. The Juniper Game (1991) provides her only hint at Southern Hemisphere origins, but like The Wednesday Wizard (1991) and Denzil’s Dilemma (1992) features time-slips to medieval England, where her picture book, The Other Side of Midnight (1994), is also set. Winter of Fire (1993) and Tanith (1994) feature teenage girl protagonists in love and seeking power against oppression in exotic worlds of the distant future or past. Jordan’s 1995 novel, Sign of the Lion, again features a girl’s struggle for power. Though at times she stretches credibility, Jordan writes with passion and dramatic imagery. She was born in Hawera. In 1993 she was granted a Fellowship to the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program.
DH
Updated Information
Recent titles for young adults include Secret Sacrament (1996) and The Hunting of the Last Dragon (2002).
Jordan continued her series, 'The Adventures of Denzil - Apprentice Wizard' with The Great Bear Burglary (Scholastic, 1997).
Sherryl Jordan's books are widely published overseas and have won and been shortlisted for awards in New Zealand, UK, USA, Belgium and Germany. Her awards include the USA School Library Journal Best of 1999 and the 2001 Wirral Paperback of the Year for The Raging Quiet, and the 2001 Buxtehuder Bulle Prize for Best Young Person's Book of the Year for The Juniper Game.
In 2001 Jordan was awarded the Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award for her contribution to children's literature, publishing and literacy.
Rocco was re-released in 2003. Rocco Makepeace is about to make a very unexpected trip. He will meet people who live in caves, who hunt with bow and arrows and believe in magic and superstition. Some of them will become very special to him; and because of that, Rocco will have a hard time going home. But then he realises that something is deadly wrong.
The Juniper Game was also re-released in 2003. Juniper persuades Dylan, the class non-entity, to help her with a telepathy experiment. Dylan proves an excellent median, but one day Juniper finds herself in what appears to be the past and soon they are both drawn into the world of a young woman accused of witchcraft.
Ellen is a child of the Quelled - a branded people always to mine coal to warm the ruling class, the Chosen. But she is also a rebel - a rebel with a vision.
The Hunting of the Last Dragon (Simon and Schuster, 2004) is Jordan's latest novel. High overhead, a dragon flies on coppery wings, raining down fire and destruction on all that lies below. Jude is no hero. Deeply traumatised after returning to find his village a charcoaled ruin and his family dead, he is picked up by a travelling fair, where he rescues the strange yet beautiful Jing-wei from a life as a caged freak. He alone must kill the last dragon.
The Silver Dragon (Scholastic, 2007) completes Jordan's series about Denzil the Apprentice Wizard. Denzil is drafted in by Friar Gregory to create the first printing press, using his knowledge from the future. Classical mishaps ensue - Lemony Snicket with time travel!
The previous three books in the 'Denzil' series, The Wednesday Wizard, Denzil's Dilemma, and The Great Bear Burglary have been rejacketed by Scholastic to coincide with the publication of the final book in the series.
KIDS AUTHORS PICTURES AND INFORMATION
Some Questions for Sherryl Jordan
Where do you live?
In Tauranga, in a beautiful silver-timbered cottage with medieval front doors.
What sorts of book do you like to read?
Mainly book written for young adults – or books set in Medieval times.
Do you have a favourite author?
I have several - C.S. Lewis, Mary Stewart, Jane Yolen, St. Julian of Norwich.
How do you think up your ideas?
I don’t. Books ‘appear’ to me like movies in my head, all in the space of a few seconds. However, I may think about the book, and do research for many months before I begin writing.
What is the best thing about being an author?
Being paid for dreaming.
Some questions for Primary School Students
Do you have any pets?
A silver tabby cat and two goldfish. I used to have pet mice, and would love to have mice again, but I think they would tempt my cat to do terrible things.
Do you have a favourite colour?
Purple
Do you have a favourite food?
Stir-fried vegetables.
How about a favourite movie?
Dances with Wolves
What is the most fun thing about being a writer?
Living in the world of the story. While I’m writing, the world in my story is more real than this one.
How do you make a book?
A very involved question. First the idea, then the writing and re-writing (very important!) then illustrations if you can find a publisher. And there isn’t any room here to talk about publishing.
Where do you like to go for your holidays?
My last holiday was in New York – though there was a lot of business to do, seeing publishers, etc.
What was the naughtiest thing you ever did at school?
Getting sick all over my teacher. She was making me drink sour milk. This was back in the days when all primary school children were given free milk to drink – usually after it had been sitting out in the sun all morning. I hated that milk!
Some Questions for Secondary Students
How did you get started as a writer?
When I was four I was given a notebook of blue paper; I made a story of pictures about a mermaid.
Who inspired you when you were getting started?
About 30 years later, when I was working hard to write something publishable, Joy Cowley was a huge encouragement.
What advice would you give an aspiring young writer?
Write, write, write. And then revise, revise, revise. Never give up.
Is it difficult to make a living as a writer in New Zealand?
From a book published in New Zealand, you might make only $2,000 or $3,000 altogether, over several years. The only way to make money is to be published overseas, especially in the United States.
What were you like as teenager?
Quiet. Boring. Studious. Dull! But I could paint – and write.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?
I wrote 12 novels which were never published, before I wrote Rocco, my 13th novel – the first to be published. All the previous novels have been destroyed.
I love this quote by Richard Bach – ‘You are never given a dream without also being given the means to make it come true. You may have to work for it, however.’ So I work. Hard.
I used to be an illustrator, though I never loved it as much as I love writing. I live what I write. If a main character in my story has a headache, I have a headache. Once when I was writing about people who had the plague (in Medieval England) I got meningitis! I got scared and never finished the book.
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