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Mem Fox
Mem Fox's first ever book, Possum Magic, became an Australian bestseller and March 2004 marked its 21st year in print. She's written countless other picture books including, Time For Bed, Wombat Divine, Koala Lou - as well as books for grown ups too.
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Q. What motivated you to write Possum Magic?
A. I was studying at university as a mature age student and took a course in children's literature and it was an assignment.
Q. There's an inscription on the book to your daughter, Chloe.
A. Yes, because your first book is always to your child, surely! She was little at the time when I started writing it and almost grown up by the time I'd finished. A 13 year old doesn't need a baby book dedicated to them, but a 7 year old might like it.
Q. Did you have any idea Possum Magic would be an Australian best-seller when you were writing it?
A. Not at all. None of us did, neither the illustrators, the publishers, the book-sellers or me.
Q. How easy or difficult was it to get your first book published?
A. It was rejected 9 times over 5 years.
Q. What inspired you to keep going?
A. Well my husband was very supportive and kept going into bookshops and reading what he considered to be rubbish already published and said "keep going". And librarians to whom I had shown the text said "keep going". People were very supportive.
Q. What advice do you have for anyone who wants to write a picture book?
A. Go to my website immediately (www.memfox.net)! I have on my website 35 pages about writing children's books. I made a lot of mistakes; my book was too long, I had found an illustrator before I sent it in. I just knew so little about it that it was amazing that my book was published at all.
Q. Did you have any idea about how Grandma Poss and Hush should look when you were writing the story?
A. No, no I didn't. I'm the writer and I can't even draw a stick man. So I focus so entirely on the words that I don't even see the pictures in my own head.
Q. Apart from writing books, you've also been a teacher, professor and consultant on literacy. Which job did you enjoy the most?
A. Teaching by far - it's the most wonderful profession. You're not lonely when you're teaching, you're not quiet, you're laughing most of the time, you're having a wonderful time interacting with young people. It's the best fun in the world. Even today I much prefer working with teachers than writing. I don't write very often, I write as little as possible, frankly. About 10 days a year - maximum!
Q. What was your favourite book when you were small - and why?
A. I'm trying to think, I'm 58 and it was a long time ago... I guess it was the Australian classic "Snugglepot and Cuddle Pie". That was when I was really little and it was a very dramatic book and very frightening and peculiarly Australian and I loved it!
Q. You have written a lot of stories about animals (Possum Magic, Wombat Divine, Koala Lou). What is your favourite animal?
A. I think that my favourite animal is a baby possum, or a joey. The face of a really little joey is so divine - so, so gorgeous. But, because of Possum Magic I think I should probably say baby possums. When they were running around the roof of our house they were so cute. When we lived in the hills we had baby possums and they were adorable. You just wanted to hold them and love them forever. Keep them in your pocket, take them to work, sleep with them, have them at your table…
Q. Do you think it's easier to write for adults or kids?
A. It's about 1,000 times easier to write for adults. For children the perfect word has to be chosen first of all, then it has to be put in the perfect place. And then you have to make sure that you haven't used that word in another perfect place 3 sentences before. The syllables have to be right in every sentence because it's going to be read aloud, so the commas have to be in the right place. The whole thing has to be around 500 words, so it has to be very, very, very short. And in that shortness you have to have all the description, all the characterisation and all of the plot. It looks easy because it's short, but I have written an adult book in 3 months, that's 60,000 words, and it takes me 2 years to write 500 words for children.
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