Cristy Burne writes fiction and nonfiction and her books are bursting with adventure, friendship, family, nature, science and technology. Cristy has worked as a science communicator for nearly 20 years across six countries. She has been a science circus performer, garbage analyst, museum writer, and atom-smashing reporter at CERN, but her all-time favourite job is working with kids to embrace the intersection between science, technology and creativity.
Today we’re thrilled to be chatting with Cristy about her novel Into the Blue, illustrated by Amanda Burnett.
From the publisher:
Blair and his cousin embark on an adventurous day out, snorkelling on the wreck of the Omeo, but their excitement turns to panic when Blair loses his brother’s cherished GoPro camera on the seabed. No one knows about his mistake except his cousin, and she urges Blair to keep it a secret. But Blair’s lies quickly spiral out of control. Terrified to confess but wracked with guilt, Blair is left floundering in the deep.
I’ll take a wild guess that you’ve been snorkelling yourself! Where’s the best place you’ve been to snorkel?
I love snorkelling and I snorkelled a lot on the Omeo wreck to research this book. Many of my favourite places to snorkel are in Western Australia: Rottnest Island, Ningaloo Reef, Mettams Pool, Yanchep Lagoon and Penguin Island, to name a few. There are so many awesome places to explore!
I’ve also snorkelled and SCUBA dived a lot around Australia and the world. My Aussie favourites are Cocos Island and Christmas Island, plus the Whitsundays in Queensland. (I’ve never snorkelled on the Great Barrier Reef … yet!)
My favourite dive spot ever is in Japan in the Ogasawara Islands, 1000 kilometres south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean.
Do you have a favourite underwater creature or element that you look out for when you go snorkelling?
I don’t like to chase underwater creatures. Instead, I like to float around like a piece of seaweed and wait for them to come to me. In this way I’ve been lucky to have seen dolphins, turtles, seals and even sharks go swimming past.
Even though I love seeing big things, my favourites are tiny things. My absolute number-one favourite thing is something that Blair also experiences in Into The Blue. It’s when you find yourself in the middle of a school of teeny-tiny fish that glitter and whirl like a magical cloud and it feels like you’re in another world. I love that feeling!
When you were growing up, did you ever get into trouble for touching/using something you weren’t supposed to?
No. Never. I was always very obedient and good.
Right?
Except for a b-u-n-c-h of times when I got into trouble. One time I remember, my mum had brought a doll’s pram home from my sisters’ kindy. She parked it in the garage and said, “Don’t touch it, Cristy.”
But that pram looked soooo interesting. And I was sure it was big enough to fit more than just dolls. In fact, I was sure that if I tried, I could fit into that pram!
So I snuck into the garage and climbed in.
And you know what? I did fit! It was awesome!
But when I tried to climb out, I couldn’t. I was jammed stuck.
I knew that if Mum found me, she’d be cross, so I had to get out. But no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t budge from that pram.
In the end, I had to cry out for help. When Mum finally arrived in the garage, looking very confused, she found me bawling my eyes out and stuck. So, she did what all good parents would do (!?!), and she fetched her camera to take a photo of me stuck there. How lovely. Now we can always remember The Time Cristy Got Stuck In The Doll’s Pram.
Do you have a word prompt or scenario you’d like to challenge young writers to try?
I think a wonderful way to write is to go into the place that you’re writing about with a notebook and pen. Then, breathe deep and tune your senses into that place. Write down all your thoughts and ideas and similes and feelings about:
– what you can smell and hear
– interesting ways to describe what you see
– how the landscape makes you feel and what you feel in your body in those moments
– how things feel to touch: bark, sand, leaves, wind, the pen in your hand, everything.
The place you write in might be your school playground, or a nearby bushland, or even waiting at a bus stop to go to school. (If you do this activity, I’d love to hear how you went…you can contact me through my website: cristyburne.com/
What’s next for Cristy Burne?
So many things!!! I want to learn how to be a bike mechanic so I can look after my mountain bike better. I want to dig up my lawn so I can plant native plants for lizards and birds and creatures to live in. I’m planning a hiking adventure in the gorges of Kalbarri National Park.
And … I’m doing lots of school visits and festival tours to talk to readers and creators about Into The Blue, plus my new graphic novel with Rebel Challenger (called Ultra Violet: Down to Business).
PLUS, I’m working on not one, not two but THREE new secret projects. I love having lots of things to make and create and try. It’s always hard to make new things, because they never really turn out how I want them to, especially on the first try. But I love the challenge of trying to make something I’m really proud of.
And I’m really proud of my books.
Thank you so much for reading down this far, and thank you also for reading my books. I hope they make you laugh and get you excited for having your own adventures!
Into the Blue is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.
AWESOME EXTRAS:
Read some sample pages from Into the Blue!
Download a Ship to Shore activity from the publisher’s website [PDF]
Download the Teachers’ Notes [PDF]
Visit Cristy Burne’s website for more resources and to find out more about the author and her books.
Watch Cristy Burne’s slick promo video for Into the Blue. [YouTube]
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