Category: interviews

Posted in authors, interviews

Justin Somper on Pirate Academy: New Kid on Deck

Posted on by Alphabet Soup
Justin Somper (photo by Oliver Rosser)
The cover of a children's novel: Pirate Academy, New Kid on Deck by Justin Somper, illustrated by Teo Skaffa.

Justin Somper is an author and meditation guide; he is best known for his Vampirates series. Justin is currently based in Perth, Western Australia, where he is writing the Pirate Academy adventures – in between dips in the Indian Ocean, visits to lighthouses and long-overdue sailing lessons. Today we’re chatting about Book 1 in the Pirate Academy series, New Kid on Deck, illustrated by Teo Skaffa.

The publisher provided Alphabet Soup with a reading copy of New Kid on Deck.

From the publisher:

The year is 2507. The oceans have risen. A new dawn of piracy has begun. Jacoby Blunt and Jasmine Peacock are students at the elite Pirate Academy. This is no ordinary school. Lessons range from Knots Class and Sailing to Combat Workshop. The students hail from famous pirate families. The teachers are all legendary sea captains. The pressure is always on and friendship is everything. When a new kid – the mysterious Neo Splice – arrives, everything changes FAST.

Welcome to Pirate Academy where every day is a swashbuckling adventure!

The Pirate Academy series is set in a boarding school in the year 2507, and all the students are learning to be pirates. What brought you to set the story in a boarding school?

Very simply, students at all NINE of the Pirate Academies worldwide live as well as study on-site. It’s essential given how much training each and every day at Pirate Academy contains. Plus, living together helps the students to form really close bonds over time, which they will draw on as they become captains and deputy captains and recruit crews for their own ships and missions.

The students take classes in sailing, sword fighting and knots, among others. Did you need to research these subjects yourself to write the Pirate Academy books, or were you already an expert in these areas?

Ha, I am by no means an expert in ANY of these. I had a little instruction in sword-fighting, from a stage combat expert, some time ago and I continue to draw on this. When I was writing the first Pirate Academy book, I had recently arrived in Perth (from London) and I seized the opportunity to take sailing lessons at Royal Perth Yacht Club. These took place in all weathers and I was able to bring my newfound experience to writing sailing sequences in the books. We were schooled in nautical knots too – but, as you will see in the book, at Pirate Academy they also teach attack knots, which are my own addition/invention!

If you were at Pirate Academy, which class would be your favourite? (And which your least favourite?!)

I think I’d enjoy all the lessons – after all, I did put them in there! I’ve been writing about something called Sword Reading for Book 3, which really appeals to me – that’s a lesson I might like to TEACH! I think the class that might most challenge me would be Navigation by Map or Moon as navigation is not usually my strong point!

Do you have a tip for young writers who’d like to write their own adventure-filled tales?

Absolutely! Put your characters in a really tense situation from the get-go and keep them there, making it worse and worse and worse! You might feel mean doing this but keep going. Let’s see what your characters are really made of!

What’s next for the kids at Pirate Academy? Will there be more books in the series?

There absolutely will! The next book, Missing at Sea, is coming in February (not long to wait!) and this sees the students of Barracuda Class heading out on the all-important Oceans Bound weekend – 48 hours of sailing without any accompanying teaching captains. They’re going to have to deal with snakes, spiders, sharks and skulls … which means the League of true Pirates can’t be far away!

New Kid on Deck is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.

AWESOME EXTRAS

Read sample pages from New Kid on Deck

Check out free activities and resources at the author’s website

Download the Teachers’ Resources at the publisher’s website

Visit the author’s website for more about Justin and his books

The cover of a children's novel: Pirate Academy, New Kid on Deck by Justin Somper, illustrated by Teo Skaffa.
Posted in authors, interviews

Jeanette Stampone on Terry Fide and the Bakery Ghost

Posted on by Alphabet Soup
The cover of a junior fiction novel, Ghost Detectives: Terry Fide and the Bakery Ghost by Jeanette Stampone, illustrated by Jasmine Berry.
Jeanette Stampone, children's author. This photo is a head and shoulders shot. Jeanette has long straight blonde hair with a fringe, blue eyes and pale skin. She is smiling at the viewer. She is wearing a black and white patterned top, sleeveless. She's standing in front of a leafy green shrub.

Jeanette Stampone grew up in England in a spooky 300-year-old house surrounded by stories of local legends, ghosts, fairies, and pixies. Jeanette now calls Western Australia home. She is the author of two picture books and the Junior Fiction Ghost Detectives series, illustrated by Jasmine Berry. Today we’re chatting to Jeanette about book one in the series: Terry Fide and the Bakery Ghost.

From the publisher:

Nine-year-old Terry Fide dreams of being the next great ghost detective like his dad. But there’s one problem: Terry is terrified of anything remotely scary (except his ghost dog, Bones). When his dad is called to work in Sydney, Terry is left to deal with a spook causing havoc at the bakery. 

How did you come to write about a ghost haunting a bakery?

I was born in England and lived in a three-hundred-year-old house. It was always very spooky and I spent quite a lot of time hiding under my covers! So, that’s where the ghost part came from. As for the bakery, well my parents owned a bakery, and when I turned 15, I worked there, too. So, I pretty much grew up in a bakery environment, and was always spoiled with yummy treats. When I was trying to think of an idea for the book, I decided it would be fun to combine these two elements and create a bakery ghost.

Terry Fide is a punny name for your main character and his name also tells us about his personality! Have you ever found yourself having to do something that you found terrifying?

I did a solo parachute jump! If that’s not terrifying enough, my walkie-talkie failed so I couldn’t hear the instructors as they tried to guide me down. Thankfully, I managed to get myself down safely. I have to say, it was an amazing experience.

What’s your go-to order when you visit a bakery?

Can I only choose one? I don’t think that’s possible, so I am picking a few! For sweets, I love carrot cake and caramel slice. For savoury, I won’t say no to a pasty or spinach & ricotta roll. Yum! 

Do you have a tip for young writers who want to write their own novels?

Take lots of time to get to know your characters. Imagine you are interviewing them and ask about their lives, what they do for fun, their likes and dislikes. Imagine how they would respond to you. Would they roll their eyes? Would they get distracted? Would they speak fast or slow? Doing this will really help you to understand them and build a strong character. And from there, you can start to figure out story ideas. You’ll be surprised how many ideas start flowing after you’ve ‘interviewed’ your character!

Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next?

I am always working on picture book ideas. I also love to draw so I am hoping to become an author-illustrator one day. So, lots of doodling and playing on my favourite drawing app, Procreate. 

Terry Fide and the Bakery Ghost is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.

AWESOME EXTRAS:

If you live in Western Australia, you can book a private 10-minute story time experience with Jeanette on the Story Wheel as part of the Totally Lit Festival in Fremantle! (October 10, 2025) Info and bookings via the Totally Lit website.

Visit Jeanette Stampone’s website for more about the author and her books.

Visit Jasmine Berry’s website for more about the illustrator and her work.

The cover of a junior fiction novel, Ghost Detectives: Terry Fide and the Bakery Ghost by Jeanette Stampone, illustrated by Jasmine Berry.
Posted in authors, interviews

Zana Fraillon on Song of a Thousand Seas

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

Zana Fraillon
The cover of Song of a Thousand Seas by Zana Fraillon, cover and internal illustrations by Aviva Reed.

Zana Fraillon is an award-winning author of books for children and young adults. Her work has been published in over 15 countries and is in development for stage and screen. Today we’re chatting to Zana about Song of a Thousand Seas, her latest verse novel, with illustrations by Aviva Reed.

The publisher provided Alphabet Soup with a reading copy of this tile.

From the publisher:

Houdini the octopus lives in an aquarium, but she misses her home in the wild Sea. She doesn’t like the visitors who bang on her tank. Or the way she can’t feel the sun on her skin or the wind rippling the water. Then one day she meets someone who is different to the other visitors. The singing of the Sea is growing stronger and harder to resist. Can Houdini make Juno understand what she needs before it’s too late?

Your verse novel is written from the point of view of an octopus. How did you approach finding Houdini’s voice?

This novel was a bit different to the way I usually work. Usually, the character’s voice is the first thing that comes to me, but this time around it was the opposite. I actually had a dream that I was an octopus. I was looking out through octopus eyes at the sun filtering in through the water, and tasting things with my skin – it was all very surreal – but this dream stayed with me when I woke and kept nudging at me during the day. I knew this was a story I wanted to write, but the dream had been utterly silent and peaceful, and I felt by giving voice to the character I was somehow destroying that peace. I looked at a lot of ways to get around this – I tried very hard to sell this as a graphic novel, but that wasn’t something my publishers were keen to explore. So I was a bit stuck!

When I am stuck on something, I know the best thing to do is to come at it from a different angle. So instead of trying to actively find and force the voice, I threw myself into research. This led me to approaching Sea Life aquarium in Sydney, who were wonderfully supportive and invited me to come meet their resident octopus – Houdini. As soon as I met her, the voice of my octopus came to me as clear as day. I find that the more I know about a character, the stronger their voice is in my head. I suspect the initial silence was due to me not knowing anything about octopuses. Research is definitely a writer’s best friend.

How do you decide whether to write a story as a prose novel or as a verse novel?

I don’t really decide – the story decides for me! When I get a sense of the character, their way of talking and expressing their world and their place within their world becomes evident pretty quickly. For some, especially characters who are not people, this comes through as verse. There is also something about the musicality and rhythm of the more-than-human world that I want to try and capture in my words, and this seems to work best through verse.

I also just really love writing verse novels, so if a character lends itself to this style I am all for it! I love how playful you can be with the words in a verse novel, and the way they are set on the page. I love that the words themselves can be saying one thing, while the way they are written on the page can be saying something else. For example, if you have a character saying how brave they are, but those words are tiny and small and set off over in the corner, the reader understands that the narrator isn’t that brave at all. I also really love how verse novels leave space for the reader’s imagination – the breaks between verses is like a breathing space that allows images and ideas and connections to grow.

Could you share a favourite octopus fact?

Octopuses are amazing creatures – so alien and monstrous and also so very, very human. They are curious and funny! Octopuses have been known to target certain people and squirt those people with water any time they come past. To me, this is deliberately humorous behaviour! I think my favourite fact is that octopuses watch other animals to see what those animals are scared of, so that the octopus can then mimic that in order to protect itself. It shows such self-awareness and planning and thought. It is also just an excellent superpower.

Do you have a tip for young writers who would like to write a story from the point of view of an animal?

Pay attention to the animal – as in, watch the animal, notice everything you can about what they do and how they do it and try to figure out why they behave in that way. Put yourself in their position as much as is possible and safe. For example, when I was writing The Way of Dog I took my dogs for a walk and when they stopped to sniff a tree, I would stop and sniff that tree. I curled up in their bed, and under the table. It is amazing how different the world looks from just this small change of perspective. For Song of a Thousand Seas I looked out at the world through the glass of a tank. I went swimming and looked up at the lights through the water and listened to how sound changes. Also – use your research! Find out as much as you can about the animal and that will give you hints about how the world seems to them. For example, octopuses taste with their suckers – imagine tasting with your hands and feet!

The cover of The Way of Dog by Zana Fraillon

Could you tell us a little about what you’re working on now?

I have two picture books which are coming out in the next year or so – I really love writing picture books and collaborating with an artist on a project that I could never do on my own. I love how the illustrations can tell a whole other part to the story, and how the story couldn’t live without both parts. My ideal writing life would be one where I spent all my time collaborating with other creatives. I haven’t worked out how to do this on a large scale yet, but I’m sure there is a way!

A friend of mine also suggested I should make a verse novel trilogy – having written one from the point of view of a land animal, and one from the point of view of a sea animal, it makes sense to write one from the point of view of a sky animal … Now I can’t get this idea out of my head. We’ll see … (but if anyone has any sky animal recommendations, please let me know!)

Song of a Thousand Seas is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.

AWESOME EXTRAS

Zana Fraillon talking about Song of a Thousand Seas [YouTube]

Take a look inside the book!

Download the Teachers’ Notes

Visit Zana Fraillon’s website for more about the author and her books

The cover of Song of a Thousand Seas by Zana Fraillon, cover and internal illustrations by Aviva Reed.
Posted in authors, interviews

Kristy Nita Brown on The Hole Truth

Posted on by Alphabet Soup
The Hole Truth by Kristy Nita Brown, illustrated by Alison Mutton
Headshot of Kristy Nita Brown

Kristy Nita Brown is a Western Australian author writing junior fiction books and delivering creative writing, independent publishing and film making workshops at libraries and schools. Today we’re pleased to be chatting to Kristy about the second book in her Mavey and Beth’s Double Act series: The Hole Truth, illustrated by Alison Mutton.

The author provided Alphabet Soup with a reading copy of The Hole Truth.

Almost everyone in Year Three is rocking earrings. Shiny gold stars, diamond studs, dangly rainbows, buzzy bees. Everyone except Mavey, that is. With her twin sister Beth and her best friend Woody by her side, Mavey’s facing a big decision. Fit in? Stand out? Studs or no studs? Can Mavey figure it out before the whole school finds out the hole truth?

This is Book 2 in your junior fiction series. Have you planned out the series in advance or do you just focus on the book you’re currently working on?

When I first came up with the idea for Mavey and Beth, I only had one book in mind. But once I finished it, I realised it could work as a series, with the girls taking on a new challenge in each school year up to Year 4. I won’t go past Year 4, as this would push the series into middle-grade territory, and these are chapter books for early readers.

A fan recently asked me why the story is always told from Mavey’s point of view and not split with Beth over the books, since they’re twins. Mavey is shy, introverted, and thoughtful. I feel these kinds of characters are underrepresented in junior fiction. Beth is more outgoing and dramatic, the kind of character who’s already well represented. For me, Mavey is the heart of the story. She’s trying to figure out her place in the world and make sense of things other kids seem to grasp more easily, and that’s the perspective I want to explore.

Beth has her ears pierced, but her sister Mavey is nervous about getting her ears pierced. Do you have your ears pierced? How old were you when you made the decision?

The Hole Truth is inspired by my daughter and the pressure she felt from her peers in Year 3 to get her ears pierced. It’s a real issue for primary school kids and isn’t just girls, kids of all genders are getting piercings these days.

I do have my ears pierced, but I don’t remember when or how it happened. I also have my nose pierced. I did it while writing The Hole Truth to learn more about the process. The piercer explained everything to me including the process and the importance of consent. The person getting pierced is always in control, no matter their age, and can say “no” or “stop” at any time. Some of the stories of kids she’d pierced even made their way into the book!

What’s your best tip for someone who feels anxious about the pressure to do something they’re unsure about?

My best tip is to remember that it’s okay to take your time and say “no” if something doesn’t feel right. You don’t have to give in to pressure just to fit in or please others. It’s important to listen to your own feelings and boundaries. Sometimes talking it through with someone you trust, whether that’s a parent, teacher, or friend, can really help you figure out what’s best for you. And remember, you’re always in control of your choices, just like I learned from the piercer. Your choices are important, because they are yours.

Spelling homework gets a mention in the book – is spelling one of your superpowers or superchallenges?

Spelling is definitely not one of my superpowers, and I love telling kids this! So many young writers struggle with spelling, and I want them to know it doesn’t have to hold them back. Being an author doesn’t mean you have to be a perfect speller. We have editors who help fix punctuation, grammar, and spelling. Once kids realise this, they can let go of the fear and just focus on the story they want to tell. I even tell them I use voice-to-text when writing sometimes. You don’t even need a pen – just an idea! I’m living proof that you don’t have to be a perfect speller to be a storyteller. If you’ve got a good idea, there’s always a way to get it down on paper.

What’s next for Mavey and Beth?

Will there be a third Mavey and Beth book? In my mind, yes … I think there will be! It will be set in Year 4, and I’m thinking it might be about skateboarding … but I’m open to suggestions. If anyone has ideas for the next book, I’d love to hear them. Feel free to email me! That said, my writing time is limited because I also run the Book Builders Challenge in schools, which takes up a lot of my year. So, the plan is for a third book, but I’ll see how it all fits together!

The Hole Story is out now! See the list of stockists at the author’s website.

AWESOME EXTRAS:

See our interview from 2023 where Kristy talks about Book 1 in the series

Visit Kristy Nita Brown’s website for more about her and her books

Visit the illustrator’s website, for more about Alison Mutton and her work

Posted in authors, illustrator, interviews

Kylie Howarth on Kev and Trev: Snot Scary Jungle Stories

Posted on by Alphabet Soup
The cover of Kev and Trev Book 2 by Kylie Howarth
Kylie Howarth with a watery background

Kylie Howarth is an award-winning, internationally published children’s author-illustrator from Western Australia. Kylie has swum with whale sharks, manta rays and humpback whales in Ningaloo, piranha and pink dolphins in the Amazon, braved scuba diving with lionfish in Egypt, marine iguanas and hammerhead sharks in the Galapagos Islands and encountered great white sharks in South Africa. She can also confirm that ice-cream bean trees are real and not fiction! (And the fruit does taste just like vanilla ice-cream.) Today Kylie is visiting to talk about her latest book, the second in her graphic novel series, Kev and Trev: Snot Scary Jungle Stories!

The publisher provided Alphabet Soup with a reader copy of Snot Scary Jungle Stories.

From the publisher:

Join Kev and Trev’s epic jungle adventure – full of roarsome new friends and frightfully fun times! Outswing a scary jaguar, steer clear of hairy spiders, poison frogs and cheeky monkeys, and dance like your life depends on it, all the while searching for mysterious pugorillas … and Kev’s missing shorts! Jump on board Kev and Trev’s popcorn powered houseboat and sail to the jungle for their most tree-mendous journey yet.

How long does it take you to create a Kev and Trev book?

The first book took three to four years! Developing a new concept and new characters can take a lot of time, but it’s also my favourite part of the process. At the same time, I was studying how graphic novels work as I had not made one before. Now that I’ve finished Book One and know the main characters well, each new book will become faster to make. I’ll be creating one Kev and Trev book every year.

Book 2 (like Book 1) is laugh-out-loud funny and full of puns. Do you brainstorm a bunch of themed jokes before you start writing the plot? Or do you find the jokes pop up as you get into the story?

Ha ha, thanks! I love humour in books and my family thrives on jokes and banter too. So, the funny bits just pop up naturally once I start writing the dialogue. I’ll then read my rough draft to my kids, who’ll suggest more jokes (usually funnier than mine) and I’ll add those in too.

Which of the characters is your favourite to draw? (We promise not to tell the others.)

My Happy is the easiest to draw and I kind of wish I’d made the other characters just as simple. Then perhaps I could make two graphic novels in a year instead of one! Mr Happy is also my favourite as I draw him with school kids at my author visits. I love seeing him drawn in all the different kids’ styles and enjoy reading the funny speech bubbles they write for him.

Graphic novels and comics feature a lot of speech bubbles. Do you draw the speech bubbles first and then fill in the text? Or put the text in first and then draw the speech bubble around it?

It is always easier to write or type the text first and then draw the bubble around it. That way you ensure the text fits nicely inside and won’t get too squishy. I am passionate about creating books that are inclusive of struggling readers, so making sure the text is clear and easy to read is important.

A spread from Kev and Trev Book 2: Snot Scary Jungle Stories by Kylie Howarth.
Excerpt from Snot Scary Jungle Stories by Kylie Howarth

Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next?

I’m excited to be working on Kev and Trev Book 3!!! I’ve plotted a draft outline with another unexpected twist (like Book 2). I am now starting to plan each page by roughing out loose sketches. I still have a long way to go yet, though. The next steps after that will be to write and refine all the dialogue and short stories then research and design the new characters. The research stage will be fun as Kev and Trev are off to the snow in Book 3 and so am I! There will be some very COOL snow animal characters.

One last thing, thank you to all the kids who’ve read Kev and Trev! You are EPIC!!

Kev and Trev: Snot Scary Jungle Stories is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.

AWESOME EXTRAS:

Read an interview with Kylie Howarth about Book 1 in the series

Kylie’s blog post for teachers on how to encourage kids to create graphic novels

Visit Kylie Howarth’s website for more about her and her books

The cover of Kev and Trev Book 2 by Kylie Howarth
Posted in authors, interviews

HM Waugh on The Surface Trials

Posted on by Alphabet Soup
The cover of The Surface Trials by HM Waugh
HM Waugh cuddling a small black 'oodle' dog

Teams of kids on an alien planet competing to get into Starquest Academy, three clues and only three days to find their way to the finish line. Today we’re chatting with HM Waugh about her latest book: The Surface Trials. HM Waugh is a children’s author, educator and environmental scientist with a long-term love of wild places and outdoor adventures. She has handled dragons for a job, and dreams of one day blasting into space. Her books mix humour, danger and friendship with a dash of science and imagination.

From the publisher:

An epic page-turner full of twists you won’t see coming, set on an alien planet where, under the watch of a galaxy-wide TV audience, Ammy Antares and her fellow competitors must complete a challenging quest to gain entry into an elite interplanetary academy. Welcome to the Surface Trials.

In your novel, squads are groups of children competing and the groupings are assigned. If you were in The Surface Trials, what talent/knowledge/skills would you bring to your squad?

I love the idea of a squad, because when I’m in an escape room there’s no way I’m getting out without other people’s ideas and points of view.

I think I’d offer my squad some halfway decent analysis of clues to try and break codes – I love pulling things apart searching for hints and patterns … Sometimes I’m even successful! I have a vast array of potentially unhelpful facts about science, gardening, and my favourite fantasy and sci-fi books. I can read maps and building plans like a pro, thanks to an early love of architecture and an ongoing commitment to epic fantasy novels. And I think I’d be pretty good at navigation and survival. I ought to be, since I teach that stuff as part of my job. Plus, every time I’ve become lost in the wilderness, I’ve made it out again!

I am also very good at eating chocolate …

The squads face some pretty hairy scenarios. How do you go about writing a scary scene for your characters? How do you let go of those ideas at night so you can sleep?

Hairy, huh? I think I know exactly what scene you’re referencing there! Scary scenes are so much fun to write! They’re important for making a story exciting, and they give my characters a chance to work out how awesome they are – which is kind of the purpose of a story, I think. For me, making words on a page capture a reader is the result of lots of little things added together.

First, I need scary subject matter. I like to get inspired by freaky science, weird facts, mind-blowing history and mouldering industrial ruins. I make sure the stakes are high – failure has to mean something bad, so the reader is on the edge of their seat. To have this work, I need to connect the reader to the characters before I launch into a big scary scene. I want the reader to see the characters as real people, people they care about. People they don’t want eaten alive by a newly-hatched alien.

Next I need rising tension – that ever-increasing sense of impending doom. This is what keeps a reader hooked to the page. I keep raising the tension throughout my books, but every big scene is a tension peak. Increasing tension in a scary scene is about shorter, sharper sentences. It’s about concentrating on what the characters would be noticing in that moment – they’re not going to be giving a monologue on the colour of the sunset if they’re being chased by a ravenous monster. They’ll be more concerned about where their friends are, where they can hide, and how hot the monster’s breath is on the backs of their legs. I also often add in little elements of humour, right smack bang in the middle of the scariness. Honestly, I don’t want my readers terrified! Plus, that dash of a laugh makes the rest of the scene seem even scarier.

Finally, to make it feel real I inject real emotions. I may not have been in any of the exact situations I put my characters in, but I think of the times I’ve been terrified and I try to write those emotions onto the page.

How do I sleep at night afterwards? Blissfully. Once a scene is written down, my mind knows it doesn’t have to keep thinking about it. It’s time to start dreaming about what my characters might face next! But if I’m partway through writing a scary scene? Yeah, that can sometimes mean a bit of a sleepless night, but that also gives me lots of great ideas about what could happen when I continue writing the next day.

The storytelling offers multiple points of view in this book; we hear from several of the squad members. Why did you decide to tell the story this way, rather than choosing to tell the story through the eyes of one character only?

Choosing points of view (POVs) is always difficult. Two of my main characters, Deneb and Ammy, are both drafted into the same squad but they’re very different people. So I felt we needed to hear from both of them. For instance, how Ammy sees herself is not always how others perceive her, and I wanted some of that vulnerability and self-doubt to show. Deneb’s POV provides this.

And, of course, I have a disguised character. Nobody in the Surface Trials knows which contestant is actually Rian Amalthea, the uber-famous and mega-rich heir to two massive space Dynasties. He could literally be anyone. I didn’t even know at first! Having Rian’s POV deepens that mystery. Where is he? Which squad is he in? Who could he be?

Do you have a tip for young writers who would like to write their own page-turner?

First off, rising tension is your friend. It works (like I’ve talked about already) with scary scenes. It also works across an entire story. Rising tension keeps the reader hooked. So … keep ratcheting it up. The stakes need to keep getting higher, the mystery more mysterious, the dangers more dangerous. But beware! Too much continuously rising tension weirdly means it stops being tense. The reader gets used to it, and it loses its impact. To avoid this, I drop the tension slightly after each peak scene so the reader can sigh in relief, before I crank it back up and they realise things are actually worse than ever! <evil laughter>

Secondly, experiment with ending your chapters on mini-cliffhangers. I like to picture all the kids out there (my own included) who have been told they can read to the end of the chapter and then it’s lights out. My aim is to have them still reading many chapters later because they just have to know what happens next. I hope they’re so deep in the book they don’t even realise they’ve read past the chapter end. If this is you, feel free to tell your responsible adult that it’s not your fault, the author (me!) did it on purpose 😊.

Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next?

I have three things I’m working on at the moment, and I’m in love with each of them for very different reasons. None are contracted to be published. Yet!

The Surface Trials is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.

AWESOME EXTRAS

Read sample pages inside the book!

Download the Teachers’ Notes (see button under the book cover)

Visit HM Waugh’s website for more about her and her books

The cover of The Surface Trials by HM Waugh
Posted in authors, interviews

Julia Lawrinson on Trapped!

Posted on by Alphabet Soup
The cover of a verse novel for children: Trapped! by Julia Lawrinson
A photo of author Julia Lawrinson

A sudden rain deluge, a flooded gold mine, and a father trapped underground. Today we’re excited to be talking to Julia Lawrinson about her latest book: Trapped! The Entombed Miner of Bonnie Vale. Julia is an award-winning author of more than a dozen books for children and young adults. Her books are often about friendship, family … and the occasional Jack Russell. Trapped! is her first verse novel.

The publisher provided Alphabet Soup with a reading copy of Trapped!

From the publisher:

In 1907, the mining town of Bonnie Vale experiences a sudden deluge of rain that floods a gold mine while miners are still at work down the shaft.

Joe’s dad is one of them. And it soon becomes clear that he’s the only one who hasn’t made it back out yet. Where is he? Why didn’t he escape with the others? And more importantly, how will they rescue him?

You’ve written many novels for children and teenagers. Can you talk a bit about the experience of writing a verse novel for the first time?

I started off writing the story of Trapped! in regular prose. I went between the main character of Joe and the rescue of his father from the mine. As the story went on, I got bogged down in the details of the rescue – partly because it was all so interesting. So then I tried to work out what the main story was: what was essential, rather than just fascinating. Before I knew it, I had all these short sentences.

It was different to writing prose because I read a lot of it aloud as I wrote, to make sure it sounded like a song or a poem.

How did you first come to hear of the entombed miner?

I was in Coolgardie for Children’s Book Week, and I went into the Coolgardie Museum. It had a whole room dedicated to the story, written out on these long panels. Everyone who was there was captivated by the story, moving from panel to panel, learning about this Italian miner who was trapped underground for nine days.

Then I read on one panel that the miner had five children, and the oldest was 12. My imagination was sparked, and then I found out everything I could about the event, which made headlines around the world.

The tale is inspired by a true story from 1907. How/where did you find information for the story?

I used a combination of newspaper articles, a brilliant and very detailed book called The Entombed Miner by Tom Austen, and the State Library Western Australian collection, where I got accounts of what school life was like in 1907. I also bought The Temple Reader, which was a book used in schools with short stories, poems, and excerpts from ancient history texts and the Bible. I love doing research – it’s my favourite part of writing!

Modesto (also known as Charlie) is trapped underground for days on end, in the dark. If you were trapped underground, what do you think you would do to keep yourself calm and to pass the long hours on your own?

I would sing every song I could remember and talk to my imaginary friends.

Do you have a tip for young writers who would like to write stories based on true events?

First, find a strong story – there are so many out there! Then find a strong character and put them in the middle of the action. Once you have those two things, you’ll be able to work out what historical detail you need to flesh out your story.

Trapped! is out now. Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.

The cover of a verse novel for children: Trapped! by Julia Lawrinson

AWESOME EXTRAS:

Take a look inside the book

Download the Teachers’ Notes for Trapped!

Visit Julia Lawrinson’s website for more about her and her books

Posted in authors, interviews

Rachel Jackson on Escape from Marigold Manor

Posted on by Alphabet Soup
The cover of a children's book: Escape from Marigold Manor by Rachel Jackson.
A head and shoulders photo of Rachel Jackson.

Rachel Jackson draws on her extensive experience as an intelligence specialist to create twisty branching plotlines. She’s also a sucker for good puzzles and bad jokes – subject matter that she shares generously with her readers in the Solve It Your Way series published by Riveted Press. Today we’re chatting to Rachel about her latest book in the series: Escape from Marigold Manor.

The publisher provided a review copy of Escape From Marigold Manor.

From the publisher:

You are the greatest detective in the land and you’re facing your biggest mystery yet. It turns out there is more than one way to leave Marigold Manor … You’ll find thirty-two unique endings in Escape from Marigold Manor. Each mystery requires you to complete a series of interviews and brainteasers in order to identify the culprit. The challenges include puzzles that you must crack in order to unlock safes, read secret messages and locate hidden clues. The casefiles at the back of the book will help you keep track of which cases you’ve sold, and which cases still await you in the mansion. Can you solve them all?

Escape from Marigold Manor has 32 mysteries in one book, with the reader’s choices affecting the path each mystery takes. As the writer, is it tricky to keep track of all those story paths?

I always joke that my brain is all over the place, and the Solve It Your Way books are just a reflection of my brain! Truth is, when I’m writing an interactive fiction like this, I use a spreadsheet to create a visual chart of the book’s structure. If you’ve ever done mind-mapping – with the ideas in little bubbles and lines branching out from there to more idea bubbles – it’s a lot like that.

The tricky part can be finding the right puzzle for a specific part of the story. This is particularly true in the case of Escape from Marigold Manor – where there are puzzles inside of puzzles as you navigate crime scenes and suspects.

When you read interactive stories like these, are you the kind of reader who picks a path and forges on – or do you keep a finger bookmarking the various pathways so you can try a different path if you don’t like the outcome of your first choice?

Oh, finger bookmarking – definitely! And I would run out of fingers. In fact, this is the exact reason that Escape from Marigold Manor has a checklist at the back with page numbers so you can reinsert yourself into the story at key junctions, without having to start all over again. Now, fingers are free for tearing out hair, biting fingernails or otherwise immersing yourself in the dastardly world of Marigold Manor.

In real life you have experience solving mysteries, and in Escape from Marigold Manor, the reader is the detective. When there’s a mystery to be solved, what makes a great detective?

Firstly, kindness. Because the whole point of trying to solve the mystery is that you want to help someone – the victim, their family, the community and even the offender.

Once you’re knee deep in clues and suspects you need to have enough attention to detail to gather all the information surrounding the mystery, but then you need to be able to decide which information is actually useful. If you find yourself faced with a mystery (say, your pencil is gone), start by asking small questions that you can answer (such as – when did you see it last? Two days ago, on your bookshelf!). This will lead you to bigger questions that you can’t answer – yet! (Who had access to my bookshelf in the last two days?). That knowledge gap is where you need to focus your investigation. You might want to interview suspects (your little brother?) to identify motive (he was looking for a pencil last week!) and opportunity (but he was camping with Dad the whole time, so he couldn’t have taken the pencil). Keep asking questions and chasing up new leads. Even the ones that don’t seem important at first (mum did the shopping yesterday), might turn out to be the key to solving the mystery! (Mum borrowed your pencil to write the shopping list.)

Do you have a tip for young writers who want to write a mystery story of their own?

Do it! Honestly, it’s so much fun. The key to a good mystery, in my opinion, is that more than one character should have good reason to have committed the crime. So, make your characters really interesting, with shades of good and bad. That way, whoever your villain turns out to be, it will make sense to the reader!

Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next? 

The most wonderful thing about the Solve It Your Way Series is that I get to build these puzzle-filled interactive storylines in a brand new setting each time. First was a swashbuckling pirate adventure in Escape from Cuttlefish Cove, then came the detective who-dunnit in Escape from Marigold Manor. Up next – dragons! Oodles of dragons for the reader to collect and interact with. Sleep with one eye open – Escape from Firestone Fortress is coming!

Escape from Marigold Manor is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.

The cover of a children's book: Escape from Marigold Manor by Rachel Jackson.
Posted in authors, interviews

Kitty Black on Rise of the Witch

Posted on by Alphabet Soup
The cover of a children's fantasy novel: Rise of the Witch by Kitty Black.
A head and shoulders photo of Kitty Black.

Funny, scary, a dash of magic – Rise of the Witch is the first book in the new Everglade series by Kitty Black, with illustrations by Rebecca Crane. Kitty is already the author of numerous picture books and today we’re chatting about the creation of her first novel.

The publisher provided Alphabet Soup with a reading copy of Rise of the Witch.

From the publisher:

Everglade loves to hate witches. And as the daughter of the last witch, Wren Westerly is the most hated person in town. She can only imagine what would happen if the townspeople found out she can actually see magic … even if she has no idea how to use it.

Rise of the Witch is funny, and a bit scary in parts, with a large dash of magic. Often authors say they set out to write the sort of book they always wanted to read when they were growing up, what were your go-to books as a young reader?

Ha! This was exactly my motivation! My favourite book as a young child was The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton, and once I was older, I was basically obsessed with all of Terry Pratchett’s books. I also remember being thrillingly frightened by Emily Rodda’s Rowan of Rin and learning sections off by heart. Fantasy/Adventure has always been my favourite genre, and if it’s funny or a little bit scary (or both!) then so much the better.

What makes the perfect villain?

I love a villain with a backstory. I think there has to be some scariness initially, but then as you get to know the character you learn more about their motivations. The perfect villain might be one where their behaviour becomes the tiniest bit understandable – but, of course, they take it to a terrifying extreme. I also love a hidden villain (spoilers!).

This is book one of a series. Did you plot out the entire series before you began writing book 1? Or will you tackle each book as you get to it?

I had no idea what I was doing when I started writing Book 1. I was 50,000 words into the first book when I realised that there was no way that everything I wanted to happen was going to happen in a single book. Thus, a series was born! I know the major plot points for each book, but I like to keep some room for creativity and surprises (for both myself, and the reader!).

Do you have a tip for young writers who would like to write stories set in a magical world?

Magical worlds are so much fun! I have two tips. The first is to chuck whatever you love into your magical world, and that way you’ll love your story. I have a soft spot for big, beautiful trees, and I’ve always wanted to be able to talk to animals, so both of those feature in Everglade. My second tip is to make sure that whatever magic you use in your world has a cost associated with it – whether that’s physical, emotional, or in unforeseen consequences.

Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next?

At the moment I’m deep into working on the second Everglade book, and I cannot wait for everyone to read it. I can’t say more, or I’ll give away all my secrets!

Rise of the Witch is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.

EXTRAS

Visit the Kitty Black’s website for more about her and her books.

Visit Rebecca Crane’s website for more about her and her art.

The cover of a children's fantasy novel: Rise of the Witch by Kitty Black.
Posted in authors, illustrator, interviews

Renée Treml on The Thylacine and the Time Machine

Posted on by Alphabet Soup
A children's book: The Thylacine and the Time Machine by Renée Treml.
René Treml standing in an art studio holding a book for children.

Renée Treml is an award-winning writer and illustrator based in Fremantle, WA. She has written and illustrated several picture books including the award-winning Once I Heard a Little Wombat, and Wombat Big, Puggle Small, which was read on ABC’s Play School. Renée is also the creator of the hilarious graphic novels featuring Sherlock Bones and Ollie and Bea. Today we’re thrilled to be chatting with Renée about her latest graphic novel: The Thylacine and the Time Machine.

From the publisher:

Buckle up! The time-machine awaits! Join twelve-year-old Violet, her dog Tassie and her new friend Thyla – the ghost of the last Tasmanian tiger – on a wild ride to learn all about the legendary, elusive and extinct thylacines. Packed full of fascinating facts about the terrible past and (potentially) exciting future of the Tassie tiger.

What brought you to create a graphic novel about the de-extinction of the thylacine?

I am fascinated by the idea that scientists can bring an animal that no longer exists back to life. It’s like science-fiction except in real life!

Do you have a favourite thylacine fact?

Is it okay if I include a few? Thylacines are fascinating (and very misunderstood) creatures.

Until about 4,000 years ago, thylacines roamed all of Australia … so calling them a ‘Tasmanian tiger’ is a bit limiting. Plus, they are a marsupial, and we humans are more closely related to tigers than thylacines are.

European colonists on Tasmania believed the thylacines were killing their sheep, so they hunted the thylacine to extinction. It turns out bad farming practices, wild dogs, and other humans (thieves!) were to blame. Now we know that thylacines hunted alone and were not big or strong enough to take down an adult sheep.

How do you approach the first draft of a graphic novel? (Do you write the text as prose or a playscript?)

For this graphic novel, I first wrote a summary of what would happen in each chapter, then I drafted the story as a script. My next step was to create the sketches that would accompany the words.

What is the editing process like for a graphic novel? Is the artwork edited as well as the text?

For a graphic novel, we edit both the text and the artwork – and the process is very intertwined (and sometimes messy!) because the words influence the pictures, and the pictures influence the words. We edited The Thylacine and the Time Machine at several stages. Our goal was to catch any major problems in the scripting or sketching stages because that’s when it’s easiest to make changes. We saved the nit-picky grammar and punctuation edits until the very end because I often change and edit the text while I’m drawing.

Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next?

I am working on my first collaborative graphic novel mystery series with author Nova Weetman titled Mystery Beach. (Aside note: it is so much fun to co-write with another person!) We were inspired by our beloved childhood series Trixie Belden, Girl Detective, and our stories are set in current-day Australia. The first book will be out in 2026.

The Thylacine and the Time Machine is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.

AWESOME EXTRAS

Take a sneak peek inside the book

Download the Teachers’ Notes from the publisher’s site (look for the grey button)

Visit Renée Treml’s website for more about her and her books

A children's book: The Thylacine and the Time Machine by Renée Treml.