It’s Friday! And that means it’s time for Pass the Book Baton. Every week Alphabet Soup features a book creator who will answer one question before throwing a new question to the next Friday visitor. (It’s kind of like a book relay in slow motion.)
Today the book baton is passed to Jen Banyard!
Jen Banyard lives in Western Australia and writes fun adventure stories, including the Riddle Gully series. Her books have been serialised in the West Australian newspaper.
You might recognise some of these books:
Last week Jackie French asked:
Why do you write?
Jen Banyard answers:
You could say there are three main reasons I write. One is that when I write I feel I’m having the kind of experience I’m giving my characters. If I’m writing a sad part, I feel sad, a scary part, scared, or a funny part, happy. So when I sit down to write I’m giving myself lots of feelings and ‘experiences’ I wouldn’t otherwise be having that day.
Also, when you write stories you start looking more closely at the things going on around you—I mean really looking. Otherwise your stories miss the little details that bring them alive. Have you ever seen one of those nature films where everything is magnified and slowed down? Well, that’s what writing is like—it turns you into a giant magnifying glass and everything you see is more vivid and significant. (When I’m mid-sentence, though, a bird could poop on my head and I wouldn’t notice!)
Lastly, there’s the big buzz you get from creating something, be it building a raft or baking muffins. You’re in control of the story and you get to say how it turns out. You have all these parts—an idea, some images in your head—and gradually you file them down and shuffle and shape them into something people want to read. It’s awesome!
Read more about Jen Banyard and her books at her website: www.jenbanyard.com
and …
Read an earlier Alphabet Soup interview with Jen Banyard (from 2012!).
And now Jen passes the book baton to our last Friday visitor — Leila Rudge. Leila Rudge is a writer and illustrator. Her books feature artwork in pencil, paint and collage.
Jen asks:
In your books you’ve painted ducks, bears, pigeons, dogs and skunks. If you could take all the best bits from the animal characters you’ve created, what would your animal look like?
(While you’re waiting for Leila’s interview you can catch up on all the interviews in the Pass the Book Baton series so far!)
And now Jackie passes the book baton to the next Friday visitor — Jen Banyard. Jen Banyard is the author of adventure stories, including the Riddle Gully series.
Later, we saw the big bird cages. The birds were very very colourful and amazing, such as the flamingos. Other birds were blue, red or yellow. Next we saw parrots. There were ten cages. The parrots were green, white, red, blue and yellow. My sister’s favourite parrot is the eclectus parrot.
It’s Friday! And that means it’s time for 
And now Sherryl passes the book baton to the next Friday visitor — Jackie French. Jackie French was the 2014-2015 Australian Children’s Laureate, and has had more than 200 books published.
Then it stopped and put her down. Then it did the same again, but this time it didn’t carry Ellie away. Instead, it blew the ivy on the wall, and under the ivy, Ellie saw a door.
And now Yasmin passes the book baton to the next Friday visitor — Sherryl Clark. Sherryl writes picture books, junior fiction, novels, verse novels, and books for young adults.
And now Aśka passes the book baton to the next Friday visitor — Yasmin Hamid. Yasmin grew up in East Africa and now lives in Western Australia. Her book — Swimming on the Lawn — was published in 2017.
And now Sian passes the book baton to the next Friday visitor — Aśka. Aśka is a children’s book illustrator and a science communicator, and has been involved in 
alphabetsoup.net.au 