Jennifer, tell us a little bit about you?

I’m passionate about words and what they can achieve, they reveal, they hide, they give happiness, they cause grief etc… Add visuals and it is mindblowing!

Tells us why you need to write?

At an early age I was introduced to the marvelous inventive inanity of Lewis Carroll and my passion has been writing and art ever since! Having said that, like most writers and many artists, I have worked full time most of my life at other things. The range is broad – circus hand/usher to assessment package writer and book reviewer for the Education Department, to tutor/editor working with international postgraduates and focus editor for an online magazine.
Writing is a passion, an escape, a must do, a way of entertaining myself and my children and, hopefully, others.

How long have you been writing?

Ever since I could hold a pencil! I drew my stories in pictures first, then I wrote plays, poetry followed and finally stories…. I was first published as a ‘serious’ poet in my school days. I have been fortunate to have my work selected for literary journals of the stature of Quadrant, Social Alternatives and Antipodes [the Journal of Australian and American Literature] and many others. Writing for children has been a venture that only started in the 1990s. I have 9 books out there with commercial publishers to date and more coming. Writing and illustrating are things you that are part of your life rather than ‘work’ although, of course, ‘work’ is involved, especially in the mechanics of the whole deal. I plan to get an agent to help with that side of things. I don’t think writers and illustrators necessarily are the best at that – they are best at their art and ideally need others to partner with them to achieve the rest – publication, film rights etc etc, I’ve had to do the lot myself so far. GOOD EXPERIENCE! It makes me appreciate the more what an agent or publicist does!

What is the first children’s book that you remember?

Lewis Carroll’s crazy wonderful rhymes are the first ‘children’s stories’ I remember. My father and grandfather used to recite them to me ad nauseum [thank goodness!].

The first book I actually got my little hands on was a very, very old encyclopaedia called “People and Places” which wrote about amazing cultures now disappeared and amazing wild places now logged or covered in office blocks.

Who are some of your favourite illustrators?

So many……the PreRaphaelites, Dore, Tenielle, Dulac, Rackham, Klimt, Beardsley, Ohara Koson, Rockwell, Heath Robinson, Nielsen, Atwell, May Gibbs, Norman Lindsay – there are so many so great - and so many, many great modern illustrators who are their successors!

You are very good at networking and project cooperation. Tell our readers why it is important for you and maybe how our readers can network and cooperate better on projects.

Funny, I don’t think of myself as a networker, just someone who likes to get things done!

Bringing talents together that mesh and seeing what happens is always exciting!

Working with others on projects – well, it’s basic bridge-building - it has all been said before but

I guess no harm repeating –

Collaboration is all about learning from each other and creating something unique! Treat others the way you would want to be treated, be considerate. Be reliable – if you have said you’ll do something, DO it! Keep track of things. Be clear, be ready to improvise and assist – troubleshoot – never imagine you have all the answers. Guide gently if necessary. Be keen to learn new skills, new ways of expressing yourself in words or images. Expect to learn something new! Give credit where credit is due, don’t be slow to congratulate others and compliment them on their efforts.

Respect your partners’ skill and encourage them. Seek to bring out the best in each other. Too
many folk are too quick to criticise, too slow to show gratitude and appreciation! It needs to be give give give before the gimme gimme gimme.

Give and take is critical, don’t insist it be all you way – there are always others ways of seeing things, always room to improve – be open, be receptive. Consider the considered and the spontaneous opinion of others!

I’ve been AMAZED, DELIGHTED, BLOWN AWAY TOTALLY by the UTTERLY AMAZING CREATIVITY OF ALL MY COLLABORATORS! An email from a collaborator is like an incredible surprise package! What have they come up with now?! These VERY talented people have all added immeasurably to me and to my work and for that I am enormously grateful! I hope they have received as much back in working with me!

We are very proud at Sharing-Books to have you as one of our authors. We were especially pleased when you started to innovate with our site and created the Poster Poem format. These are very well received by teachers around the world. Tell us how you came up with the idea and please share some of the feedback you received from teachers.

Nice to be there and work with you WONDERFUL TEAM of innovative folk!

Poster Poems/minibooks - I’ve had the idea for a long time but lacked the resources to bring it to fruition. Discovering Sharing Books provided the answer.

If the responses I have received to date are any guide, teachers have indeed received the provision of downloadable posters enthusiastically. They have been utilised as worksheets in class, as stimulus material in discussion of various topics, as reading material, as translation material for English classes [e.g., in the Ukraine, the children had a lot of fun translating the poems into their native language] and, of course, as posters for the walls.

What advice would you offer to someone just starting to write or illustrate children’s Books?

Let your right brain free, unfetter it from the constraints of commas and full stops, write till your arms drop off or you do! THEN edit and let the little comma Nazis do their thing!
Illustrators – do a doodle a day – if you are that way inclined I bet you are doing that anyway!
DON’T be afraid to take up challenges - push your boundaries – grow with your art!
A comfort zone is only a bus stop en route to your destination. A destination is somewhere from which to set out!

Some tips in creating uploadable art and text in poster or minibook format:

If you don’t have InDesign or Adobe, download Open Office. It is free. The Draw facility is a cross between PowerPoint, Publisher and Word and very malleable. Documents in Open Office can be exported as pdfs.

Do a mudmap of your poster first – a basic sketch. Do a story board of your minibook.
Get someone else to proofread your text – you have read and reread it so your mind is in autopilot and might miss something!

Labels: community, interviews, JR Poulter