When I was a kid, I didn’t sleep with a favourite teddy bear or soft toy - instead I slept with a garden gnome. In fact, the garden gnome in question still lives with me, and sometimes, if it is very cold and dark outside, he sneaks into bed…
2. Do you have a nickname and can you tell us what it is?
Nanner Bananer. My real real name is Alexandra, but at age 2 I decided I preferred Zana, and the name stuck. I then got Zana Banana, and at about 15 , that morphed into Nanner Bananer.
4. Can you describe your writing style for us in ten words?
A lot happens in my head first. Then I write.
5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Thoughtful. Passionate. Ethical. Hopeful. Vocinativor. (Which for those of you who don’t know, means someone who makes up words…Actually, I just looked that up, and apparently the correct term is a Neologist, or, according to some, a Snigletist).
6. What book character would you be, and why?
Bastian, from the Neverending Story. What more fun could there be than sitting in an attic during a storm and literally escaping into the story?
7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
118,000 BC, so I could witness the evolution of homo sapiens in all its glory. Or any time or place where magic and reality collide.
8. What would your ten-year-old self say to you now?
Where did I leave my shoes?
9. Who is your greatest influence?
My favourite author. (This changes frequently…)
10. What/who made you start writing?
My sister-in-law was babysitting my son when he was about 18 months old. They sat together and wrote a picture book on bits of paper together titled A Train Called Luca. I remember thinking how wonderful it would be if I could create a book that brought my son an equal amount of joy.
11. What is your favourite word and why?
Onomatopoeic. Because it is what it is. Now I have to go and change all my internet passwords. (And after just having discovered it, my new favourite word is Sniglet).
12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Nooooooooo! Um. A Kindle? Has that been used before? I honestly can’t choose. Ok. If I must. The Beacon at Alexandria, by Gillian Bradshaw. I connected with this book when I was about 14 and have read it many times since. I never tire of it. Although if it were the ONLY thing I could read, it may lose its shine.
Zana Fraillon is an Australian author of two books for young children and a series for middle readers that has been published in five languages. Her latest book is No Stars to Wish On, a middle fiction novel published by Allen & Unwin in May 2014.
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OR if there is an author or illustrator you would like to hear from, LET US KNOW!
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