When I was little, I didn’t like my freckles and tried to get rid of them constantly using the juice of lemons and dandelions. Once I even tried to shave them off!
2. What is your nickname?
Neen
3. What is your greatest fear?
Home invasion.
4. Describe your writing style in 10 words
Word-tasty. Poetic. Heartfelt. Pictorial. Humorous. Empathetic. Historical. Sensory. Imaginary. Positive.
5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Persistent. Creative. Hard-working. Resilient. Opportunity-seeker.
6. What book character would you be, and why?
Pippi Longstocking. She’s everything I would loved to have been as a child.
7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
A time when families/communities created their own fun with music, songs around the piano, plays, dances and charades – some time prior to television.
8. What would your 10-year-old self say to you now?
See how you’ve grown in strength and self-belief. Freckles were nothing.
9. Who is your greatest influence?
Dave Brown, a director of children’s theatre in South Australia. He creates wonderful productions that are fun and alive, but that are also deeply moving and respectful of children’s intelligence, emotions and artistic understanding.
10. What/who made you start writing?
My love of words and the desire to see what I could do with them if I had the courage. I had so few books in childhood; it wasn’t a simple, easy jump-off step.
11. What is your favourite word and why?
Tranquillity. I love the sound of the word. And it gives me a feeling of peacefulness; not static – more like water in a stream trickling over rocks.
12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
The Harp in the South, by Ruth Park.
