Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

This is my first non-fiction title and is based on five years of my interviewing famous authors and illustrators on my radio programme, which was called The Children's Hour.

Do you wonder where on earth authors and illustrators get their ideas? Well my radio interviews with 31 of Australia's top creators of children's books will answer that question for you in lots of ways.

Each author or author/illustrator has a double page devoted to them, including personal details like where and when they were born, what they did before they became writers, as well as a photo of each of them.

You can read exactly how each author replied to my questions on radio. If you 'listen' really hard to what you're reading you will actually 'hear' the author's voice as each one has a distinctive way of talking!

Read this book and you'll realise that there are stories all around you, and that you too can create great stories by being a good observer of things that happen or by just dipping into the hard drive that is your memory.

This book is a must for doing research on top modern Australian authors and illustrators, and it's an important classroom reference book for primary, secondary and tertiary students. It is now out of print, but available from libraries.

It was published in hardback in 1996 by Reed Library. A paperback version was printed too and sold exclusively to Post Offices.

The book was shortlisted in 1997 for the Australian Publishers' Excellence Award. It was also a Children's Book Council of Australia 'Notable Book' in the 1997 Books Awards.