Sylva Fae and writing for children.

Svlva…

Hi hamsters! You’re such a cute bunch, I feel quite honoured to be interviewed by you.

I grew up with a bunch of slightly dysfunctional animals, sadly there was only one hamster.

One in Bolton. He was quite a character though, he was a pure white hamster called Arthur and he liked to chase ducks. The rest of the mad menagerie included a giant rabbit who ruled the garden, two naughty goats, an over-amorous pig (he had great affection for a log), and a rabble of ducks, hens and dogs. My favourite was a crow but he wasn’t too keen on hamsters I’m afraid.

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SYLVA

The house bordered onto the moors, a favourite place for my mum to take us on rambles when we were children. She loved to sketch the local landscapes while my brother and I would play hide and seek in the bracken or go bilberry picking.

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SYlva

I started telling my girls stories when they were very little. Every time we went out, instead of just having a walk, we would follow the trail of the woodland dragon or go hunting for fairies. Later on, I decided to write some of our stories down, really just as memories for my girls, of the adventure we had together. I always write with them in mind. It just seemed natural to create picture books for children when I started but as they’ve grown, so have my stories.

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Sylva

I do all my own illustrations using a digital scrapbooking technique from royalty free image sites. I layer many individual images to create the illustrations. One of the problems facing children’s writers is finding and affording an illustrator. They are justifiably very expensive and I only seem to like the most expensive ones! I couldn’t afford the ones I liked and I wasn’t prepared to compromise so I found a way to create my own. It is immensely satisfying to write, illustrate and create the whole book myself, I have a medley of monsters who help with the stories, recently a fox joined the gang, and I also tell stories for the local unicorns and fairies we meet on our travels. As yet I haven’t had any hamsters demanding I tell their stories, but I’m always open to inspiration from interesting charactersbut it’s a lengthy process.

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Sylva

My stories are intended to just be colourful and fun but there is also a general theme running through them that encourages children to be kind and thoughtful towards one another.[image error]

Sylva.

Advice for aspiring authors? Hmmmm… find yourself some children to write for and read your draft stories to them. Children are the most honest, but also the most brutal critics and if they don’t like it, it needs rewriting. I spent ages creating a cover for a Christmas anthology and was really happy with it until one of my daughters said it looked like a Christmas card from a granny! She chose this one and I have to admit, she was right.

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Find a group of other children’s authors and get involved. The more you put in, the more you will get out of it, and believe me you need all the support you can get. Publishing children’s books is really expensive unless you have the skills to do everything yourself, or barter skills with others.

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Sylva

I have a million stories ready to be illustrated (OK slight exaggeration), about thirty half written stories and many more characters shouting from inside my mind to have their stories written. I guess I’m now going to have a bunch of rowdy hamsters invading my dreams now too!

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My debut book Rainbow Monsters won the Chanticleer Little Peeps best in category award, I’m hoping my next books make it out of the slush pile for this year’s awards.

As well as publishing picture books, I write for a bedtime stories app. I have five stories already published through Little Lights Studio and I’m just in the process of writing the next five.

I also have several chapter books and a Young Adult book on the go. Busy busy… So many ideas, so little time.

Rainbow Monsters Blurb:

On a mixed up rainy, sunny day,

The rainbow monsters love to play.

Jump on a cloud and join the rainbow monsters in their fun and games. Come and meet each of the monsters and learn the colours of the rainbow.

Mindful Monsters [image error]

Blurb:

All the Rainbow Monsters are Mindful Monsters too,

Respecting one another, like all good monsters do.

The Rainbow Monsters are back, teaching you how to be mindful. If you want to grow up as fit, healthy, happy and strong as a monster, join them in their colourful antics.

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Yoga FoxBlurb:

Scaredy Fox hates his name. Watching girls doing yoga in the park gives him an idea on how to get a new name. Will the forest animals be impressed by a fox doing yoga? Will Scaredy Fox get a new name he can be proud of?

Chanticleer http://test.chantireviews.com/2018/04/30/the-little-peeps-awards-for-early-readers-2017-official-list-of-winners/

Little Lights Studio http://www.littlelightsstudio.com/portfolio/bedtime-stories/

Currently author of the month on the IASD website https://indieauthorsupportanddiscussion.com/

Blog https://sylvafae.co.uk/blog/

Amazon https://amzn.to/2M8HH8C

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SylvaFae

Twitter https://twitter.com/sylvafae

Pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/sylvafae/

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