Ten Questions with… Hazel Nutt
You’ll remember that Hazel joined us a little while back with a character interview, and now she is here to answer Ten Questions with Mia!
…well, actually, this interview is with ”Lady Doherty, Parent of the Pen-Name ‘Hazel Nutt’” …but you get the idea. 
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Author Bio: Hazel Nutt is a baby who is nutty about nature, especially squirrels, whom she often has a good natter with. They tell her their secrets and her parents help her write them down to share with the world, as picture books.
Loving nature is really important to her and Hazel Nutt hopes to make sure that lots of other kids get nutty about nature as well, starting with squirrels!
Author Site: http://www.hazelnutt.com & http://www.whatsquirrelsdo.com
You can find her books (What Squirrels Do When You Are Not Looking, What Squirrels Do: The Squirrel Olympics & What Squirrels Do: Just for Fun) on Amazon!
About the Writer
1. What five words describe you?
Tired, but young at heart
2. What was the first story you ever wrote? I mean the really bad one we all have that you’re trying to hide in the back of closet now that you’re published?
When I was 10, I wrote a story about gnomes. It was based in a gnome factory and the gnomes came to life and caused mischief by painting each other garish colors. They also liked to climb out the window of the factory to play with gnomes in gardens (gnomes of the world) and encouraging them to go on adventures and essentially go missing! Funny thing is I have never liked gnomes – not then or now!
3. What inspires you?
Hazel, my two year old daughter. She makes me a better person and make me smile everyday. She also inspires me to write. I come up with so many picture book ideas everyday, I don’t get to write them all down, or even remember them!
4. What distracts you?
Again, Hazel! She has so much energy, it can all be rather draining – keeping up with her, keeping a train a thought, trying to write something down with her tugging at the pen, or even remembering the reason why I walk into a particular room!
5. What’s your favorite story? This can be specific, as in a particular book or even story-driven movie, or general, like “I’m a sucker for a hero looking for redemption story.”
I like thrillers that have plenty of twists and turns that keep you guessing to the end and are impossible to put down, until the very last page.
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About the Writing
1. Tell us about your currently available titles.
As a family, we have created a trilogy of picture books about squirrels, our daughter provided the inspiration, Mum the words and Daddy the illustrations.
The What Squirrels Do is a trilogy of picture books that gives people an insight into these curious creatures, not EVER revealed to the public before. It will shock you to know some of the devious tricks squirrels play, it will solve some of life’s mysteries, like why there are shopping trolleys in the middle of the woods or why car alarms go off in the middle of the night.
These books will make you laugh, as they cannot fail to bring a smile to the faces of both toddler and whoever is reading the book to them – Mummy, Daddy, brother, sister, grandparent or carer.
The three books are:
What Squirrels Do When You’re Not Looking
What Squirrels Do – The Squirrel Olympics
What Squirrels Do Just For Fun
2. What’s your favorite part about writing these stories?
My favorite part of writing these stories was creating fun rhymes out of the ideas we had for what squirrels might do when we are looking the other way (or should I say the secrets that the squirrels told Hazel Nutt and she told us).
A huge thrill was receiving the proof copies of the books and actually have them in our hands, but the biggest thrill of all was that the real Hazel loves to be read these books multiple times everyday.
3. What would your characters say about you? Be honest!
The characters in the book are Hazel Nutt and lots of squirrels. I think if the squirrels had anything to say to me, it would be stop sharing our secrets with the world! Hazel Nutt would say “I love you’ to me.
4. Who would play your favorite character if they made a movie of their story?
The real Hazel would play Hazel Nutt – The Squirrel Whisperer!
5. Do you have any projects currently in the works you want to talk about?
I would like to do a mother/daughter collaboration picture book project with Hazel. She paints some pretty amazing pictures for a two year old and some of them even look like recognizable animals. She would be the illustrator and I would write mini stories or poems for each picture included.
I would then promote it by suggesting to different toddler groups that they do collaboration projects with toddler paintings and parents’ writing and sell their books for fund raising for toys.
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Thank you for joining us today, and good luck with your stories!
