Author Interview with Dr June Perkins

 Born to a Papua New Guinean mother and Australian Father,  Dr June Perkins first lived in Tasmania for twenty years from the age of one. In her twenties she travelled, studied and lived throughout Australia with a growing family until settling in Queensland. During her travels between Tasmania and Queensland she completed a PHD in the empowerment of Indigenous women through writing, met and interviewed many amazing artists and writers, had the bounty of having and nurturing three wonderful and amazing children and was lucky enough to travel to Kiribati and New Zealand.  She has worked as a university tutor,  project coordinator, writer-in-community, writing group co-ordinator,  community journalist,  virtues education teacher, photographer, web moderator and editor. Her dream is to produce multiplatform story projects celebrating and teaching about nature, music and peace.  She is currently working to bring several projects to fruition and has begun tutoring and mentoring university students. Right now her major project is Magic Fish Dreaming. 
https://www.facebook.com/Gumbootspearlz-June-Perkins-107788312592571/?fref=ts  What inspired you?   
Magic Fish Dreaming was inspired by living in Far North Queensland , and working on a project nearly a decade ago, to inspire children and the community to write poetry – Ripple which I (which I had always loved since my teenage years).  It is a picture book of poetry about nature, family, environment, diversity and childhood.
 What has been your journey up to this point?

I began writing poetry as a teenager, but only recently in the last 6 or so years began to write poetry for families and children. The poetry was written over the time I lived in Tully Far North Queensland with my young children who are now teenagers.

In 2015 I did an online course of how to run a kickstarter, and picked this as the project most likely needed a kickstarter to be a reality as children’s poetry is a difficult form to find a traditional publisher for.we also looked at things like how to source an illustrator and what kinds of questions to ask them when working with them and even how do draw up a contract with them as well.  It was through the children's book academy.
 
I also found an illustrator and commissioned some samples of art from her for the kickstarter.  I loved finding and meeting Helene Magisson!  She is such a wonderful interpreter of my work and I absolutely trust her illustrative work with the poetry.
 
 


  
How did you find the experience of sourcing your own illustrator and working towards the same vision?
I looked through the Australian Society of Authors style file and found Helene there and her work appealed to me so much because of her representation ofchildren of all nationalities.
I did have one other illustrator in mind, but Helene was my first choice.
I emailed here and asked her  to let her know this and tell her about my project and myself, and asked if she would like to read the manuscript and explained how I would like to work.  Helene tells the story of this in one of the kickstarter videos.
The biggest thing was that she just understood the poetry and was attracted to this project.  I was so excited to discover she lived Brisbane as well, and after she had done a sample of two illustrations for the book we met in person.
She is a very easy person to work with and I love her interpretations of my poems in art - the collaboration just works and we are so looking forward to working on the rest of the book.
We communicate via email, phone and in person and it is great communication, with both of us very open in the work.

Why did you choose to publish via crowdfunding? 
Any kind of poetry is difficult to publish to any age group unless you have a well established name and plenty of connections.  I was told by some in the industry that such a book would simply not attract a mainstream publisher, and small independent poetry publishers don't seem to publish poetry for families and children either, but be more literary orientated and for older eaders.
But having worked with children in schools I know that poetry is taught and read and enjoyed by children so I wanted a book with a Far North Queensland setting that would be enjoyed and read by children with their parents and grandparents.
What makes you happiest, the publishing journey or the published book destination? 
I'd say both.   Because you want an audience for the book at the end but the process of creation, editing, ,publishing is important for that end destination to be reached.
I've learnt to enjoy the marketing process more, and the premarketing of the book through the various social platforms has been a lot of fun, especially the latest posts.
Helene is taking two of our kickstarter rewards, as overseas ambassadors to France, a platypus and a koala bear, and I can't wait to hear and see what the do in promoting the project!


 As a child, what was your relationship with books?
I read up to 10 books a week, and had a love of the public library.  I owned very few books, but they were very precious to me and usually from birthday presents.  I’ve written a poem called the Library brigade which is being published soon.
 What is the most important thing about what you do?

Sharing a love of the environment, music, culture, and family in writing and hopefully inspiring people to walk in and observe nature, take care of each other, and make music.
 Do you believe picture books can change the world?

Yes!
What do you hope people will take away from this experience?
 I hope that all those contributing to the kickstarter, will love the book Helene, myself and the Magic Fish dreaming team have created, as they will all receive a copy.  I also hope that they will be inspired to care for our planet and each other.

What is next?

Finishing off the kickstarter page and project plan, and launching in January 2016, and then hopefully working on the book February to September for release in October next year. 




Here is the link if you would like to support the Kickstarter Campaignhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/juneperkins/magic-fish-dreaming


You can contact June via social media 
Website: http://juneperk.wix.com/gumbootspearlz
 Blog: http://gumbootspearlz.org/ Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/magicfishdreaming/?fref=ts Twitter: @gumbootspearlz
Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6475917.June_Perkins Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/june-perkins-15764a99
Pinterest: https://twitter.com/gumbootspearlz
  
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