Book: Bad Dreams
Q1. Hello Maám, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
My name is Bethany, I grew up home-schooled and an only child ‘til I was 10. Then my little brother came along and he was better than being an only child. My Mum would read to me every day and my Dad told me stories every night before bed so I grew up telling myself stories and making people repeat themselves multiple times before I heard them from inside the book I was reading. One day I’d like a pet Aardvark. And otter. And lion. That’s not too much to ask from life right?
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing ‘Bad Dreams’ book?
Bad Dreams was a kids book so the main problem I had with it actually getting the whole story written. I tend to write a chunk of something down then write the rest in my head and never put it on paper.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
The Bible has wonderful language and expressions in it so I probably got my first appreciation for the English language from that. As a kid I loved, and continue to love, books like The Silver Brumby by Elyne Mitchell, Seven Little Australians, Enid Blyton books, Narnia… anything that could pull me completely me into its world or had especially beautiful writing. Recently I discovered Tolkien and he’s probably had the biggest direct influence on my writing.
Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
Any beach. I think the beach is my favourite part of God’s creation. You can walk on it, sit beside it, explore, listen to it… It never gets boring.
Q5. Is there lots to do before you dive in and start writing a book?
Yes and no. I have heaps of ideas that I’ll write down either in one of my writing books or my phone and that’s easy. But actually putting it into a proper story format takes a LOT longer because I don’t have a lot of spare time.
Q6. How long did it take you to write ‘Bad Dreams’ book?
I can’t actually remember how long it took me to write it. I wrote it a few years ago and I wrote a couple of others pretty similar all around the same time. I probably wrote the main idea in one go and then came back a few times to edit it.
Q7. On what platforms can readers find ‘Bad Dreams’ book to buy?
It’s being sold on Book Depositary, Amazon, Ebay, from Austin Macauley, and BookTopia.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘Bad Dreams’?
The book cover was mostly the illustrator. The only thing I’d really thought about was the lettering of the Title. I called it Bad Dreams because… that’s what the story was about. Looking back I would have called it something VERY different but, clearly I didn’t think creatively about my titles when I was younger.
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?
I’ve never really had the problem of wondering how to keep things fresh for my readers. I’m still VERY new to this whole… author thing. Frankly I’d be quite happy to have that problem because that would mean I did HAVE some readers! I do worry about character development in the stories I have in my head, can I actually create individuals with their own personalities that will be realistic or am I just making boring cardboard copies?
Q10. Are there any secrets from the book (that aren’t in the blurb), you can share with your readers?
I don’t know about secrets but the illustrators very kindly changed the dog in the book from a small dog to a big dog. We have a big dog and I thought it’d be nice if Liam’s dog was big too.
Book Is Available On Amazon
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