Q&A with kidlit author, Amelia McInerney!

Amelia McInerney is a Canberra-based author of 7 picture books, including The Book Chook, Bad Crab, Neil the Amazing Sea Cucumber and her latest release from Larrikin House, Jeff Giraffe: The Great Escape. Known and published internationally for her hilarious rhyming-picture books, Amelia's work has been longlisted and shortlisted for CBCA Notable, Speech Pathology Book of Year,  Indie Book of the Year, and ABDA Book of Year.
​You can find out more about Amelia and her hysterically riotious stories at www.ameliamcinerney.com/

1.  Thanks for stopping by my blog, Amelia! Congratulations on your wonderful, hysterical new book 'Jeff Girafe: The Great Escape' illustrated by Alexandra Colombo and just released by Larrikin House. Where did Jeff and Jan and Roger and the Fox River Zoo gang come from? 
I was on a SCBWI 'Sketch and Scribble' day (some years ago) that was supposed to be held at Luna Park, Sydney, but we arrived to find it was closed that day. Being 'locked out', I wondered if the animals at nearby Taronga Zoo, particularly the tall giraffes, could see their neighbouring attractions and if they wanted to visit places they couldn't. And Jeff and Jan were suddenly in my mind! I changed Jeff's dream from visiting the amusement park next door to visiting a regular park (with swings etc) to make it more relatable to young kids and also funnier. I called Jeff's zoo 'Fox River Zoo' because it seemed like a nice name for a zoo, it fit with the rhyme... and because Fox River was the name of the penitentiary in the TV series, Prison Break. Haha.

2. Is there anything you know now about the writing world you wish you knew when you began? 
How slowly everything moves in this industry. (Although when I submitted this text to Larrikin it was accepted within minutes, so that part was quick!)
Publishing is a business and so a text's commercial appeal counts much more than I realised. 

3.  You are awesomely skilled at clever deadpan and cheeky humour and fantastic ability to write rhyme well, which is notoriously difficult to do!  You make it read so effortlessly in the published books! How easily does writing humour and rhyme come to you? Or is it very challenging behind the scenes?
You are too kind! Writing humour and rhyme (I don't always write in rhyme, but I often do) is what I want to write and so it feels natural for me. Whether I'm reading other picture books or writing my own, I really enjoy both of those elements, especially together. But even though I really enjoy humour and rhyme, it still takes a lot of time and effort to get a text to the point where it is ready to submit. Rhyme can require tedious hours of refinement, problem-solving wordplay, rewriting to make the meter work without letting it dictate the narrative... I think the writer has to be invested enough in their story and their vision for the book to be sufficiently motivated to put in the time and effort. It does help that I really enjoy playing with words and rhythm. But there's always something you can improve and it can be hard to know when to stop! So for me, writing is fun and exciting, but also challenging at the same time.

4. What is next for you? Do you have anything in the pipeline you can tell us about? 
Yes, I have another funny (non-rhyming!) picture book coming out with Affirm Press next year.

5. Tell us a little about (or share a pic) your writing space? 
I don't actually have a writing space! I do have a writing desk, but I usually write elsewhere. I write in various places around the house and yard, often according to the temperature of the room and available sunlight - I'm like a nomadic cat. I'm content to write anywhere, and I choose a space that feels most comfortable. I like to vary my own setting, I suppose. I don't have a writing routine, either. One consistency I have is that I write the first part of a story in an exercise book, usually in pencil, and at some point I move to my laptop, so I'm always very mobile. I also write in my car, around my kids' activities. I'm not one for writing in cafes, because I often write in rhyme and I can't have music playing as it messes with the beat of my rhyme in my head.

6. And a bit of a fun but tricky question to make you really think! If you could put any 3 Amelia McInerney books in a time capsule to be opened in 1,000 years, to give future generations the best understanding of who you are as a writer, then which 3 books would you choose and why? 
Cool question! Umm, I think the most quintessentially 'me' books would be The Book Chook, Neil the Amazing Sea Cucumber and Jeff Giraffe - The Great Escape!