Q&A with kidlit author, Charlotte Barkla!

Charlotte Barkla is a Brisbane-based writer who worked as a civil engineer and physics teacher before rediscovering her love for children’s literature.
She writes picture books, middle-grade fiction and feature articles.
Charlotte’s books include 11 Ruby Road, All Bodies are Good Bodies, the Edie’s Experiments series and From My Head to My Toes, I Say What Goes.
She regularly visits schools, libraries and festivals for creative writing workshops, sharing her passion for creativity and stories with children of all ages.
Visit Charlotte online at charlottebarkla.com

1.  Your terrific new historical children's novel 11 Ruby Road: 1900 has just been published by Walker. Congratulations! Can you talk a little about how the story originated for you and the process from writing it to submitting for publication? 
​Thank you for your kind words!
It started off as an idea I had after talking with a neighbour who had lived in the same house, in the same street ever since she was a little girl, for over sixty years. We started talking about how much the street and life had changed over that period. I started thinking about how much change the oldest houses still standing in Brisbane (1860s-era), would've witnessed over the past 100-150 years. I also wondered whether the people who had lived in those houses had influenced some of that change. The idea for a series based around one house, featuring different characters with different struggles over different time periods grew from there!

I worked the idea into a proposal, consisting of pitches for four books, and a synopsis and three sample chapters for book 1.
​I submitted the proposal to a handful of publishers, and Walker Books offered a two-book deal. I was thrilled to accept! 

2. This is your first historical middle-grade novel, after a series of sensitive, thoughtful picture books and the Edie's Experiment chapter books - what was it like to switch gears and add historical middle-grade fiction to your oeuvre? 
This one is the first of a series and yes, historical fiction has been a change for me. I've found the process of researching and writing these books really interesting. It's intriguing to imagine life in the past - I could spend hours reading old articles and searching through old photos. I often found myself lost down a rabbit hole of research!

3. 11 Ruby Road is set in South Brisbane in 1900 and will be the start of a series (the second book will span from 1925). What was your process of historical research like for the novel? What's important to consider for you when researching and writing about the past? 
I started quite high level, looking at online teaching resources that explored life in the early 20th century in Australia. From this brief research, there were a few themes that piqued my interest, the main one being the suffragist movement and the fight for women's right to vote. I was also drawn to the experiences of Chinese-Australians in the post gold rush period. 

With these themes in mind, I developed my main characters: ten-year-old Dorothy and her family, who are involved in the suffragist movement through Dorothy's trailblazing aunt, and Dorothy's best friend George, a Chinese-Australian boy whose family experiences racism. The story developed from there!

In the process of writing the novel, I then drilled further down into research. Where needed, I used news articles, photographs, archives and local history websites. These resources helped me establish the particulars of life in Brisbane in 1900, and helped give the story its setting. Where I had a particular question -- for example, the First Nations history surrounding Boundary Road in West End -- I contacted researchers who were very helpful in pointing me in the right direction and answering my queries.

4. Is there any thing, or multiple things, you know about the writing and publishing world now that you wish you knew when you began? 
Great question! I can't think of anything in particular, but if I could go back in time and give a newly-published Charlotte some advice, I would remind myself to slow down and enjoy the writing/publishing process. :)

5. There is a sequel to 11 Ruby Road coming soon (11 Ruby Road: 1925). Can you share anything about what readers can expect? Is there anything else in the pipeline for you? 
Yes, the next instalment is released in September! I'd love to share the blurb with your readers:

11 Ruby Road: 1925 by Charlotte Barkla
It is 1925 and Bert Mueller and his German-Australian family have moved from Ipswich to their new house at 11 Ruby Road. Bert’s father has been deported to Germany after the Great War, and with Dad still absent, Bert is unsure about moving away. But the city means opportunity and jobs for his mother and older siblings. And for the grown-ups , it also means fun - dressing up, going out, and all that jazz. Bert loves jazz too, but he’s too young for the clubs, and instead his time is spent at his new school where the kids play cricket, not music.

But with the help of a gramophone, Bert has a solution. He will start his own jazz club, and 11 Ruby Road has the perfect spot to host it. But as prejudice about Bert and his German family start to affect their new life, Bert has to find a way to save his jazz club and his family.

I also have a handful of other projects in the pipeline, including a beautiful new picture book coming out at the end of August: 

Let's Try Again Another Day by Charlotte Barkla
A beautifully illustrated story about learning and making mistakes -- If we don't get things right away, we'll try again another day.
Bodies grow and brains do, too. Always learning -- me and you.
If we don't get things straight away, we'll try again another day.
We all know learning can be hard and life skills don't always come right away ... sometimes, we need to keep trying! A rhythmic and fun read-aloud from the trusted author of All Bodies Are Good Bodies and From My Head To My Toes, I Say What Goes, this life-affirming book will appeal to fans of All the Ways to Be Smart by Davina Bell.
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In 2025, I'll have a new junior fiction series and a standalone junior fiction novel being published. Exciting times!

6. And a bit of a fun but tricky question for last, to make you really think! If you could put 3 Australian historical children's novels in a time capsule, to give future generations the best understanding of Aussie historical fiction for children, which 3 would you choose and why? 
Another great question! I would probably choose some of the Our Australian Girl series, and Katrina Nannestad's Silver Linings. And, of course, I would have to choose 11 Ruby Road! :)

Thank you Charlotte Barkla for stopping by to chat! You can catch Charlotte at the Brisbane Writers Festival, running May 30-June 2nd. Her latest book is the terrific 11 Ruby Road:1900. Look out for Charlotte's upcoming two books later this year, Let's Try Again Another Day and 11 Ruby Road: 1925.