Q&A with Pamela Rushby!

Pamela Rushby is a writer and a producer of educational television, audio and multimedia. She has written over 250 fiction and non-fiction books for educational and trade publishers. Her historical novel, When the Hipchicks Went to War, won the Ethel Turner Prize in the NSW Premier's Literature Awards 2010. The Horses Didn't Come Home was a CBCA Notable Book, and short-listed in the Queensland Literary Awards 2012. Flora's War was a CBCA Notable Book 2014, and The Ratcatcher’s Daughter short-listed in the Queensland Literary Awards 2015 and a CBCA Notable Book in 2015.

Her latest historical novels are The Mummy Smugglers of Crumblin Castle, The Secret Battle, Interned, The Mud Puddlers and her most recent release is Those Girls, published in April 2024 by Walker Books, a YA historical novel about the Queensland Land Army Girls during World War 2.

Visit Pam and find out more about her books at www.pamelarushby.com

1. Congratulations on your wonderful new book, just released by Walker Books. 'Those Girls' is a historical YA novel inspired by the Land Army Girls in Queensland during World War II. Can you please share your process in writing this book from getting the initial idea? Why was it important to tell this story about QLD's Land Army Girls in a novel for young adults? 
This book was quite a few years in the making. I first became aware of the AWLA when I saw a photograph of Land Army girls at the Stockman’s Hall of Fame in Longreach. I’m always looking for ideas for little-known stories involving women and girls – and these girls truly appeared to be unsung heroes. I bought a couple of books about them, found more publications, delved in the Australian War Memorial and John Oxley libraries and Queensland Newspapers. I was lucky enough to be able to talk with a real Land Girl (very few left now) and get permission to use her stories. I worked on it in the time gaps between other books. I think it’s important to tell women’s stories, especially to girls today.

2. Do you have a typical process when you write and rewrite a manuscript? Also, what is your approach to gathering and carrying out and organising research?
I do a lot of research – it’s like a treasure hunt. I read and read and read, and follow up comments and clues, and search out publications mentioned in books and articles. I have a folder stuffed full of notes, print-outs, photo copies – which you couldn’t call Organised at all. But because I’m (usually) writing about an actual historical event, I do have a framework to follow. I always have a long, extended outline of the story (almost a chapter outline) before I start the actual writing process.
I’m a plotter, not a pantser!

3. Is there one thing you know now about the publishing world you wish you knew when you began? 
Absolutely everything! My best advice is, get an agent. I was royally ripped off on one of the first books I had accepted, because I knew nothing about contracts. Agentsknow all!

4. What are the most important things to consider, for you, when researching and writing a story about true events from the past? What appeals to you about writing stories from history, particularly the ones you write set in Queensland? 
Accuracy. I studied history at uni, and I do realise that history is written by the winners, so you can’t get all the facts (whatever they are …) But I do want to get as much detail as I can, and get it as correct as I can. I believe the strangest, most riveting, heart-breaking, laugh-out-loud stories aren’t fiction. They come from history.
And I love tripping over unusual, forgotten incidents from history – and then writing about them.
​
5. Do you have anything in the pipeline you can tell us about? 
I’ve just finished a middle-grade historical novel about the Save Our Sons movement during the Vietnam War.
My agent is sending it around now.

6. Tell us about (or share a pic of) your writing space? 
Mmm, writing space. For very shame, no picture. But I do have a room with a computer, a very cluttered desk (I know where absolutely everything is!), 3 filing cabinets, 2 bookcases, pinboard. And lots of dust …
Having said that, I can write anywhere. I used to do a lot while waiting for my kids to have ice skating lessons.

7. And a bit of a fun but tricky question for last, to make you really think! If you could put any 3 Pamela Rushby books in a time capsule to be opened in 1,000 years, to give future generations the best understanding of who Pamela Rushby is as a writer, then which 3 books would you choose and why? 
Interesting question! It wouldn’t just be books. I’d have to put in (oooh, this is like Desert Island Discs) a television documentary I worked on called Bilby Brothers: the men who exterminated the Easter bunny, because I am very proud of that. Also a multimedia
production, Queensland Heritage Trails that I worked on when I was a producer/scriptwriter for the Queensland Department of Education. And probably the latest book, Those Girls.