The first Tracey Corderoy book that I read was Hubble Bubble, Granny Trouble. I thought it was a wonderful story and I couldn’t resist sharing it with many of the children that I see through my work as speech and language therapist.
I was particularly interested in Tracey’s writing because like me, her background is in education; and before she started writing professionally, she was a primary teacher.
Tracey so kindly, allowed me to interview her. I so enjoyed hearing what she had to say about writing and also how she became an author. You will too.
Can you tell us how you became an author?
I’ve always had a love of literature despite the fact that I didn’t have many books when I was growing up. I devoured what I could find to read and English was always the subject I looked forward to most when I was school.
When I became a primary school teacher, reading great stories to the children in my class was my favourite time of the day. I could have happily read to them all day long and the book corner in my classroom was always a very special place!
Then I had my own children and read to them too, almost from the moment they were born! Their bookshelves were (and still are!) crammed with wonderful stories and the magical story times we shared will remain with me, and hopefully them, forever.
In more recent years I’ve implemented and run specialist reading programmes in schools to help children who struggle with reading. It was during this time my passion grew to create my own stories. Stories that children would want to read, over and over again.
Finally, I did just that! I began writing in 2006, found an agent very quickly but then it took three years before my first book was published. During that time, I wrote and wrote, taking advice wherever it was offered, experiencing many ups and downs and always loving the journey!
What inspires your work?
Anything and everything inspires my work. Things I see, things I hear, even unusual or interesting words! I always carry a notebook around (and have one beside my bed too!). Sometimes characters “talk to me” when I’m least expecting them to but now I’m always ready! Ha!
I collect interesting things too – objects that capture my imagination and interesting pictures I see. I’m very motivated by visual cues and find I need to get to know my characters really well before they tell me their story.
What do you enjoy most about writing children’s books?
I love all the adventures they take me on! I can travel to idyllic valleys, to castles, even to the moon, without actually leaving my little cottage!
The world is your oyster when you write. You can go anywhere and do anything. I form strong relationships with my characters; I really care about them and what they do. I think if you care about your characters then others will care about them too…
Another thing I love about writing is sharing my stories with children. I do lots of events (schools, libraries, festivals) and am always inspired by the refreshingly honest opinion of my readers. They tell me exactly what they like and what they don’t like and this keeps my work constantly evolving!
In your opinion, what makes a fantastic children’s book?
Well, I think a book needs wonderful characters and my stories are all very character led. You need characters that have the ability to reach the reader in one or lots of ways, and make them want to know more about them. Your characters need to draw the reader to them.
Children’s stories, in my opinion, also need a really strong storyline, which cannot fail to grab the imagination and which whisks the reader along on the adventure.
Finally, a story can have infinite possibilities. It can take the reader to magical places and allow them to experience the truly wondrous alongside the characters they love. It can make the ordinary extraordinary; make the mundane, magical.
Out of all the stories you have written, what is your favourite?
I don’t have an outright favourite because I like different stories for different reasons. For example, the subject matter when writing The Grunt and The Grouch (picture book and young fiction) was absolutely limitless. My revolting trolls could do anything and everything and, quite often, did!
The Little White Owl captured my heart from the moment he made himself known to me in a busy supermarket one Sunday afternoon. Out of all my characters, in his own modest way, he’s the most captivating and courageous of them all.
Hubble Bubble Granny Trouble was amazing fun to write. Granny, being magical, (ok, whisper it – a witch!) allows me to really play around with the impossible and writing in rhyme is something I’ve always loved!
Can you tell us more about your Willow Valley series?
Willow Valley is set in an idyllic hidden valley. The animals who make this world their home live in cosy cave-houses and travel on little canal boats, setting up market stalls along the riverbank to sell all their wonderful home made goods!
In this series for beginner readers, we follow the adventures of Riley the mouse, and his two best friends, Starla – a very smiley badger and Horatio Spark, a roly-poly hedgehog who loves ginger cake and just “doing things” – most of which get him into trouble!
I’ve lived and breathed Willow Valley for almost two years now. When it’s been dull and rainy outside, I’ve been in fields of bright buttercups, and on the rare occasions we’ve had a really sunny day, I might have been writing about iced up rivers. It’s been bizarrely wonderful!
Willow Valley was inspired by a conversation I had with my daughter one July day when we were walking our dog, Dylan, beside the brook which runs the length of our valley…
“Why not write a story about some little animals that live in a valley, like this?” she said. “Oh, and they could sail boats down a river, just like our little brook!” I’m so glad my daughter came on a walk that day!
Willow Valley is being launched this coming June (4 books) and I’m currently writing two more stories – a winter and a summer special. It’s so exciting!
To end with, please can you share one of your favourite lines from a children’s book?
This quote comes from Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, by JK Rowling:
Sirius shook his head and said, “She’s got the measure of Crouch better than you have, Ron. If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
Tracey’s latest book Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam was published on 2nd May 2013, and there are now four stories in the Willow Valley series.
For more information on Tracey’s work, please visit her wonderful website http://www.traceycorderoy.com/
You can also follow Tracey on Twitter @TraceyCorderoy
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