As we continue to explore the world of e-books on PaperTigers, we’re asking practitioners and people on the ground about some of the challenges and triumphs they personally have faced creating e-books, as well as the challenges and triumphs they see for the industry as a whole. Last week we spoke with Janet Wong ; today we chat with Hazel Edwards.
Hazel is a 2012 Astrid Lindgren Award nominee, and Ambassador for Australia’s 2012 National Year of Reading, and writes a story each birthday for her grandkids. f2m:the boy within was a 2011 White Ravens selection. Hazel is also a director of the Australian Society of Authors and especially interested in e-books. She is perhaps best known for her There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake series, as engaging and creative as the author herself, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary with the release of the Pocket Bonfire short film that screened internationally at 2011 film festivals.
We first interviewed Hazel back in 2007, and since then she has been a regular guest on the PaperTigers Blog; we’re delighted to welcome her back now to tell us about her involvement with e-books.
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What was your inspiration for writing e-books? Was that your intention from the get-go, or was there an evolution in your creative process?
I enjoy e-books, both as another innovative format for my stories and to read myself. Inclusive of print, not exclusive. Audio already exists. Maybe smellovision next?
Change should be embraced, not feared. So, although I’m format-challenged, my aim is to learn one e-skill per day and slowly add e-stories to my website. For e-skilled children who are more visual rather than verbal, I’d prefer them to exercise their imaginations reading mysteries on screen, than play violence-based computer-games.
As a 2012 National Year of Reading Ambassador, I’m keen on any aids to literacy, and reading ‘on screen’ is seen as ‘cool’ by challenged readers, whether kids or adults. That’s the reason for adding my mystery series and performance scripts as an easy way of sharing reading for a fun purpose.
‘Us mob likes your e-stories’ was a response after an outback web-chat with an indigenous literacy program.
Fan mail proves e-books work for challenged readers, whether read on laptops or other devices. Educator Robyn Floyd forwarded this fan mail. And it’s genuine responses like this that make an author’s day.
Recently, my e-mentor daughter streamlined my website to allow sales of my print books, along with a slow move to all e-books, for the ease of readers beyond bookshops and libraries. This also makes my books available for international schools or remote web chats.
Experimentally, I grouped some of my easy-to-read children’s mystery stories into an e-book series, Project Spy Kids<
Australian writer Hazel Edward‘s picture-book There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake was 30 years old last year and is a must-read classic for all young Australians. The book has recently been made into a short film by Pocket Bonfire Productions, which premiered at the St Kilda Film Festival in Victoria, Australia at the end of May – here’s a photo of Hazel with writer/director Jaime Snyder and producer Joel Sharpe:
The film is due to be screened during the upcoming Edinburgh Film Festival as part of a program devoted to Family Shorts on 26 June (see here for details). Take look at the rather whimsical trailer to the film – and tell me if it doesn’t make you laugh out loud at the end!
Tantalising, isn’t it? Especially for those of us who are going to have to wait for the chance to see it… Meanwhile, we’re delighted to welcome Hazel back to PaperTigers with an article that ponders her reaction to her book being made into a film…
‘How Do You Feel About a Film Being Made from Your Picture Book There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake?
I’ve been asked that question a few times this week, especially as the world premiere is this Saturday night at the St Kilda Film Festival. And then it goes onto the international showing at the Edinburgh Film festival.
My short answer is, ‘Thrilled that my story has gone into another creative dimension.’
…Long answer:
A book is a bit like a child. At some stage you have to let it go out on its own.
For me, as an author, the greatest creative satisfaction is the moment of capturing the abstract idea in words, just before it goes onto the page or screen. The second satisfaction is when a reader takes those word clues and uses their own imagination to re-create an approximation of the idea I was playing with. Then it becomes their story, not mine.
The third satisfaction is when a ‘fan’ contacts me to share that something special has happened as a result of my book.
And that’s what happened with the making of this film. Pocket Bonfire film-makers Jaime Snyder and Joel Sharpe contacted me, as a result of reading their favourite book as children, and being inspired to make a film.
To me that is the greatest compliment, to offer to take my book-baby into a medium in which they are skilled, but I am not.
More than three years ago they contacted me, seeking permission. But they were student film-makers then, finishing their course at Swinburne, and I wanted any film of my book to be mainstream with no legal complications about who owned what. So we waited until they could make it as independent film-ma
Life is abuzz with the literary life.
Hazel Edwards was staying at The Hughenden and we caught up about the launch at the St Kilda Film Festival of ‘There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake – it got a standing ovation!!!!!!
Hippo is also being shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival with Director Jaimie Snyder speaking there – go Hippo, go!!!!!!
Hazel was in Sydney to speak at Paul MacDonal’d Beecroft Bookshop – the place to go when you’re looking for kids’ books. I bought Margaret Wild & Ron Brooks ‘The Dream of the Thylacine’ autographed by both of them.
I see Margaret Wild in Sydney, but Ron lives in Hobart. So I now have my own autographed copy of this stunning picture book with its lament for the loss of the Tasmanian Tiger.
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Caught up with innovative publisher Sophia Whitfield who’s publishing the Aussie heroes series that includes Hazel Edwards’ ‘Sir Weary Dunlop’. It’s getting great reviews.
Kane Miller, my US publisher for ‘Butterflies’ is just back from the Book Expo in New York with warm & wonderful news about Butterflies. She said it’s going to ‘fly’ – Butterflies- fly. I like that. For anyone who hasn’t seen the trailer of Butterflies, love you to view it. I think it’s lovely:-
Butterflies, a novel Susanne Gervay
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JP7BKgmQic
