Paula Xiberras
I recently had the pleasure of chatting to one half of the delightful Angelica Banks writing partnership made up of Heather Rose and Danielle Wood. In this instance that half was Heather Rose …
Heather tells me that how she and Danielle got together to become Anjelica Banks is a bit of serendipity in itself.
Danielle called Heather to come see her (the ladies live near to each other) as she had an idea for a children’s story.
As soon as Heather arrived at Danielle’s place and was told about Danielle’s idea of the character of Tuesday McGillicuddy, an aspiring author and adventurer, Heather realised she already ‘knew’ Tuesday. In addition to the symbiotic relationship between Danielle and Heather in their writing about Tuesday is that they also share a closeness in their birthdays. It seems literary destiny that these ladies would collaborate.
On the craft of writing Heather tells me she finds the process of saying goodbye to a character once a book is finished a difficult process, but has a system for handling the situation. Heather will pack away the photos and other paraphernalia relating to the character and write the character a letter to say goodbye. This, however, doesn’t stop Heather from occasionally sensing their presence in her kitchen and asking them if they want a cup of tea!
Heather has a history of creating solid characters that are hard to say goodbye to and not just for her; it can be a definite weaning process from her readers evidenced by people coming up to her in the street and asking in particular about a much loved character called Charlie from her book ‘The Butterfly Man’. Heather tells me they will often enquire from her how Charlie is doing as if he were a member of Heather’s family …
This kind of confirmation of clever creativity is what Heather wants to encourage in children and says she doesn’t agree with supposed pleas of boredom by children, an offshoot of our technological age where Heather says, children become impatient with anything that does not give immediate results.
Heather wants to encourage children to create their own play. Unfortunately, it is often we adults who admonish children who are exceptionally creative, thoughtful or reflective, saying they ‘are off with the fairies’ giving such creativity a negative connotation.
This new adventure of Tuesday’s gives us a glimpse of a girl with a genius grasp of imagination. Readers familiar with Tuesday from the first book, will see Tuesday cope with the sudden sickness of her father and having the weight of the world’s worries on her shoulders as well as she and her famous Mum contemplating a world without writing.
‘A Week Without Tuesday’ by Heather Rose and Danielle Wood is out now published by Allen and Unwin.
