Award-winning author Jen Storer uses infectious humour, outlandish language and a distinctive narrative voice to lure readers through her picture books for young children and darker tales aimed at middle-grade readers.

In this Q&A she reveals how healthy neglect can benefit a story, why reading aloud is important, and how farmer Clarrie and his quirky language mix-ups came into being.

Your publishing schedule has been extremely full lately and it includes:

• Clarrie’s Pig Day Out  (illustrated by Sue deGennaro) published in February 2016
• Danny Best: Full On  (illustrated by Mitch Vane) released in October 2015
• The Fourteenth Summer of Angus Jack  (illustrated by Lucinda Gifford) published in September 2015
• Truly Tan: Hoodwinked! (illustrated by Claire Robertson) to be launched in May 2016
• A picture book scheduled for release in mid-to-late 2016.

What’s the secret to your amazing output?

People often ask me that but, to be honest, I don’t believe my output is particularly extraordinary. I guess the only thing I might do differently from other writers is that I work on multiple projects at the same time. However, projects will often get partly written then languish for months, sometimes years, before I get back to them. This is not procrastination on my behalf, it’s just reality. We can only do so much in any given day. I’m happy to let projects rest. Let them get some air. It doesn’t worry me. In fact I see it as a bonus. Stories improve with age and a bit of healthy neglect. I’m not in a huge hurry to reach completion. But I am persistent. Plod, plod, plod. It doesn’t sound very glamorous. But it’s true. I’m a plodder and I’m loyal to my characters and stories. I rarely abandon them.

What’s one gorgeous sentence, fun fact, humorous quote or visual from one or two of these new books to entice A Bigger Brighter World readers to explore them further?

The Fourteenth Summer of Angus Jack has been described as ‘Enid Blyton on crack’. Now there’s an elevator pitch!

Another little anecdote: ages ago a Truly Tan fan wrote to me and said that Truly Tan was ‘very hooking’. I love that! I adore how children manipulate language to suit their purposes. Tan does it all the time. She would have clicked with that reader, for sure.

The blurb for Clarrie’s Pig Day Out (for children 3+) says, ‘Clarrie is a farmer who gets his worms, no, no, no, his words mixed up. In this very funny picture book Clarrie tells us all about his pig day out.’ Where did Clarrie come from? What do children most relate to in his story?

I was people watching in a café. A grandmother was reading a picture book to her little grandson. But it was a ‘café picture book’. These are often … duds, chosen with no thought but to fill up a bookcase and look pretty. This picture book was definitely not working. I could tell by the boy’s body language. I thought, If I had to read an awful book like that to a little kid what would I do? The answer was immediate. I’d make up silly words and make the story funny. Clarrie quickly evolved from there. In fact, I rushed home and started scribbling.

Children love correcting Clarrie. They love showcasing their own knowledge. They delight in the fact that he confuses simple words such as box/fox, tree/flea, mug/bug. They appreciate how ridiculous it makes his story sound. And, of course, they go into meltdown when Clarrie says, ‘I nearly had a fart attack’ (instead of heart attack).

How easy is it for you to transition from writing a children’s picture book for young readers like Clarrie’s Pig Day Out to creating a more detailed tale for older readers like The Fourteenth Summer of Angus Jack? What helps you most when you’re toggling between age groups and genres like this?

I’m much more at home in middle grade fiction like Angus Jack or my gothic novel, Tensy Farlow and the Home for Mislaid Children. I adore inventing outlandish characters and I love playing with rich language and dark humour. Picture books are a whole different ball game. I find them incredibly restrictive. But it’s a joy when you get them right. I’m a visual person. I have a degree in film studies and I’m a mixed media artist. But I still find picture books tricky to write. I’m scared of toddlers too. They freak me out. They’re so primal and yet so complex. I find it difficult to imagine a toddler who is my ideal reader. When I sit down to write a picture book I have to consciously banish all the critics and judges and gatekeepers who can be so opinionated and territorial, and try to focus on that one dear little soul who is coming to me for a story, not some politically correct ‘lesson’. It’s an exhausting tussle.

Danny Best: Full On is the first in a new series aimed at children aged 7 and up. Who is Danny, what inspired you to create him, and what do children most enjoy about his story?

I had countless boys swaggering up to me at Truly Tan school visits saying, ‘When are you going to write something for us?’ I always wanted to reply, ‘Haven’t you embraced non-gendered books yet?’ In any case, that’s why I wrote Danny Best. He was with another publisher for a while but they wanted to change him to girl. It was unthinkable. Danielle Best? No. I took him to HarperCollins and they embraced him, warts and all. Mitch Vane’s extraordinary illustrations took him to a whole other dimension. When Mitch and I work together we egg each other on. We get sillier and sillier. For instance, there is now a guest star in Danny’s books called Severy the Severed Arm. Severy has many adventures. He has even conquered Hollywood. He’ll probably get his own series one day. Ha! But what really intrigues me about this partnership and this series, is that Mitch and I are venturing into territory that has a strong tradition of male domination. HarperCollins were brave to take us on. But you know what? The boys couldn’t care less. They love Danny and they love Mitch and I. It’s so rewarding. It seems the sexism that would normally have marginalised us, stopped us from writing books ‘for boys’, is all a bit yesterday. I find that encouraging.

In February 2016, at Northcote Library in Victoria, you ran a course called ‘Writing books for children’. Can you share one useful tip from the course with A Bigger Brighter World’s readers?

I love teaching creative writing to adults. My blog, girlandduck.com, is devoted to teaching and sharing and inspiring. It’s hard to choose one tip but I guess it would be, focus on voice. Develop voice. We must get the voice right for kids’ books. (For any book, really.) Never underestimate it. I talk about this in more detail at girl and duck. I also do weekly Q & Q videos (questions and quacks) for subscribers. We cover all sorts of questions about creative writing, the writing life, the publishing industry etc. It’s great fun.

You grew up in the Wimmera in Victoria. What is the greatest gift (or curse?) this wheatbelt landscape/home town has given you in your writing?

The boredom forced me to use my imagination. The hardship and exclusion made me compassionate and determined. The isolation made me cherish culture, education and the arts in a way that city people might not understand. I feel blessed (and a little astonished) to be doing this work.

What are the best ways to encourage children to love reading?

Lead by example. Spend lots of time lounging around reading. Let your kids know this is not only okay, it’s a joy. Read aloud to your kids even when they’re older (if they’ll let you and mostly they will.) My partner reads aloud to me too. He read me The Hobbit. It took a few weeks. It was mesmerising. It made me feel nurtured.

* * *

See also jenstorer.com and girlandduck.com.

In 2016, Jen Storer is a Melbourne ambassador for The Footpath Library, which raises funds so it can supply free books to homeless people via mobile services, libraries it has installed and stock in hostels, refuges and community organisations in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. The books are a gift and need not be returned.