In Conversation with Aussie Children's Author, Jacqueline Harvey

Jacqueline Harvey

Bestselling Aussie children’s author, Jacqueline Harvey and I first met virtually, via the Twittermachine. I followed her, she followed me back. I didn’t think much more of it. Except thanks! I love it when big named authors follow-back strangers. It’s polite. Not snobby. It shows a rainbow appreciation of readers and fans, whatever, whomever or wherever in the world they may be. These followings I’ve discovered often start the most unlikely of conversations. And unbeknownst to me, aside from both being children’s authors, Jacqueline and I had one other thing in common.

Months later, in May 2018 I attended a packed Kensy and Max, ‘Spies, Lies & Mysteries’ event at the Sydney Writers Festival. Due to my limited time and too many amazing speakers overlapping, I snuck out ten minutes prior to the end of her talk. Whoops! To my chagrin, I was sprung. Jacqueline had been animatedly describing the necessary attributes of a successful spy - eyes in the back of your head, a photographic memory, and a keen eye for detail - to her captive young audience. Darn those black cat-eyes sunglasses I had on top of my head (and on my Twitter avatar). 

Jane clearly needs spy school

Or really. Thanks! 

Jacqueline DM’d me later and we discussed our mutual (her part-time)  home - Queenstown. Jacqueline and her husband are now putting the final touches on the holiday house they’ve built under the colossal rocky veil of the Remarkables mountains, at Jack’s Point. ‘The plan is to spend two to three months of the year, twice a year in Queenstown and use if for writing time,’ says Jacqueline.

The author of 38 books, Jacqueline has a formidable writing output. Her new Kensy & Max spy series for 8+, ‘Breaking News’, published by Penguin Random House Australia was released March 2018. The second book ‘Disappearing Act’ hit the bookstores September 2018. And the third ‘Undercover’ will be released March 5, 2019. Next week!

 

Last year, when I interviewed Jacqueline for The Sapling via Messenger, she agreed to answer my Quick Fire Questions list. My only instructions were, You can choose one, both, or add or alter anything.

Book / movie                                      - Depends which book or which film, mostly book

Green Tea / flat white                      - Flat white

Chocolate / cheese                            - Both!

Champagne /red wine                     - Both!

Spots / stripes                                    - Stripes

Lap top/ notebook                            - Laptop. Actually. Notebooks.

(At this point , Jacqueline pulled out several handwritten notebooks. They looked almost completely full. She added, ‘This is the one I have in my hand bag.’

I asked, ‘Are you in café’s writing down people’s conversations?!’

Jacqueline hesitated, then responded. ‘Sometimes!’)

Left handed / right handed             - Right-handed

Flowers / chocolate                           - Flowers

Morning person / night owl             - Morning person

Cat / dog                                                 - Cat  

Bally Puss, Jacqueline's cat

Pizza, in/roast duck, out                            - We do a fair bit of eating in and eating out

Sneakers / heels                                           - Used to be heels, but now it’s sneakers

Briefcase / handbag                                    - Handbag

Ferrari / Maserati                                        - Ferrari

Lipstick / Mascara                                       - Mascara

Cook / Wash up                                            - Both ...  No cook!

Optimist / pessimist                                   - Optimist

Gym / great outdoors                                  - Great outdoors

And I have first-hand proof that Jaqueline enjoys the great outdoors. I suggested a walk and lunch when she was staying in Queenstown over summer. I suggested the Bush Creek walk in Arrowtown. Otago had been enjoying a hot spell, around 26 degrees Celcius daily with zero humidity. The walk is mostly in the shade, I said. It meanders along through leafy bush, beside a cool creek, then gently climbs up into beech forest. There are a few creek-crossings, I added. You may get your feet wet. The only animals about will be native birds on-the-wing.

Yet what I’d overlooked was that the track is actually very steep in places (it’s also a mountain bike track) and I’d been walking the hills all summer. Not writing first drafts and doing final edits over three series. But Jacqueline did not falter, as we marched onwards and upwards chatting non-stop about the children’s book industry.

We crossed Bush creek at least six times, giving in to wet feet at its widest part, the old water supply intake for the town built in 1881. I saw first hand, the unfailing energy, wit and determination that allows Jacqueline Harvey to create and promote five new books over her three series: Clementine Rose, Alice Miranda and Kensy and Max each year.

Then I shouted her lunch!

‘Kensy & Max – Undercover’ will be available in New Zealand, from 5th March 2019. RRP $20.99