In Conversation ... with Michelle Worthington

   

In Conversation with 

Michelle Worthington 

This "In Conversation" has been organised in conjunction with 

Books On Tour PR & Marketing

as a part of the Marlow Brown campaign.

Tell us about your most recent publication. 

Sassafras and Alcatraz are twins who couldn't be more different, except for the fact that they love their local library and their mother is best friends with the librarian. They sit in the library while their mother coaches their older brothers football team. The librarian, Ms Burns, tells them the Mayor is going to demolish the library to make way for a car park and there is nothing she can do about it. When Sass goes down to the basement for the packing boxes, she puts her hands on the old library files that hold the Dewey Decimal Cards and something magical happens. She calls the characters of the books to life. The library is helping them to find a way to fight. Can they find the right combination of characters, including the knights, pirates and scientists, to stop the council and save the library?

Published by DAISY LANE PUBLISHING

How did you get published?

It was a combination of timing, luck and persistence. After ten years of trying, I finally had some interest from a small local publisher who had an illustrator wanting more work and my story was a perfect fit. I’m not sure how much talent was involved, but it opened the door for me and I will be forever grateful.

Writers are sometimes influenced by things that happen in their own lives. Are you?

I am always inspired by things around me. Most of my story ideas come from real people and places. There are stories hiding everywhere, you just need to be able to see them. Authors have an unusual magic power to take something that might seem ordinary and turn it into an extremely special story.

Other than writing, what else do you love?

There are so many things that I love and make me happy. My family always comes first, followed by (in no particular order) going to the movies, crocheting rugs in front of my fireplace, camping at the beach, meeting up with friends at out of the way coffee shops, trying not to kill my pot plants and wearing fuzzy socks. There are so many things that make me feel grateful to be alive.

Do you have a favourite character from your stories? pill the beans and tell us about them.

Ms Burns is based on my primary school librarian. In real life she looks nothing like how she does in the book, but I do love adding imagination icing to my characters. She inspired me to take my writing seriously and taught me that being an author was something worth aspiring to.

If you had a premonition you would be stranded on an desert island, what favourite five books would you take

The Anne of Green Gables series and the Little House on the Prairie Series and the Outlander series. I may just sink the boat getting there, though.

Five words that sum you up. 

The right amount of crazy.

How can we learn more about you? 

  

    

Thank you for joining In Conversation this week. Remember to always 

Dream Big ... Read Often.