Blogging A To Z 2018: C Is For Collins, Costain, Crowley and Ciddor

This post will have to include more than one. As it is, I’ve had to cut it down to four. 

Paul Collins is the founder of Ford Street Publishing. When I first knew him, it was as my local secondhand bookseller, who published SF and fantasy for adults. Many years later, he turned to writing for children. There is an interview with him on this blog about a children’s fantasy series he was writing with Sean McMullen, but he has written - and published - a huge number of children’s books of various kinds - fiction, non fiction, education titles and trade books. He is one of the few writers in Australia I know who has been able to make a living from writing and write pretty much anything he is asked to do. 

I’m finally getting around to reading Harry Kruize, Born To Lose, which was published last year. There will be a review! 

His partner, Meredith Costain, was also interviewed here about her contribution to the humorous children's anthology Laugh Your Head Off Again and Again. She is also been making a living from writing, something very difficult to do in Australia, writing both trade and education stuff, all of it wonderful. Meredith helped me launch our books in the It's True! series.

YA writer Cath Crowley was, at one time, a teacher. She was in London, writing letters to her brother about it, when he decided to turn her life into a musical! Quite a good one, too, as I recall. The first of her books I read was The Life And Times Of Gracie Faltrain, the first of a series about a girl soccer player. They were funny and sweet, but she went on to do even better. Graffiti Moon, a YA novel about teens running around Melbourne on the last night of their school career, was simply beautiful and funny. The author completely understands how teens think and feel. She tells a story about travelling around the western suburbs of Melbourne  late at night while researching the book. Some scary looking boys approached her... and asked her to pose as their mother so they could get into a nightclub, as they were under age! 

I personally think it should have won the CBCA Award that year, as did my student Selena, who interviews Cath Crowley here. It was shortlisted, but didn’t win. Last year she was shortlisted for her bookshop romance Words In Deep Blue. It received an Honour(runner up). Some time soon she has to win! Last year also she was part of a collaboration with two other wonderful writers, Simmone Howell and Fiona Wood, Take Three Girls. Both Simmone and Fiona have also been interviewed on this site.

Anna Ciddor is a Melbourne children’s writer. Her earlier books were for the education industry. She wrote some non fiction for Allen and Unwin in the True Stories series, Unplugged: The Bare Facts On Toilets Through The Ages. Anna writes quirky, over-the-top stories. She wrote Viking Magic,  a trilogy of Viking-themed novels about two children swapped at birth by the midwife. The girl is the daughter of a farmer who wanted a boy to help on the farm and threatened to expose a female child. The boy comes from a magic user family who don’t care what they get. As a result, the farmer gets a son who is not much use at farming, but very good at fixing crop problems with magic and the magic users, who are totally useless at housework, get a daughter who can’t do magic but can keep the house running nicely for them. The novels have messages in runes at the bottom of each page. They are great fun! 

In more recent years, she has written The Family With Two Front Doors, a gentle, biographical novel about her grandmother’s childhood in 1920s Poland, which she has also illustrated beautifully. Here is my post about it. And here is my interview with Anna. Enjoy! 

Stop Press! I just heard from Anna Ciddor, who tells me The Family With Two Front Doors is now available in the US, the UK and about to be translated into Polish!

If you’re interested in checking out any of these amazing writers, here are some links. 

Web sites

Anna Ciddor: http://www.annaciddor.com/

Cath Crowley: https://www.cathcrowleyauthor.com/

Meredith Costain: https://www.meredithcostain.com/

Paul Collins: http://www.paulcollins.com.au/

And as Paul is also a publisher of children's and YA books, here is the web site of Ford Street Publishing.

Most of these books should be available on line or in your local bookstore.