Our FIVE ON FRIDAY guest this week is Brenda Seabrooke. Brenda is the author of numerous children’s books, including Cemetery Street, which is a Mystery Writers of America 2009 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Children’s Mystery. You can visit Brenda at her website: childrensbookguild.org
–
–
–
When did you know that you first wanted to be a writer?
At the age of 4 when I found out that they didn’t just appear, that somebody wrote those wonderful, magic things called books!
–
What book or writer do you feel influenced you the most?
I don’t think any one book influenced me but I did read my way through the complete works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allen Poe starting at age 10. Before that I read all of Dr. Doolittle and the Walter R. Brookes series about Freddy the Pig.
–
What book or books are you currently reading or have recently read that you’d recommend to others?
I am currently reading How Oliver Olson Changed the World by Claudia Mills.
–
If you could offer one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?
Read books in the field you want to write in. When I taught writing I was so amazed at the number of people who wanted to write for children but only read popular adult writers.
–
Can you share with us your next project or any information about the next book you’re working on?
I’ve just sent in the galleys for Wolf Pie, a transition book just past easy readers but before novels. (Clarion, 2010) It’s a different direction for me, a humorous book about the antics of the Pygg Brothers and Wilfong Wolf.
