Bookworm Literary Festival: Mark Greenwood
We actually met Mark Greenwood the day before his scheduled Bookworm Literary Festival event. He had been talking with illustrator Frané Lessac, though we didn't recognize him at first.
Myles had been worried that the bookstore might sell out The Donkey of Gallipoli after Lessac's event, so he asked to buy it it when we arrived. Lessac offered to sign it before she began as we were still waiting for a school group to arrive. The man we had seen talking to her her said he could sign it too, but Myles and I thought he was joking. Then together they explained that he was Mark Greenwood, the writer and husband of Lessac. OHHHH.
We thanked him for this because at that point we were not sure we would be making to to see Greenwood the next morning. His writing workshop had already been sold out for weeks.
As luck would have it, the sell-out still had room to squeeze us in, so the next morning we were again at the Bookworm to see Mark Greenwood. He did talk about some of the same books his wife had the previous day, as well as a few others, but from the writer's perspective rather than the illustrator.
More after the jump
The title of Greenwood's writing workshop was "Strange Objects." He discussed several of his books, and how one object could spark his curiosity enough that it would inspire a the story line. Whether investigating the object itself leads to the story, or the strange object gives him something around which the story can pivot, sometimes the most insignificant piece of ephemera can make a Greenwood book.
(This has been one of the great things about seeing such a variety of children's authors and illustrators at the Literary Fest--they all have their own ways to find and shape their stories. Whether it was a mysterious place near where they grew up, or their travels, or drawing characters to see where their interactions might lead, or growing up in Narnia, or asking "Who are your characters and what do they want?"---we have seen such a variety of writers and their approaches to producing books.)
For instance, Greenwood talked about how a tombstone with a pair of leg irons on it and the Welsh word rhyddid inspired him to track down the true stories of the legendary jail-escapee Moondyne Joe. He also showed a photograph of a coin his uncle had given him, telling him it had been found on the Island of Angry Ghosts.
There were known Dutch shipwrecks near the Island of Angry Ghosts off the west coast of Australia, most famously the wreck of the Batavia. Greenwood convinced a friend of his with a boat to take him out to the wreck site, though the friend only took him so far. As Greenwood told it (this was much more thrilling than I can describe), his friend was unwilling at the prospect of encountering the ghost ships that day. To dive the wreckage Greenwood had to take a dinghy on his own. From the surface he saw something glittering. Excited that he was about to get rich from treasure, he donned his SCUBA gear and dove. He came up with this.
This weird eyeball ring then became a very important part of the plot of Fortuyn's Ghost.
He invited the audience to try a "Strange Object" exercise of their own. He flashed a picture on the screen and then asked them to write what they thought it might be and who would use it.
While Myles is still keeping his answers private, Brigid shared hers with me. She believed it to be a weapon of some sort that would be wielded by spinning it with your hands. The person who would use it was "John the Revelator."
Some of Greenwood's most moving anecdotes about researching his books were about two that he and Lessac wrote about Anzacs, Simpson and his Donkey and Midnight: the story of a Light Horse.
Simpson and his Donkey took Greenwood and Lessac to Gallipoli. Greenwood described it as the saddest place he had ever visited. Usually beaches are fun, crowded places, but the empty, rocky Anzac Cove was the opposite of that. He spent three days scaling up the stony hillside in the hot sun, like his countrymen almost a century before, so he could get a sense what that felt like. He wasn't in danger of being fired upon, and he wasn't carrying a soldier's equipment, but the exercise deepened his appreciation of the Anzacs. He described feeling proud of those young, brave Australians and New Zealanders and saddened by the tragedy of it all. He also ended up in South Shields, England, to see the evidence in old newspapers he needed to prove one of the poignant turns of Simpson's story: one of the English reinforcements Simpson had saved was a childhood friend from South Shields. Simpson died of from a sniper's bullet before the old friend could reconnect with his chum and savior, but he survived the war and related the story of the Anzac Medic and the Donkey for the rest of his life.
Similarly, to research Midnight Greenwood travelled both to the stables, where the horse of the title character was foaled and is still an active horse farm to this day, and to Beersheba, where Midnight met her heroic end. He was able to see the letters of his primary human character that gave him what he needed to grow a story of the relationship between a special horse and a soldier. This story struck Brigid, hard, and she whispered to me that this was the book she absolutely wanted.
Additionally, Greenwood's research had taken him all over Australia. For the book Jandamarra, Greenwood retraced the Aboriginal hero's last escape in the scorching Kimberly region, accompanied by a Bunuban guide. And for The Legend of Lasseter's Reef, he followed, as well as he could, fortune-seeker Harold Lasseter's trail in search of a vein of gold he claimed to have found decades before. In the process, Greenwood found a cave where Lasseter sheltered during that last expedition to the Outback, and possibly some of Lasseter's gold nuggets. He even passed some around to have the kids feel them for themselves. Brigid shied away from this, much to Greenwood's amusement.
He had the chance to share some of his research with Lasseter's now elderly son. This book had much greater appeal to older readers, like even Myles' age. Even though it was the size of a conventional picture book, it was dense with information and maps. According to Greenwood, the secret of Lasseter's Gold was contained in the pages. The clues were all there.
Myles happily received an autograph in his copy of The Legend of Lasseter's Reef. Brigid, however, was disappointed. No copies of Midnight had arrived at the Bookworm for sale. I had her convinced to get her ticket signed, and we could paste it later in a book I would order from Amazon. Greenwood, not wanting Brigid to leave let down, generously presented Brigid the copy he had been carrying to the Festival events. Her jaw dropped in disbelief.
Frané Lessac then showed up to join her husband for lunch, and she stood with Myles and Brigid for once more picture. Brigid was happy to see the illustrator again, and tell her how excited she was to have Midnight.
I often say that the Bookworm Literary Festival has always been an opportunity for us to meet our next favorite books. With Mark Greenwood and Frané Lessac we also met our next favorite authors and illustrator. With their foci on historical and geographical books for children, they both go above and beyond in research and accuracy than what I think most book consumers would expect. They wanted to produce a children's book about the Australian Light Horse so they put in the travel and research that someone writing a full-length book for adults would. They could have easily stayed home to write a book about a well-known Anzac legend and his donkey, memorialized all over Australia. However, they went to Gallipoli and England to learn more, so much more than was readily available with a wikipedia search. Greenwood and Lessac's books are so incredibly special because they don't short-change their audience.
Myles had been worried that the bookstore might sell out The Donkey of Gallipoli after Lessac's event, so he asked to buy it it when we arrived. Lessac offered to sign it before she began as we were still waiting for a school group to arrive. The man we had seen talking to her her said he could sign it too, but Myles and I thought he was joking. Then together they explained that he was Mark Greenwood, the writer and husband of Lessac. OHHHH.
We thanked him for this because at that point we were not sure we would be making to to see Greenwood the next morning. His writing workshop had already been sold out for weeks.
As luck would have it, the sell-out still had room to squeeze us in, so the next morning we were again at the Bookworm to see Mark Greenwood. He did talk about some of the same books his wife had the previous day, as well as a few others, but from the writer's perspective rather than the illustrator.
More after the jump
The title of Greenwood's writing workshop was "Strange Objects." He discussed several of his books, and how one object could spark his curiosity enough that it would inspire a the story line. Whether investigating the object itself leads to the story, or the strange object gives him something around which the story can pivot, sometimes the most insignificant piece of ephemera can make a Greenwood book.
(This has been one of the great things about seeing such a variety of children's authors and illustrators at the Literary Fest--they all have their own ways to find and shape their stories. Whether it was a mysterious place near where they grew up, or their travels, or drawing characters to see where their interactions might lead, or growing up in Narnia, or asking "Who are your characters and what do they want?"---we have seen such a variety of writers and their approaches to producing books.)
For instance, Greenwood talked about how a tombstone with a pair of leg irons on it and the Welsh word rhyddid inspired him to track down the true stories of the legendary jail-escapee Moondyne Joe. He also showed a photograph of a coin his uncle had given him, telling him it had been found on the Island of Angry Ghosts.
There were known Dutch shipwrecks near the Island of Angry Ghosts off the west coast of Australia, most famously the wreck of the Batavia. Greenwood convinced a friend of his with a boat to take him out to the wreck site, though the friend only took him so far. As Greenwood told it (this was much more thrilling than I can describe), his friend was unwilling at the prospect of encountering the ghost ships that day. To dive the wreckage Greenwood had to take a dinghy on his own. From the surface he saw something glittering. Excited that he was about to get rich from treasure, he donned his SCUBA gear and dove. He came up with this.
This weird eyeball ring then became a very important part of the plot of Fortuyn's Ghost.
He invited the audience to try a "Strange Object" exercise of their own. He flashed a picture on the screen and then asked them to write what they thought it might be and who would use it.
While Myles is still keeping his answers private, Brigid shared hers with me. She believed it to be a weapon of some sort that would be wielded by spinning it with your hands. The person who would use it was "John the Revelator."
Some of Greenwood's most moving anecdotes about researching his books were about two that he and Lessac wrote about Anzacs, Simpson and his Donkey and Midnight: the story of a Light Horse.
Simpson and his Donkey took Greenwood and Lessac to Gallipoli. Greenwood described it as the saddest place he had ever visited. Usually beaches are fun, crowded places, but the empty, rocky Anzac Cove was the opposite of that. He spent three days scaling up the stony hillside in the hot sun, like his countrymen almost a century before, so he could get a sense what that felt like. He wasn't in danger of being fired upon, and he wasn't carrying a soldier's equipment, but the exercise deepened his appreciation of the Anzacs. He described feeling proud of those young, brave Australians and New Zealanders and saddened by the tragedy of it all. He also ended up in South Shields, England, to see the evidence in old newspapers he needed to prove one of the poignant turns of Simpson's story: one of the English reinforcements Simpson had saved was a childhood friend from South Shields. Simpson died of from a sniper's bullet before the old friend could reconnect with his chum and savior, but he survived the war and related the story of the Anzac Medic and the Donkey for the rest of his life.
Similarly, to research Midnight Greenwood travelled both to the stables, where the horse of the title character was foaled and is still an active horse farm to this day, and to Beersheba, where Midnight met her heroic end. He was able to see the letters of his primary human character that gave him what he needed to grow a story of the relationship between a special horse and a soldier. This story struck Brigid, hard, and she whispered to me that this was the book she absolutely wanted.
Additionally, Greenwood's research had taken him all over Australia. For the book Jandamarra, Greenwood retraced the Aboriginal hero's last escape in the scorching Kimberly region, accompanied by a Bunuban guide. And for The Legend of Lasseter's Reef, he followed, as well as he could, fortune-seeker Harold Lasseter's trail in search of a vein of gold he claimed to have found decades before. In the process, Greenwood found a cave where Lasseter sheltered during that last expedition to the Outback, and possibly some of Lasseter's gold nuggets. He even passed some around to have the kids feel them for themselves. Brigid shied away from this, much to Greenwood's amusement.
He had the chance to share some of his research with Lasseter's now elderly son. This book had much greater appeal to older readers, like even Myles' age. Even though it was the size of a conventional picture book, it was dense with information and maps. According to Greenwood, the secret of Lasseter's Gold was contained in the pages. The clues were all there.
Myles happily received an autograph in his copy of The Legend of Lasseter's Reef. Brigid, however, was disappointed. No copies of Midnight had arrived at the Bookworm for sale. I had her convinced to get her ticket signed, and we could paste it later in a book I would order from Amazon. Greenwood, not wanting Brigid to leave let down, generously presented Brigid the copy he had been carrying to the Festival events. Her jaw dropped in disbelief.
Frané Lessac then showed up to join her husband for lunch, and she stood with Myles and Brigid for once more picture. Brigid was happy to see the illustrator again, and tell her how excited she was to have Midnight.
I often say that the Bookworm Literary Festival has always been an opportunity for us to meet our next favorite books. With Mark Greenwood and Frané Lessac we also met our next favorite authors and illustrator. With their foci on historical and geographical books for children, they both go above and beyond in research and accuracy than what I think most book consumers would expect. They wanted to produce a children's book about the Australian Light Horse so they put in the travel and research that someone writing a full-length book for adults would. They could have easily stayed home to write a book about a well-known Anzac legend and his donkey, memorialized all over Australia. However, they went to Gallipoli and England to learn more, so much more than was readily available with a wikipedia search. Greenwood and Lessac's books are so incredibly special because they don't short-change their audience.
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