February 3, 2020 Interview and Giveaway with Pippa Chorley
I’m excited to welcome to the blog this week, author, Pippa Chorley!
*Pippa is offering one lucky winner a copy of COUNTING SHEEP. To enter, check out the Rafflecopter giveaway following the interview below.
About Pippa:
Pippa Chorley grew up in a picturesque village in Cheshire, England surrounded by sheep. Trained as a primary school teacher, she loves to write stories that make children giggle and think outside the box. This is the first of three rhyming story books written by Pippa about the adventurous little girl Sam who loves to solve problems! Pippa now lives in sunny Singapore with her husband and their very own flock.
Connect with Pippa:
Website: pippachorleystories.com
Twitter: @PippaChorley
Facebook: facebook.com/pippachorley
Instagram: instagram.com/PippaChorley
Goodreads: goodreads.com/author/show/19069443.Pippa_Chorley
Please tell us a bit about your debut picture book, COUNTING SHEEP.
Counting Sheep is the story of a little girl called Sam who can’t get to sleep, so her mum suggests that she counts some sheep! But when Sam closes her eyes, she discovers that one of the sheep is too small to jump over the fence. Sam and the flock set about helping little Shep find a way over the fence, but will their wild ideas work?
Would you share more about the ‘Sam Series’ that it’s a part of.
Counting Sheep is the first picture book to be released in the Sam Series. Two more books are set to follow, each featuring the spunky little girl Sam who loves adventure and works hard to solve the problems she encounters along the way. In the second book, ‘Stuffed!’ Sam wakes up to find her toys have had an argument and sets about trying to solve their squabbles. ‘Stuffed!’ Is set to be released this Spring in Singapore and the US in 2021. All three picture books are written in rhyme. I love rhyming books, not only because they are often great fun to read aloud, but also because rhyme is an essential part of children’s reading development.
Who might this story appeal to?
All three books in the Sam Series are written for the 3-8 year category, but ‘Stuffed!’ may attract an even younger audience too because of its subject matter. Whilst the main character is a young girl, her adventurous nature and the problems she encounters are not gender specific and will definitely appeal to boys too.
Bring a former teacher, all three books were written with schools audiences in mind as well. ‘Counting Sheep’ works well alongside the topic of experimentation and construction. ‘Stuffed!’ is great for PSHE lessons on friendship and solving arguments and the third book in the series is all about creative play. I am looking forward to doing many school visits with them this year and next.
What was the timeline like for this story, from your inception of the idea to publication?
‘Counting Sheep’ was dreamed up many many years ago, even before I had children. I wrote the original draft in a single sitting. When I came back to the story many years later to revise it, I think the entire process from that stage onwards to publication took 1 year. Living in the small island of Singapore meant that the process of production worked significantly faster than it would in the US.
Who were the team members you worked with on it and what was the process like collaborating with them?
During the writing process I worked closely with my fabulous and talented SCBWI picture book critique group, who helped me shape, develop and tighten my text. We meet weekly and share our manuscripts, sometimes many times over, and give honest feedback as well as suggestions for improvement. They are an invaluable support in all my writing endeavours and the publication of these books would probably never have happened without them! If you don’t already have a writing group I urge you to get one ASAP!
On the book production side of things, I worked closely with my editor at Marshall Cavendish. She was always there to answer any questions I had, which were many for a debut author! She is really lovely and helped me with the final touches before printing and also organised my book launch.
I saw you and your publisher collaborated directly during the illustration process. What was that like and is there anything particularly eye-opening you took away from that experience?
Yes! I was extremely lucky enough to work closely with my illustrator Danny Deeptown on ‘Counting Sheep’ and we are hard at work again on ‘Stuffed! as I write now. He is not only very talented but also a gem to work with. He is responsive, collaborative and also extremely lovely! I know there can be issues in this industry working directly with an illustrator, but I think when it works, it works really really well. We seem to bounce ideas off of each other and I can only think that our great working relationship has made for a better book.
If granted the opportunity again to collaborate directly with the illustrator of your story, is there anything you’d do differently? Any words of wisdom for fellow authors?
I would work with Danny 100x over, honestly and I don’t think I’d change anything. I think it helps though that I like the way he draws and paints. I think if my book had been partnered with an illustrator whose work I wasn’t keen on I would find the process very different and quite difficult. When we write we often create images in our heads of what we want our books to look like and I was lucky that Danny’s work felt perfect. For anyone working with an illustrator out there I think one key thing that is important is total honesty between you. You both want the book to be the very best it can be and that will only happen if you can communicate openly with one another.
What about writing this story in rhyme appealed to you?
All throughout my life I have written in rhyme, sometimes as gifts for people, other times for catharsis, sometimes just for fun (for my husbands 30th birthday I wrote 30 rhyming verses about his life!). Rhyming seems to come very naturally to me and I don’t often begin a book thinking strategically about whether I’ll write in poetry or prose, I go with whatever comes.
Putting my teachers hat on though, I do think rhyming books are particularly appealing to young children and more likely be read over and over and remembered. Children begin understanding sounds and learning to read from nursery rhymes. It helps with their phonetic awareness and ability to predict endings.
How do you think the rhyme serves the story and overall experience for the reader?
I think that the sing song style of the rhyme helps lighten the mood of the story and add additional humour. I also think when you read a text with metre you can build dramatic tension to the line endings as children can fill in the blanks themselves, such as when Shep falls off the hay stack into the mud. There is something very enjoyable about reading words such as ‘muddle’ and children chiming in the rhyming pattern with ‘puddle’ after a deep breath!
The sheep craft some pretty zany solutions to jump over the fence. Did you use illustration notes to ensure their actions were clear and land the humor?
No, I didn’t give Danny any illustration notes at all for the manuscript when he first received it. I left it entirely in his hands to begin with and we only began discussions once he had rough drafts for each spread and concrete ideas for the book. My favourite bit he drew in ‘Counting Sheep’ was the blueprint stuck on the barn door for the ‘spring’ experiment. That was totally down to him and it really made me laugh! Our main collaborations came later, when we discussed fine tuning the drawings, adding extra details, adding an extra spot and discussing hair colour etc. I think the fact that I didn’t interfere too much at the start not only meant he had artistic freedom but also showed that I trusted and respected his part to play and his skills.
Is there a specific part of the story and/or spread that you connect with most, and why?
I love the bedroom scene at the start as this felt very real to me. It looks much like a scene in my own household at bedtime each night, particularly my little girl Caitlin who is of similar age to Sam and was a real inspiration for her character. The second book ‘Stuffed!’ has more scenes set there so I am excited to see those develop too.
How, if at all, has living in Singapore influenced your writing, collaboration with others, sense of community, and overall journey as an author?
Singapore has had a massive influence on my life, my family and my writing. It’s made me more open minded, more adventurous, helped me develop deeper friendships and given me the best writing critique partners one could wish for! The Singapore SCBWI group are not only my friends but they have become an integral part of my writing and editing process too. It was they who urged me to send off my manuscript in the first place and I will be ever grateful to them for that. One downside to living here though is the distance to book related peeps in the US and UK where children’s literature is forever moving forward. We miss out on lots of lovely conferences and having different launch dates to the US can make it challenging to keep the momentum going. I can only say thank goodness to lovely people like you Justin and the fantastic social media community that shrink the world and keep us linked and in the loop!
Is there anything you’re currently working on and would like to share with us?
As mentioned, my second book ‘Stuffed!’ is set to be released later this year, which I am very excited about. I am working hard on lesson plans and activities for it at this moment whilst Danny is busy inking up his spreads. Watch out for a cover reveal soon!
WILDCARD QUESTIONS:
If aliens landed in your yard and offered you any position on their planet, which would you want?
I would want to start up a choir with them as I love singing and be appointed their official bedtime storyteller! 🤣
If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you like to play you?
Humm! That isn’t something I have ever envisaged I have to admit Justin! Firstly I am terrible with names and I have to say I don’t crave the limelight too much. I am pretty shy by nature so a movie about my life would be surreal. If I really had to choose though then perhaps Millie Bobbie Brown off Strangers Things. I only say that because I’ve been told that my daughter looks quite like her and she looks a little like me 🤣.
In a perfect world, how would people communicate?
I am quite old fashioned and would really love to do away with texting. I love letter writing for that deep personal connection and I also love dinner parties where all conversation takes place above the hubbub of clattering knives and forks and a good glass of red wine!
Thanks for your time, Pippa!
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