April 8, 2014
Newly published Wondai author Bronwyn Hales was reading so many books to her two children she was finding it hard to find new stories to share with them, so she decided she’d start writing her own.
“There’s a lot of terrible books,” she said.
“I thought it would be nice to put something else out there.”
Her first effort is “10 Wobbling Wombats” which has been published by Steve Parish Kids books.
She provided the words and artist Paul Lennon provided the illustrations.
“It’s my first ever published book, the first of many, I hope,” Bronwyn said.
“10 Wobbling Wombats” is a “counting” book, teaching children about numbers as well as different types of animals.
Bronwyn’s success hasn’t come about without persistence.
Steve Parish Kids was the sixth publisher she approached with her work.
“I just kept going, going and going until I found someone who wanted it,” she said.
It took 18 months to find a publisher but Bronwyn acknowledges that in the publishing world this is actually a short time with many authors waiting years to get their first works published.
She now has a few more ideas in her head which she hopes to put onto paper, including one which features the days of the week.
At the moment she is testing out her ideas on her two daughters.
“As the children get older I will probably try to write for older kids, too,” she said.
“10 Wobbling Wombats” is available for $9.95 from Collins Booksellers, QBD, Booktopia, Dymocks and Angus & Robertson.
