A huge My Book Corner welcome to Hollie Hughes, author of the picture book The Famishing Vanishing Mahoosive Mammoth.
Tell us about you in 25 words or less.
Unreasonably optimistic dream botherer, ridiculously incompetent as a grown-up, rubbish at small talk, most comfortable in my own head.
What makes you happy?
My kids, writing, learning, piano, long walks, sea, sky, a good book, solitude.
Where is your favourite place to write?
Walton-on-the-Naze – my brother-in-law has a beach hut there. It’s at the quiet end of the beach. I don’t always write when I’m there but, when I do, I get my best work done.
What’s on your TBR pile at the moment?
Currently reading Frances Hardinge’s The Lie Tree. Jessie Burton’s The Muse next – I loved The Miniaturist! After that, Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent. Then back to Kazuo Ishiguro’s backlist, which I’m slowly but surely working my way through – unless something else takes my fancy in the meantime, of course!
What’s the strangest question you’ve ever been asked (and what was your answer)?
Can you try to sell me a pen please? I tried, but failed dismally – it was an interview. Bizarrely I still got the job – due to persistence, they said.
What’s your worst habit?
Biting my nails.
Your favourite word?
Equidistant – I don’t know why, but it feels perfectly balanced to me. I haven’t managed to get it into a piece of writing yet though . . . Currently also quite keen on Mahoosive – for obvious reasons!
How did you become a picture book writer?
I think I probably always was one. When I was a kid, I was always making picture books – mainly about a potato skin driving earwig, called Eric. I just forgot to do it for a while as a grown-up.
What are your top tips for budding picture book writers?
Don’t try to guess the market – you’ll be at least three years behind anyway. Write from the inside out, not the outside in.
Can you give us a glimpse / hint at your current WIP? (I can bribe you with cake & biscuits!) It involves dinosaurs . . .
Did we forget anything?
I think there might be a Pokemon living outside my house.
Just for fun
Tea or coffee? Coffee.
Paper books or e-books? Paper.
Cake or chocolate? Yes please!
Write or type? Write for rhyme, type for prose.
Poetry or prose? Rhyme.
Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin? Gryffindor.
Hot or cold? Cold.
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