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Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you started writing children’s books?
About forty years ago my wife and I were holidaying in Great Yarmouth with our 4/5 year old son. He had made friends with a small group of children who took shelter in our beach tent during a heavy afternoon shower. The decibels rose to unbearable levels for my wife, trying to read a book,. She pleaded that I try to keep them quiet by telling them a story. So, for the first time, I had to make up a story on the spot. One of the children in the group, the smallest, happened to have ginger hair. I had noticed that he was being picked on by the older members of the 'gang', "go there", "bring this", "do that", "don't do that", etc. He became the story’s hero Jimmy Crikey, the boy who looked different. I needed a spot of magic to entrance the youngsters and so Witch Matilda was born. The story needed monsters and in an underground world there was no shortage of creative opportunities. Jimmy needed a friend and I chose that his companion should be female, to widen the interest factor. And so was born Gemma, the young lady who lived at the bottom of the well. And to add to the mystery she did not know how she came to be there.
Out of such beginning grew The Amazing Adventures of Jimmy Crikey and my imagination was allowed to run riot to create a story around them and the errant Weatherman who lost control of his Cloud HQ because he kept falling asleep.
The stories did not appear in print for many years and I have just released the sixth (stand alone, complete) fantasy adventure of The Adventures of Jimmy Crikey: Radioactive! https://www.amazon.com/dp/BOCTY9PV6G
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What inspired your first story, and what inspires you now?
A story to lift the spirits of the underdog was the first inspiration.
Lately I write about self belief and release of the inner self to achieve,
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Do you focus onPrimarily a particular age group or genre in children’s literature?
Primarily I write children's MG and YA, although my most recent, On the Edge (Of a Stroke), is an adult pyschological thriller about a man who disovers a new power as hi btr5ain rtebuilds connections after a stroke.
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Which authors or books influenced your writing journey the most?
Enid Blyton was the author my kids most enjoyed as children. My early books ( no one read to us) was Grimm's Fairy Tales, Rupert stories, and the Tarzan novels.
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What do you enjoy most about writing for children?
The freedom to let one's mind roam freely is quite a fillip. To pass on morality without preaching and fill their minds with hope and the will to achieve,
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How do you develop your characters and story ideas?
the first story I told was created after watch my sone at play on the beach with new friends. Subsequently I cannot explain where the ideas come from, I pick up my figurative pen and begin writing; then the ideas just flow out of the ether.
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Do you collaborate with illustrators, and what is that process like for you?
No. I created illustrations for my first book but the cost of professional production was prohibitive.
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What themes or messages do you hope children take away from your books?
Self belief and a desire to find a way around problems witry minimum of violence
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Is there one book you’ve written that holds a special place in your heart? Why?
My memoir, Love Changed Everything, because it charts my rise from abject poverty to a liofe of reltive comfort with the woman I fell in love with at the age of eleven, but fif not meet again until we were seventeen
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Where can readers, parents, and teachers find more of your work online?
http://www.amazon.com/author/wallaceebriggs lists all my work and gives links
