Press Gang: Where do you get your ideas for your book?
Nat: In The Right Way to Rock, Max was a little bit based on me. My mum was a school teacher, so there was an expectation that I would go straight to university. But I actually ended up running away to join the circus, which was not what my mum expected. So the idea came from that feeling of not walking the normal path or going the way that your parents think you’re gonna go.
Press Gang: Why did you want your books to be funny?
Nat: Because I’m funny! I like to think I’m funny. I use humour as a way to relate to people. Ever since I was a little kid that’s always how I connected with people. And so I thought with my books, if I want to connect to the reader, my first approach is humour. And then afterwards I put in a bit of heart and a bit of meaning. But the first way I want to get my reader is through humour.
Press Gang: Who or what inspires you?
Nat: Who inspires me? There was an author, have you ever heard of Paul Jennings? He was one of my favourite authors when I was a kid. He’s still around now. He’s a bit older now. He inspired me in the sense of he wrote books that I loved reading as a kid.
But also what inspires me is the kids I hang out with all the time, because now that I’m a kids’ author, I spend a lot of time with kids and they’re so much cooler than adults. They inspire me to write more books for them because I see them get excited about the books I’ve written already and they make me want to write more.
Press Gang: What types of books do you read?
Nat: Mostly kids books! Sometimes if I’ve got like a really big holiday, like if I’m going away for five weeks or I have lots of time off, then I might read some grown up books, and if I do that they’re usually true crime or something like that. But most of the books like, can you see that shelf behind me? every single book on that shelf is a kid’s book. I don’t have one adult book on my shelf shelf. So I’m just a big kid.
Press Gang: How do you choose a book to read?
Nat: Sometimes it’s recommendations. Especially if kids tell me that they love a book. I’ll definitely read that because I want to know what kids are loving. So recommendations is a big one. Front covers is another big one. Like I would definitely read or not read a book based on the front cover, even though I know you’re not supposed to do that.
Press Gang: Of all the characters you’ve created, which one is your favorite?
Nat: In Secrets of a Schoolyard Millionaire, I really like Mr. Piddles, the ferret. In the Power of Positive Pranking I love Argon, the Grandpa. And then in We Run Tomorrow it Sticks. In the Right Way to Rock, its Flynn. And I think Flynn might be one of my favorite characters ever.
Press Gang: What advice do you have for kids who want to write books?
Nat: I think that I would say it can feel intimidating. I remember when I was a kid, I never thought that I would ever be able to write a book because they just had lots of words in them. But I loved telling stories. So I think even if you think you’re not the greatest writer in the world, if you really love telling stories and you want to tell stories, you can learn how to write. If I can do it, anyone can do it.
And my second thing would be, one of the scariest things when you start writing is putting your story out in the world for people to read and potentially judge. And so when you’re a kid, if you can start entering writing competitions and finding ways to put your writing out into the world, it’s a really good start and good practice for when you become a writer later on.
Press Gang: Why did you become an author?
Nat: I’ve had a lot, a lot of jobs! But I think all the jobs I’ve had had a lot to do with storytelling. I think I’ve always liked to entertain people and tell stories. And so eventually books became the most logical way to do that because I could go straight from my brain onto the paper and then the books go straight into the hands of kids. So it’s the quickest way to get the stories from my brain to the audience.
I’m a bit surprised that I’m an author. I knew I wanted to tell stories, but I didn’t think I would end up writing books, but turns out I can write, which is really exciting.
Press Gang: Of all the books that you have or have written, which one’s the most popular?
The best selling ones are Secrets of a Schoolyard Millionaire and We Run Tomorrow.
Press Gang: Can you explain what ‘Tourettes’ is?
Nat: So Tourettes is a neurological condition, which means it’s something in your brain. People who have Tourettes, have tics, which can be things that they say or physical things that their body does that they have no control over. I have a friend called Jess who has Tourettes and she says ‘biscuit’ a lot and she says ‘hedgehog’ a lot. The character of Flynn, in The Right Way To Rock, has a tic where he says ‘gherkin’ as well as some other tics.
One Comment