INTERVIEW: Huda Hayek Tells Press Gang About Her Passion For writing
By Jacinta, Lachlan & Ahyat
We interviewed Huda Hayek. She’s a children’s author who wrote the book ‘Huda and Me’, which Hilltop Road Kids in Year 4 are currently reading.
Before she became an author, Huda wanted to be a journalist and has always had a passion for writing. She worked on Huda and Me for 10 years, there were some ups and downs but she never gave up and continued to finish this book.
She is an amazing writer and an even nicer person. Here are some more of her answers.
Why did you want to write Huda and Me?
Going back to the root of it, it would be because of the funny things that happened with me and my family growing up. Me and my siblings were alone a lot of the time. The oldest one was grown up, they were 17, so it’s not like we were really alone, but we would have just weird things. We would always just get ourselves into weird situations or I would always be doing naughty things. So I think I wanted that reflected in a book.
And also I just didn’t see any books that reflected the kind of people that we are. Lebanese, Muslim, Aussie kids, just a little bit left of centre, a little bit different to the mainstream. But still, just Aussie kids doing their thing.
Was being an author your dream job?
I only realised that I wanted to be an author about 10 years ago actually. It was actually when I was pregnant with my first son, and he’s nine now.
But before that, when I was your age, I had my sights set on being a journalist. That’s what I wanted to do forever. Growing up, there was this one news reader on TV called Susanna Car and I just wanted to be her. So I went through high school aiming for this one university with this one degree in mass communication journalism that I wanted. And then after that I did another degree in primary school teaching.
And then, about 10 years ago, I thought, how can I combine my love of writing and my enjoyment of working with kids? And then that’s kind of how it came to be writing for kids. So yeah, I guess it was a later on dream and it’s okay to have later on dreams.
Did you have any doubts about this book?
A Million. And I often tell kids that when I visit their schools. Huda and Me took me five years to write, whereas Huda Was Here, took me five months to write. So imposter syndrome is a huge thing. You think you can’t do it. You think people aren’t going to like it. You think it’s not funny enough or clever enough or well-written enough and you struggle to get to the end.
So yes, millions of doubts and because there isn’t really a book with those kinds of characters in it, I guess I didn’t know if there was a space for it or if kids would enjoy it, but I really wanted all kids to enjoy it, not just little Lebanese Muslim kids.
What was the best part of the writing process?
My favorite part was getting to the end! Writing is hard work and editing is the worst, that’s the hardest part, but the best bit is getting to the end.
The other part along the way that I enjoy is when I write something funny and it makes me laugh. I just love laughing when I write, when I start giggling, I know I’m onto a good scene or a good part of the book. And usually those are the bits that kids enjoy most.
Yeah, I think I do. And I think I’ve always had it despite me struggling with reading and writing when I was quite young. I think I do. I think that you can do so much with words and you can really change yourself and the world with words. It’s just an amazing thing.
