A Big Fat Thank You Letter

From Fleur Beale To
The brilliant and wonderful readers who wrote to me for the ASB Wordbank Competition

It’s always a thrill to get letters from people who have read something I’ve written, especially when the letters are as thoughtful as these were. I was interested in what aspects of a story you enjoyed, and it was good to hear from so many of you that you got involved in the story and the characters.

Some of you wanted to know where the idea came from for the book you read. Ideas can come from all sorts of places and I find that mine mainly come from the world around me. Sometimes it can be something quite ordinary. I got the idea for Saving Mr Spender when I was driving past a gym and saw through the window a whole row full of people biking really fast and going nowhere. I thought, all that energy and it’s going nowhere. And that started me thinking about how the energy could be used . . .

The idea for Ambushed came because my nephew who was 12 at the time wanted me to write a book for him, so I asked him what he’d like me to write about and Ambushed was the result.

Lucky for Some sprang from the time we moved to the country and lived in a 100 year old cottage just like the one Lacey’s family moves to.

When I started writing there weren’t many books published in New Zealand for children and teenagers. I believe it’s important for us to have stories about ourselves, set in our country, written in the way that we speak, and that’s why I started writing. We’re very lucky now because we’ve got so many great books by all sorts of different writers all writing stories about us, our lives and the things that interest us.

Your letters were much appreciated; thank you all.

Have fun reading and keep on exploring the wonderful world of books.

Fleur Beale