Since her debut YA in the 1990s, Christine Keighery (a.k.a. Chrissie Perry) has notched up dozens of books for young people. In an industry with zero guarantees, she’s carved out a solid career over several decades. So how did Chrissie redirect her energy into a very different kind of book and break in again?
Chrissie wrote this exclusive post for Voracious.
“Mum. Something happened at school today that I want to talk to you about.
But you have to promise not to put it in a Go Girl.”
After twenty-five plus years in the industry and thirty-five books published, apparently I’m a ‘debut’ author. Those books were all for children and young adults. It’s been a satisfying career with giddying heights, like writing for the internationally successful Go Girl series and winning awards for my YA novel Whisper. The lows, like seeing book babies I’ve put my soul into disappear from the shelves without trace in a few short months, are also part of it. My passion for reading and writing, though, has been a constant.
Mum read to us every night. Aged two, I was reciting A. A. Milne poems (my parents taped it and played it back to me recently with beaming pride.) Dad was the ultimate storyteller, making up tales on the spot and performing characters that were invariably hilarious. Children’s literature was highly valued in our growing up space.
I wrote my first novel, If Looks Could Kill, when my eldest was a baby. The year my youngest started school, I pitched for the Go Girl series, and became a professional writer. My middle child, Billie, was squack in the centre of the territory I was writing about. I mined her experiences because I valued them, but I remember a time when she said: ‘Mum. Something happened at school today that I want to talk to you about. But you have to promise not to put it in a Go Girl.’
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