35 published novels later, here's my "debut"
A guest post by Christine Keighery
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.’
Children’s inner (and outer) lives are so rich. Sometimes, through the adult lens of copious responsibilities and stress, we forget that. And there is a tendency to think that writing for children is simple. It isn’t. The most common mistake aspiring writers make is to deliver a moral, pure and straight. Kids run a mile from that approach and rightly so.
More times than I care to recall, I had comments along the lines of:
will you ever write a real book?
More times than I care to recall, I faced comments along the lines of: will you ever write a real book? My response was always outwardly polite and inwardly furious. What wasn’t real about my twenty-five year career? I preferred not to let them know that while I was writing Go Girls, around 2007, I was experimenting with writing short stories for adults. One of them, ‘Hydraulics’, won an ABC Radio National Competition. As always, I wrote from character. Out of these stories came early versions of two sisters, Hannah and Stef. I liked writing about these layered and relatable women very much and pondered a full-length novel. But commissions for my children’s books kept coming in and I didn’t have the mental space to do both.
That changed over a decade later. My latest series (Blabbermouth, Scholastic) wasn’t living up to sales expectations. My sister, Helen, had aggressive breast cancer and was ticking things off her bucket list. And the fictional sisters, Hannah and Stef, were nagging me to take a risk.
In 2019, for the first time in eons, I was writing without a contract. That in itself was terrifying. I gave an early draft to trusted people and was buoyed by their reactions. Two years later, heart in mouth, I sent the manuscript to Alex Craig at Ultimo Press. She’d worked with the likes of Hannah Kent and, though new kids on the block in the publishing world, Ultimo looked like a truly exciting house.
Alex got back to me. We Skyped. She loved my characters and family dynamics. To my surprise she suggested that my novel wasn’t finished: she wanted me to ramp up the tension and write another 20,000 words. Everything she suggested resonated. I went back to the drawing board but there were no guarantees.
When I received an email from Alex a short time after sending the new draft, my (long-suffering) husband held his breath. I figured the best I could hope for was more feedback and encouragement. But Alex had taken it to Acquisitions and the result was unanimously ‘yes!’
Truly, I bawled.
Thirty-five books in, my ‘debut’ novel, The Half Brother, a psychological thriller, was published last week and the official launch party is tomorrow. The difference is that this book is being given a lot of air: interviews, media reviews, invitations to festivals and literary soirees. I’m hanging onto my hat. And loving it! I only wish the same opportunities were given to writers of children’s books.
These days I won’t hold it in out of politeness but rather shout it from the rooftops: everything I wrote before The Half Brother was a real book, too.
The Half Brother by Christine Keighery is available now in all good bookshops.