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Wednesday Writing Prompt with Lauren Hackney

ABOUT LAUREN
I live in a seaside suburb of Brisbane, Australia, with my amazing husband, Geoffrey and our two boys Baxter and Ethan. Together we love exploring, trying new things, laughing and being amongst nature. We also love our chickens, fish, cockatiels and our recently adopted dog.

Another pass time of ours if story telling. Whether it be a bedtime story, a campfire story or a road trip story – we love each taking a turn and seeing where the story takes us.

For many years I worked in aviation however the pandemic put that to a stop so together we decided to put pen to paper and write this story. Reminding me that during my down days of no longer working with aircraft, the power of magic and imagination can save the day. No matter what age you are.

ABOUT THE LOLLY SHOP
The Lolly Shop is a story is about two boys who own a lolly shop. However, the children of the village create too much mischief with the magic abilities. Baxter and Ethan find a way for everyone to live with magic… however… the end of book 1 ends on a cliff hanger… to introduce book 2.

The characters in The Lolly Shop are based on my two boys – Baxter and Ethan. When this story was told, it was their ideas of magic and mischief that is now in the story.

THE HARDEST THING ABOUT BEING AN AUTHOR
Feeling like I’m not good enough to be an author. I’ve met an amazing number of incredible authors who have either a teaching background, or a journalism background or who have studied children’s psychology and all of them have produced impressive work.

Believing I could do the same only armed with my imagination and support of my family was hard. I’m so grateful I faced my fear and did it anyway!

THE FUN PART ABOUT WRITING THE LOLLY SHOP
We made up this story in bed whilst my husband was on night shift. We gathered around the kitchen table, talking about the order in which the mischief and magic would happen. Next we designed our characters. Holding our story in book form is the best part. What started as a silly way of going to sleep has turned into ‘book creation time’ which usually wins over screen time in the evening or on rainy days. Win!

WRITING PROMPT
Imagine you lived in a lolly shop, but all the lollies started to taste funny for some reason. What could be causing it? How might you fix it?

You can take a peek at The Lolly Shop here.http://Facebook.com/TheLollyShop Or learn more about it here.

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Wednesday Writing Prompt with Andrew Dittmer

ABOUT ANDREW
I write books for kids. I’m from Sydney and I like being outdoors and active. When I was at school, I used to love writing stories too. I interview book creators so you can be inspired by them too at: https://www.andrewdittmer.com/kids-book-blog/

ABOUT MY NEW BOOK, SNUFFY
Snuffy is a cute puppy with an amazing sense of smell. Her owner, Grum, thinks her nose is nothing but a nuisance… until she finds an opportunity to show how amazing her gift can be. If you put on your detective caps and study the illustrations (by Jenni Goodman) carefully, they’ll find all the clues to the story.

THE HARDEST THING ABOUT WRITING THIS BOOK
Deciding on the final storyline. I had so many drafts all going in different directions.

THE MOST FUN THING ABOUT WRITING SNUFFY
I love creating and coming up with fun characters. I especially love eccentric characters which means characters that can behave unusually and I think they can make books extra fun.

Try adding an eccentric character into one of your stories sometime.

WRITING PROMPT
Think of an animal you love and think about what special skills that animal has. Then think up how their special skill could solve a problem for themselves or someone else. Start your story with the problem and have the problem remain (or even get worse and worse) until your character solves the problem at the end.

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