Interview With Author Jennifer Elliot Lindsey

 

1.           What inspired you to write this book?  The enjoyment of recalling memories of shared places, events and people. A love of the Australian environment of sea, sand, rivers and the ‘Bush’  A knowledge of the pioneering history of early Australia and a desire to pass these stories on to the next generations.  

 

2.            What exactly is it about and who is it written for? Mimi and Co are true stories, written about a family of three sisters, their father and grandma who are the principal characters in each story (their mother also makes appearances). The first stories describe early childhood events but the later ones continue to trace the sisters during their summer holidays as they grow and develop.  It is written for young readers and parents who would enjoy sharing the sister’s holidays and experiences – and they will probably relate to many of them!

  

3.           What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book?  Increased knowledge and understanding and of the beautiful natural, environment – including the wild coast of southwestern Victoria (Australia).   Increased pleasure and enjoyment as they come to know the sisters better, and appreciate their diverse personalities and different ways of facing up to new experiences and new challenges. 

                    

4.            How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design? My three granddaughters, Mimi, Sami and Nina, were always the central characters of these true stories, and the reason for writing them. The cover was designed by their father, Tim Lindsey, who also illustrated the stories, drawing on his memory of the events they describe. It recalls the unfortunately-named but very beautiful Worm Bay, a special beach where we loved to swim and picnic. 

 

5.            What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers- other than run!? Be prepared to be very patient at every stage of your work.  Edit, edit, edit - and then put it to one side and edit it again. Don’t be distracted by other people’s suggestions. Read your work aloud, and imagine it in other places and situations, for example, as a library book, being read to a group of children, being given as a gift.   Be patient with the editing, and marketing processes.   Give your work time to be nurtured and to grow.

  

6.           What trends in the book world do you see.  Where is the book publishing industry heading? Quantity rather than quality seems to be the name of the game at the moment, both in children’s and adult fiction. More and careful editing before publication could help resolve a general deterioration in quality. Encouragement of the vernacular is all very well but it does reflect a rather limited and unimaginative style and vocabulary.  

 

7.           Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book? Definitely – and those experiences in the stories themselves, which describe actual events.  How can a writer divorce him/herself from their own world? 

 

8.           How would you describe your writing style.  Which writer or book is your writing similar to? Books about children that have been written for children. They may be fictional or factual – for example, the Peter Pan stories, The Railway Children and Milly Molly Mandy. 

 

9.           What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book? Because they were written at different times in the children’s lives, I had to be very alert to avoid repetition. When it came to the final collection, I also needed to be careful about matching spoken vocabulary with age vocabulary.  Finally, ‘Grandma’ and ‘Dadda’ are background characters and needed to be kept firmly in their secondary roles.

  

10. If people can buy or read one book this week or this month why should it be yours? Because it will introduce them to wonderful new people with diverse characters to think about and get to know, make them think about how children deal with challenges, describe some beautiful new places for them to appreciate, and suggest some new ways of relating to the natural world around us. A week would be ideal!

 

About The Author: Jennifer Lindsey (more often referred to as Jenny or, within the family, Mum, Grandma or ‘G-ma’) is now aged 83 and lives with her husband in the Yarra Valley, a semi-rural district outside Melbourne in Australia.  She was bought up in a small rural town near the southwestern coast of Victoria (Australia), remaining there until leaving to complete an Arts degree at the University of Melbourne, where she met and married her husband, Paul. After bringing up their four children and retiring from teaching English and History, Jennifer has remained in close contact with her children and grandchildren, sharing their bucolic retreats and annual holidays along the familiar and much-loved southwestern coastline. Community activities, the environment, friends, and family, continue to be a significant part of her life. For more info, please see: https://www.amazon.com/Mimi-Co-Jennifer-Lindsey/dp/1398498114. 

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 4,900+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.