By Jena Carr
An Ocean Grove children’s book author will help inspire aspiring writers to create their next book through her involvement at the upcoming Local Word Festival.
Heather Gallagher will chair the festival’s Creating Fantastic Picture Books for Kids panel discussion on Saturday, August 26, at the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre.
Ms Gallagher said life events often influenced her writing, and she looked forward to helping writers use their experiences for story ideas.
“Lots of people approach me with ideas that they have for writing children’s books, especially to share with their grandchildren,” she said.
“I thought it would be good to demystify the process for people and let them know how to write their own picture book and publish it.
“I feel like literacy is a big social justice issue and creating stories that all kids can enjoy is something that’s really important to me as well.”
Ms Gallagher’s latest 2018 picture book Scaredy Cat was based on a personal experience of walking her borador Pip, a mix of a labrador retriever and border collie, at the Ocean Grove Dog Beach.
“My dog has anxiety, and he ran away from me at the beach one day and was hiding in the dunes. When he finally came back to me, I said, ‘Pip, why do you have to be such a scaredy cat?’,” she said.
“It was just one of those lightning bolt moments where I went, ‘I’m going to write a picture book about a scaredy cat that is a dog’.
Local Word Festival’s Creating Fantastic Picture Books for Kids panel discussion also features picture book author Sue Lawson, self-published author Sally Learey and illustrator Kat Fox.
Visit www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1084290 for more information or tickets to the panel.
