In a world where most people are trying to complicate things, Julia Carroll is choosing to be the person who tries to make her stories simple.
Grandparents play a special role in our lives. They help raise us. They love us to the core. They are keepers of cherished family traditions. They share with us wonderful stories and experiences from their own lives. As children, we understand more of who we are and where we come from through our connection with our grandparents.
When one grandma from Australia decided to put pen to paper as a hobby, she set her sights on telling her stories through characters that included children and — you guessed it right — grandparents. Pick up any Julia Carroll book to read and it is the first thing you’ll notice. Her motivation was simple: “I was a Granny myself when I started writing the stories and our two eldest grandchildren lived nearby and spent a lot of their time with us. My own parents were orphaned at the age of 10 so I never knew my grandparents. I suppose I aimed to become what I imaged the model Granny should be and so I wrote stories about what we did together,” she explains, convinced that her stories acknowledge grandparents’ active presence in children’s lives considering many of them look after the kids while parents work these days.
Even the idea for her recent work The Patchwork Pig and Other Stories was inspired by her special role as Granny. “I make patchwork quilts and I have a granddaughter who wanted a pet pig. I found a pattern for making a patchwork pig and that gave me the idea for the story,” she fondly recalls. Writing comes easily for Julia as she and her family enjoy the art and skill of letter-writing. All the stories in her book are based on actual events in the lives of her grandchildren, and one particular story, “Clutbog”, came about inspired by his son who had a fox as childhood imaginary friend.
With the book aimed at preschoolers and the Prep and Grade 1 children (Australian terms, ages 3-7), she pictures parents and grandparents reading the stories to these kids, and some of the early readers, reading the stories themselves. Numerous studies have shown that strong oral language skills are the basis for literacy development. Teach children to read at an early age and they will have greater general knowledge, wider vocabulary and better proficiency in reading. They will also have improved attention spans and better concentration.
If she had any favorite character in her stories, it would be Ben in the “No-Jeans Birthday Party” hands down. It’s for the readers to find out why, but dropping a hint about the character, she says: “I am a pharmacist and I became aware, talking to my customers, that many children seem to have food allergies and have to avoid certain foods and I started to wonder how a mom would organize a birthday party and avoid problem foods.”
Kindle light for truth
Julia knows there is power in storytelling and authenticity is always a crucial quality of the storyteller. An author— especially when self-publishing — must be congruent with her story: her hand, mind, heart, and wallet must move in the same direction. She should know her own deepest standards and be able to reveal them in her story with candor. Truth to the teller, in other words, and Julia’s only truth, perhaps, is that she keeps her stories simple, in a way that anyone can identify with.
She insists her tales are “about happenings in the lives of real children. There are no mythical beings or talking animals apart from The Patchwork Pig, which has an element of magic, but the others are down-to-earth stories.” She adds that all her works “just wrote themselves” and she never have to struggle to come up with her next project. “They are just stories,” she repeats. “I would like young readers to enjoy them and maybe think up stories from their own experiences.”
The very idea of publishing a book made Julia nervous in the beginning, but after giving it much thought, she went ahead. Her early experiences were not for the faint of hearts. According to her, “I looked at publishers but was put off by their arrogant attitude to potential authors – ‘Don’t expect us to read what you sent us or return it to you’. So I decided on self-publishing but this has been unsuccessful and very expensive. I suppose I was naïve and did not realize I was expected to market the book myself.”
Self-publishing provides the rare opportunity to discover a goldmine that mainstream publishing has otherwise pushed away. The mainstream industry likes to maintain a certain standard of excellence. To them, as long as they conquer the technical aspects of writing and become fluent in the language of storytelling, then success will grow naturally. While this is true at many angles, there’s more to it than that.
Like Julia, a lot of newbie authors encounter the same snobbish aura put up by mainstream publishers. “So often they [mainstream] seem unable to recognize merit and reject a story that subsequently proves to be a bestseller,” she points out. In many instances, it turns out to be a game of ‘one man’s trash, another man’s treasure’.
Being an independent author also means there are some lessons to be learned along the way. When she finally released her first self-published book (with the help of another marketing company), she ended up spending a lot of money for so little result. Despite feeling disheartened while going through the challenges, she now looks back with renewed spirit, remaining confident on the whole. “I was not aiming to make a fortune. I liked my stories and wanted children to enjoy them,” she says.
Partnering with Stampa this time around, she keeps her hopes high in reaching a wider readership and promoting her books more actively. Her main market will always be the kids, no doubt. In this digital age, books are still important because there’s just nothing like holding a real book in your hand. Only with actual printed books can you experience the tactile sensation of lending and borrowing among friends and family members.
What’s up next for this lover of Haiku and Japanese brush painting has never looked brighter: “I have finished my family history/memoir and am having it published in Brisbane. There will be a limited number of copies, just for children, grandchildren and hopefully it will be passed on to great grandchildren eventually.”
Fast Talk
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected kids’ relationship with their grandparents?
Julia: In Australia, we have border closures between states which can mean grandchildren in one state are unable to see their grandparents if they live in a different state. Some of the television channels have attempted to help by filming children sending their love to their grannies and grandads and vice versa.
How do you get inspired to write?
J: I just get an idea and then I have to pursue it and write it. I write short plays for a play reading group to which I belong. I also write Haiku and other verse (which might be considered ‘doggerel’).
Share something your readers wouldn’t know about you.
J: I have started to do Japanese brush painting.
What is your favorite under-appreciated book and why?
J: I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven is a book which considers what makes a good life and acknowledges death in a beautiful way.