Meet Kate Parker, a finalist for The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults
Kate Parker is an author shortlisted for the Picture Book Award in The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. We speak to her about writing Kōwhai and the Giants.
Did you always want to be an author?
I don’t think I ever thought it was possible, for me to be an author. That and becoming a dancer, which someone once told me I could make a career path. I can’t do the splits I thought and that is surely what all dancers must be able to achieve….? Straight away a block was placed to deter the quest! Why? I guess in a way I’ve been an author of theatre but for the most part I’ve always thought a ‘proper’ author would far exceed what I could think up.
I have always had a secret longing that I would live in the country, have chickens and paint stories. With my true love, we would eat homemade bread and our children would grow things and learn from the natural surroundings. I’ve never painted or drawn that much yet…but is there such a thing as a new found pathway? My true love is currently building a boat for us to live on. So perhaps the country will be the sea and the stories will come and the drawings will be a bit squiggly as there will be waves.
How did you go about becoming one?
In this instance I set out to create a stop motion animation. Well a story board for a story that could be animated. And then I realised that the still pictures were quite lovely with the glow of the paper. I thought perhaps there were words that went with the pictures, so creating the pictures (with different ones appearing first in a non linear way). Each picture had words that I could hear so I wrote notes. Towards the end of the process I sat the pictures altogether on the window sill and wrote words for each that combined to make a story (first with too many words and then slowly editing and whittling).
Can you share some advice, a tip or hint that someone gave you that you’ve found helpful or inspiring?
Plough on through. That was a saying from an old family friend, ceramic artist and fisherman Peter Algers. Plough on through. When it’s tough or not happening or you haven’t got the direction yet, you need to plough. Then when you do have the direction and the materials decided, you need to plough. Essentially it’s the act of making. Of not thinking of the result or the outcome but merely ploughing, keeping the wheels turning. I think about humanity’s shifting focus, from what we believe to be valuable to what is truthfully valuable. Our planet. We must plough through any despondent thoughts and heaviness, from what seems to be the insurmountable odds stacked against us. We must band together and keep going, keep calling for the direction to come to us. To hear the deeper call, the voices, thoughts, feelings, ideas that are going to move through us. To help this great shift on our planet which is moving towards a heart based way of existence. Earth focused in everything we do. At its core are the indigenous values of many cultures, using forgotten senses that show us woven within everything. Placing our earth at the centre of all that we do.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
I really don’t know. It depends on what is happening at the time. What I do know is…follow your nose. Follow anything that interests you. Colours, shapes, sound. Inspiration could come in any form. Keep turning up to the space, the notebook, the drawing board. Take photos, walk, read about the place, wildlife, area. Talk to people, ask questions, be interested. Take time, spend time, give your time.
What was your favourite book as a child and why did you like it?
I loved the idea of magic. Of other worlds. So I loved the idea of the back of the wardrobe becoming a door to another land. I was terrified of Narnia though, I found the witch so scary.
I loved the humour and the drawings within the handwriting in Badjelly, but again I was terrified of the witch.
Why was it always an evil woman? Hitting menopause in my life now, I too feel like a crazed witch in fluctuating moments, so perhaps they were actually kind women who were all just menopausal?
I loved Margaret Mahy’s The Changeover, the idea that we could have a 6th sense, the ability to move things with our energy.
What kind of books do you like to read now and why?
I have trouble reading fiction or at least I go through phases. I enjoy books aimed at young people most, Phillip Pullman, Shaun Tan, Lauren Child. I enjoy non fiction, learning about things. Finding out about plants, birds, fish and history.
What do you do when you’re not reading or writing?
I draw, cut things out of paper, make theatre, build things, apply for funding, figure out how to do things I don’t know how to do (like publish a book), draw, build things I don’t know how to build (like 15 clay children who need to be light yet robust), write text for an exhibition, check budgets or try to keep the budgets in check, schedule things, manage ideas. I’m building an exhibition at the moment about our human connection to everything. Its called ‘I Am Island and Sea’. I’ve recorded kids voices, built light pictures, worked with young people who have created dioramas based around the challenges on our planet and also to bring focus to the challenges of our Hauraki Gulf. Oooh and sailing that’s something I do with our family, exploring islands and the sea.
View the other category finalists:
