Meet author Pamela Freeman and illustrator Liz Anelli. They discuss their collaborative process in creating the picture book Seed to Sky: Life in the Daintree. They talk about the research, writing, and illustration process, how they balance text and visuals, and the importance of accuracy in children’s non-fiction.
00:00 Introduction and welcome 03:00 Nat Newman’s writing tip 11:48 Book giveaway: The Bookshop Woman by Nanako Hanada 14:02 Word of the week: chatoyant 15:40 Interview with Pamela Freeman and Liz Anelli 27:37 The art of bringing colour and tone 28:41 The roughs: what are they? 29:32 Fiction vs. non-fiction the writing for kids 33:01 The journey of an illustrator 36:46 The collaborative process
Pamela Freeman is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than 40 books and novellas, plus short stories and scripts.
She writes under two names: Pamela Freeman for children’s and fantasy, and Pamela Hart for mystery novels and historical fiction.
Her most recent novel as Pamela Hart is An A-List for Death. This follows Digging Up Dirt, the first in the Poppy McGowan mystery series. She also publishes Regency romance novellas with Escape Publishing. Prior to this, she’s published a number of historical novels, mostly set in the first part of the 20th century (WWI and the Roaring Twenties).
As Pamela Freeman, her non-fiction picture books are multi-award winners, especially those she has created with illustrator Liz Anelli, Desert Lake and Dry to Dry: The Seasons of Kakadu. Pamela is also well known for her children’s fantasy, such as Victor’s Quest and Victor’s Challenge, and the associated Princess Betony books.
Pamela writes fantasy for adults as well; her Castings Trilogy was published world-wide and was followed by Ember and Ash, an Aurealis Award winner.
Pamela started writing as a scriptwriter for ABC Kids. She has a Doctorate in Creative Arts (Writing) and has taught writing at UTS and the University of Sydney, as well as conducting workshops at writers festivals, schools, and libraries Australia-wide. She is Director of Creative Writing at the Australian Writers' Centre.
Liz was born in Essex, England and has been scribbling away since she could first hold a pencil. Liz began by lying under the dining-room table and drawing endless epic horse adventures. Now Liz generally works at a desk – but sometimes she draws the view looking down from something very tall, or sitting on a train or out for a coffee. Liz has stacks of sketchbooks packed with drawings, plane tickets, receipts and food wrappers with interesting type on them, jumbled between jotted down snatches of conversation. All this stuff is very handy for Liz's multi-media illustrations. Liz mostly uses a computer to put all the bits together. Mostly Liz illustrates picture books. Liz's latest sketches, projects and discoveries can be found (sometimes on her blog) and always on Instagram.
