Welcome back, fellow readers and Kidlit fans, to another installation of First Stories, where I talk with other children’s book authors about their first stories – the ones that really pushed them to jump into the crazy, but wonderful world of traditional publishing. Whether it’s the sheer amount of work that goes into crafting children’s books or whether it’s a new way to approach the writing craft, I’ve learned so much from each interview! I hope you have too!
Today, I have the honor of talking with one of my fellow Kids Book Crew authors – Emma Pearl! The Kids Book Crew is a group of twelve picture book authors with BRAND NEW books releasing in late 2023 and 2024. One of Emma’s gorgeous picture book, Mending the Moon (illus. by Sara Ugolotti, Page Street Publishing, 2022), is already available wherever books are sold. But in this interview, I get to introduce you to Emma’s upcoming picture book, Saving the Sun (also illus. by Sara Ugolotti, Page Street Publishing)!
Emma Pearl lives in New Zealand and writes fiction for young people of all ages from picture books to young adults. She is represented by Sera Rivers at Speilburg Literary.
Me: Hello, Emma, and welcome to First Stories!
Emma: Hi, Heather! Thanks for having me!
Me: Please tell me all about your “first story” – the one that really pushed you to pursue publishing.
Emma: Honestly, I’m not entirely sure how to pin down my ‘first story’. The first one I have a clear memory of was called The Frog and the Blossom Tree, fully illustrated and stapled together. I think I was 4 years old. Sadly I don’t think I still have it. The next notable masterpiece, age 6, was The Magic Smartie, here it is:
(context: Mrs Powell was my form teacher at the time I wrote this. Mr Hopkins was my headmaster and he really had a jar of smarties on his desk, which he handed out as rewards for great work or behavior. Orange was really my favorite color smartie!)
Truth is, I’ve been writing stories ever since I could hold a pencil. I wrote poetry in my teens, a handful of early readers and an adult novel in my 20s. Then I circled back to kidlit after my children were born. Around 2013 was when I began to seriously consider working towards publication, and the first story I wrote then was called Billy’s Magic Garden. It was about a boy who lived next to a forest (based on the house we lived in at the time), and who, one day, saw a giraffe among the trees peering over the fence at him. This was followed by parrots and monkeys, which didn’t make sense to Billy, as those animals weren’t supposed to live wild in New Zealand… they joined him in his garden for a picnic of oranges, Billy had a good natter with the monkeys and ended up with that lovely glowing feeling that happens when you’re the only person in the world who knows a wonderful secret.
Me: I love the idea of a magic garden so much! And Billy’s story reminds me of the classic The Tiger Who Came to Tea. I love that you’ve kept your original stories from your younger years! So have I, and it’s a delight to go back and read through them. (I was a pretty inventive child, if I do say so!)
Where is this story now?
Emma: It’s still in a folder on my computer. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll revisit it!
Me: Hooray! There’s hope for all of us to spend time in Billy’s Magic Garden. Who knows?
Are there any themes in that story that you can see in your writing today?
Emma: Magic, nature and animals all appear quite frequently in my stories, and those elements were there from the start. Magic was even in the title (of both Billy and the smartie one!). But I’m not sure that there were any strong themes in that first story at all, which is probably why it didn’t go any further!
Me: So much of that first story is figuring out just that – what is a story? What makes a good story? What makes a GREAT story? And you just have to sit down, write it down, and then put it down for awhile before coming back to it. And be willing to tell it goodbye if it really isn’t salvageable.
Looking back, what elements of that first story made it unmarketable? Did you receive feedback on that story? What did that feedback teach you?
Emma: I’ve never shown that story to anyone! It was another four years before I became confident enough to do that, by which time I had written plenty of other stories. I’ve never really thought about Billy’s marketability as, even though it was a first step on a long journey towards publication, it was definitely written only for me and my children. There’s something about it that still appeals to me – wild African animals appearing in an ordinary back garden – but it needs more themes, layers and depth, more reason and purpose, and a lot of words cutting!
Me: I love that you wrote Billy for yourself and your kids! That is definitely where my first ideas came from. And it seems to be a theme for a bunch of my guests!
Why is that “first story” special to you? How was it important for your writing journey?
Emma: It’s a very nostalgic story for me because it was so closely linked to our family life as it was when I wrote it – the house and garden and that whole world we lived in when my kids were toddlers, which, in my memory, is bathed in constant sunshine and an air of domestic bliss (although the reality was probably more like a constant, semi-comatose state of exhaustion!).
We had a tiny patch of forest next door and it was a source of endless games and imaginings. We also had a bountiful orange tree in the garden and many orange picnics on the lawn. The story itself was important for my journey because it was the first step, and of course the rest of the journey can’t happen without that. From there, I wrote several more picture book texts and started playing around with some middle grade novel ideas, but writing was still a ‘background’ thing until 2017, which was when I realized I was going to have to do more than just tinker and actually buckle down to learn about the craft and the industry.
Me: This is gorgeous, Emma! Thanks so much for sharing this glimpse of your family and your memories! I love how intertwined your first story is with the early days of your family. And I can completely relate about buckling down and then diving into the publishing industry and really learning about craft.
I would love to hear more about your upcoming release! (Emma) SAVING THE SUN is coming out on Sep. 19 from Page Street Publishing! Can you tell us a little about this book? How did you come up with the idea for this book? Does it relate at all to your “first story”?
Emma: This is the second adventure for the characters featured in Mending the Moon. When the sun sinks and loses its fire, Luna and Poppa’s yearly vacation on Summer Island suddenly goes dark. To bring back daylight, they must think of creative solutions, seeking help from the local animals, birds and sea creatures. Using the power of teamwork and imagination, they need to return the sun to its rightful place, and literally save the day.
Saving the Sun and Mending the Moon were among the earliest stories in my second phase of working towards publication, when I moved from ‘dabbling’ to getting serious. Luna, Poppa and their special relationship with the world around them (and with each other) jumped fully formed into my head, and ended up being my first published books, which I’m so happy about!
They relate a little to Billy’s Magic Garden, I suppose, in that they are also about the magic of nature and relationships between humans and animals. But the Luna and Poppa stories are much better developed and include themes of compassion, perseverance, teamwork and resourcefulness, as well as caring for nature. They also have a kind of ‘folktale’ element to them, for which full credit must go to my fabulous editor, Kayla Tostevin, who patiently coaxed this important component out of me!
Me: (whispers to the reader) I absolutely LOVE Mending the Moon!! It is a gorgeous book in every sense of the word! The writing is lyrical and the story is a modern folktale. The illustrations perfectly capture the wonder of these stories. GO BUY THESE BOOKS TODAY (or request them at your local library!).
Ok, back to you, Emma. I cannot wait to read Saving the Sun. It’s been a delight to have you here on First Stories! Thanks for taking the time to chat!
Emma: Thanks so much for having me, Heather. It’s been an interesting exercise to go back and think about all my first stories (depending on how you define it, there are so many!), and about the very long and often bumpy road to publication!
Emma’s books are available wherever books are sold. You can purchase on Bookshop.org by clicking here.
Heather C. Morris 
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