Isla is here! She may have arrived in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, but at least she’s here.
My latest picture book, Isla’s Family Tree, can now find little hands to hold it, and curious minds to soak it in from 1st April. This is no April Fool’s joke.
Isla’s Family Tree is a book I’m extremely proud of. It has a wonderful and winding journey but thanks to SCBWI, my publisher, and Prue Pittock the illustrator, it will be read all over the world. Truly, a dream come true.
The journey started in 2012. My grandmother passed just before Mother’s Day. My son was five years old and my daughter was three years old at the time. This was the first time our young family had been confronted with the concept of death and grief. We had visited ‘great-grandma’ in her nursing home many times. My children knew who she was, but after her passing, I had trouble explaining how we fitted together. I found explaining what a family tree is very complex. So, I wrote some ramblings down.
“Come along and climb with me,
Up and Down my family tree.”
By the end of 2014, these ramblings wanted to become more. I tried to arrange them into a story. TV shows like, ‘Who’s House Is This?’, and ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ were becoming popular and I found them fascinating. They fuelled my motivation. And doing DNA testing was a new craze. Once this next draft was completed, I discovered Family Forest by Kim Kane. Can you believe my manuscript was very similar! Back to the computer I went to start a new file.
The next version was different, and I felt it had potential. So, early 2015 I sent it to my publisher, Anouska Jones (EK Books), who was preparing to release my first picture book, Dandelions later that year. She loved it but we both agreed something wasn’t right. It was my job to work out why it wasn’t working.
I constructed a few more rewrites and entered one of them into the upcoming CYA competition. One of the judges said, ‘Loved this book – and I can see it in print.’ This judge scored me 97.79%. It didn’t place. However, this gave me hope.
I also had a manuscript assessment at the same conference. The assessing publisher loved the concept and asked for a rewrite and direct resubmission. This gave me more hope. But it was short lived. I never heard back from her after that.
So I cracked it and put Isla in the bottom drawer.
SCBWI had a conference in Sydney in 2016. I was keen to go and have another manuscript assessment of Isla. I was busting to see Sue Whiting. She was delightful, asking me loads of editorial questions that left me wondering, pondering, and questioning. I left Isla in my head for a year after that. Bubbling away like a dormant volcano.
In October, 2017 I attend the highly successful Narrate Illustrate Meditate SCBWI Author and Illustrator Retreat held near Wilton, NSW. I decided this was going to be my last attempt at this manuscript. By now it had been almost four years since I started writing it.
You can read more details about my experience at this retreat here: http://www.scbwiaustralianz.com/our-blog/2018/9/8/scbwi-success-story-katrina-mckelvey?rq=Katrina%20McKelvey
In summary, I had a lightbulb moment during the retreat that helped me work out what Isla needed. Eureka!
After a few more rewrites, I asked Sue Whiting to assess it again since she had seen it a year earlier. She asked me loads more questions so I could shape Isla into a publishable picture book that had a strong, emotional core.
Then I held my breath as I sent it back to Anouska early 2018 – three years after she saw it the first time.
In the meantime, Dandelions was out, and Isla had been overtaken by another one of my picture books, Up To Something. But I wouldn’t give up on Isla.
I signed the long-awaited contract in July, 2018 with EK Books (www.ekbooks.org). There’s been a few years between initial idea (2012) to having the book in my hands. I’m very stubborn and practised in waiting. This is my fourth published picture book, my third with EK Books, and my first with Prue.
During 2019 I had so much fun watching Prue (www.pruepittockillustrations.com) bring Isla alive. Many tears of joy were shed, as Isla became more and more real, day by day.
To help celebrate Isla’s Family Tree, I was asked to interview Graeme Base as part of the Newcastle Writers Festival, participate in the Storytime Clubhouse at the Sydney Writers Festival, as well as host numerous local events, including a huge launch and community storytime. They’ve all been cancelled. So, I’m now in the process of making videos, answering interview questions for blogs, and planning online launches with amazing people such as the crew behind ‘Your Kid’s Next Read’ Facebook page, ‘Just Write For Kids’ Facebook page, Sonia Bestulic from the podcast, ‘Chatabout Children with Sonia Bestulic’, Dee White, Michelle Worthington, Lake Macquarie Libraries, and SCBWI to name a few. I can’t believe how many people have offered their online platforms to me. It makes me teary.
I’m already discussing the huge celebration we’ll have here in Newcastle for all the local authors and illustrators with new books during the next few months. MacLean’s Booksellers Hamilton, our independent bookseller and our public libraries are all onboard once we can all come together as a community again. It will be a book launch extravaganza!
In the meantime, I am humbled to be part of our wonderful SCBWI community. SCBWI helped me on my journey to getting Isla’s Family Tree published in so many ways. I look forward to crossing over with many SCBWI friends soon whether that’s online or in person.
Look after yourselves! And look out for Isla’s Family Tree.