Aunty Patsy and Reena Balding
An exercise in perseverance is how I describe it. Or, I like to tell people, for some people it can take 10 years to break into children’s publishing. But for others like me it can be even longer :)
What I can say is, In the Kelp Forest is now out in the world - co-authored by me and Aunty Patsy Cameron and illustrated by first-time illustrator Belinda Casey. I first wrote a version of the book five years ago and worked on it with my online SCBWI picture book critique group. A couple of my long-term critique buddies told me how much my writing had improved in the five years of being in the group and I had a sense I might be onto something.
I booked a manuscript assessment from a publisher who liked it but said I needed a Tasmanian Aboriginal co-author. And that’s how I met Aunty Patsy - we drove from the south (me) and the north-east of the island (Aunty P) to meet on a beach on the east coast to collect kelp. It was the beginning of a lovely friendship and, though I didn’t know it then, that meeting on a beach in 2022 changed my life.
In late 2023, even though the book was not yet published, our collaboration gave me the confidence to apply for a job publishing books for Aboriginal Studies Press at the government agency AIATSIS. I’ve now been there for more than two years and can now point to this as the book that got me my dream job. The biggest congratulations I’ve received have been from my SCBWI friends who understand how much of a slog it is to get published and recognise that things that others might think are of little significance in the wider scheme (like a 32-page picture book) can have massive impact on the creators and hopefully influence their readers as well. Here’s hoping the book prompts people to look at kelp a little differently.