Ailsa Wild on Acrobatics, Collaboration and Caring.

Ailsa Wild is an award-winning Australian author. She’s the creator of The Naughtiest Pixie and the hilarious Squishy Taylor series, which has been published in the US, UK, Spain and Turkey and she has written picture books and a graphic novel. She is also a performer, acrobat and professional whip-cracker. She lives with her family in Melbourne. Her latest book is non-fiction for adults – The Care Factor: A story of nursing and connection in a time of social distancing.

Kate and Ailsa discuss:

• Ailsa’s involvement in The Women’s Circus: Melbourne folk, new intake now!

• The Squid The Vibrio and the Moon and the creation of other Small Friends Books in conjunction with CSIRO

• Treating the writing of Squishy Taylor as a uni assignment – read comparative titles, did chapter break downs, graphed the whole book.

• What it’s like to write a junior fiction series

• Juggling babies and writing

• Collaboration with scientists, publishers, illustrators

• Top Tips for school visits and working with young readers and writers

• The story behind The Care Factor

Ailsa’s advice to other writers:

• Read, read, read

• Write write write

• Carve out writing time: your writing time deserves so much respect. Your writing time is your big bad boss.

Ailsa’s debut novel recommendation:

• The Silent Listener, by Lyn Yeowart

Find out more about Ailsa Wild on her website, or follow her on instagram or twitter.