When I am browsing in a bookshop, I often pick up a book because of its cover. Then I look at the title, then read the blurb and if I’m still interested, I’ll turn to the first page to get a taste of what’s inside.

The cover of a book is of utmost importance. It is the initial point of contact with your reader.

There are many stages in the life of a book, from first draft to structural edit to copy edit to first pages to cover design. Little Paradise is now at the cover design stage and I am waiting for first pages to come back from the typesetters.

Marina Messiha, the wonderful designer at Penguin created eight different cover designs for Little Paradise. A favourite was chosen by my publisher, Jane Godwin and editor, Katrina Lehman. I loved it right away. My only concern was that the girl on the cover had a sultry, knowing look, which didn’t match Mirabel’s personality. She also didn’t look full blooded Chinese.

August is Book Week, a time when children’s authors visit schools to talk about their books, and a perfect opportunity for me to road test the cover concepts. I took them along to 6 different schools and out of approximately 600 kids, only a handful voted for the cover we had initially chosen. Almost all of them voted for a girl in a red dress. Jane Godwin got the same results when she road tested them on a number of schools.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t use the red dress cover as it was reminiscent of another book which is highly popular among young people at the moment. So it was back to the drawing board.

Another 4 covers were created by Marina and I chose the final one last week.

It uses a gorgeous hand tinted photograph of my mother when she was twenty taken in Melbourne in 1944, which is only fitting as the story is inspired by her.

Here is the photo that will be used. My mother had the dress made, then she beaded it herself. She’s in Paris at the moment so I haven’t told her yet. I’m not sure of her reaction. It’s been hard writing a book of fiction based on your own mother. But that’s a whole other story.

The secret of writing is simple. All it involves is placing one word after the other to form a sentence. Then place one sentence after the other to form a paragraph. Then one paragraph after the other to form a chapter. And by the end of it all, you have a novel. Of course this whole process can take years – about two years per novel in my case – and you have to inject the words and phrases with the sparkle of imagination and loads of research. But it’s no use waiting around for inspiration, or for it to be raining so you are forced to be indoors, or for the ‘write’ feeling to grab you, or for the house to be quiet. You have to forget about the sunshine, the kids, the beach, the garden, the hills that are calling you to walk them, and lock yourself away like a monk in a cell. I often liken myself to a monk transcribing and decorating an illuminated manuscript. Patiently, painfully working in minute detail.

You don’t need a beautiful office with a garden outlook. I wrote my first two novels in the corner of our bedroom, my laptop perched on a small cane table sitting on a kitchen chair. All you need is a computer or pen and paper, and your imagination. And you don’t even have to go to the library because you can research almost everything on the internet.

Inspiration will not come to those who wait. Writing begets inspiration, it’s not the other way around.

Setting yourself a realistic writing goal is also the key.

One of my favourite books on writing is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. In the chapter called Short Assignments she talks about a one inch picture frame.

There are many days when I lose confidence in my novel, in my own ability and it’s in times like these that I turn to Bird by Bird. Lamott says that all you have to do is to write down as much as you see through that one inch frame. Just take your story inch by inch or bird by bird as she puts it.

My seven day writing goal is to move my story along by 500 words. These first words don’t have to be perfect, nobody’s going to see them. Later you go back and fix them up. The main thing is to get the story down, to move it forward. Many authors like to write the whole first draft of their novel without editing. I like to do some refining as I go, especially the beginning chapters.

So there you have it, the secret of writing.

These are so delicious. They are crispy around the edges and so light it’s hard to know when to stop eating them.

Best served with maple syrup.

Ingredients

I cup self-raising flour

I 1/2 cups milk

6 tablespoons melted butter

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon castor sugar

2 free range eggs

Method

Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add eggs. Beat well with a spatula then add the milk. When the batter is smooth add the melted butter and stir.

Heat a frying pan. Smear a light coating of butter onto the surface then spoon in pancake mix. I cook one largish pancake at a time because the mixture is quite runny. Cook until brown then flip.

Serve with pure maple syrup.

ENJOY!

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