I am some kind of weird magnet for Australian wildlife. I have been chased by a marauding emu, tracked down by a disgruntled wombat, found a frog in my sleeping bag, had a wallaby ransack my campsite and a kookaburra eat my lunch. If you are after a close encounter with nature, stick close to me!
2. What is your nickname?
Some friends call me the Social Secretary as I love organising us all!
3. What is your greatest fear?
Drifting alone across the world in a hot-air balloon without any instructions on how to land!
4. Describe your writing style in 10 words.
Nostalgic, lyrical, immersive, questioning and descriptive stories of everyday life.
5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Curious, thoughtful, focused, persistent, cheeky.
6. What book character would you be, and why?
That’s the hardest question ever! I’d be a little bit of Pippi Longstocking because she’s fabulously fierce; a fragment of Anne Shirley of Green Gables because her imaginings and confidence brings adventures; a teensy bit Piglet because he’s very wise; and, the rest, Dr Seuss’s Lorax because he speaks for the trees.
7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
Back to 1979, with a bit of money in my pocket to purchase the most excellent Mattel Sunrunner roller skates that I coveted!
8. What would your 10-year-old self say to you now?
Why didn’t you buy those roller skates?
9. Who is your greatest influence?
Authors like Colin Thiele, Ruth Park and Mavis Thorpe Clark, Judy Blume, Nadia Wheatley, Margaret Wild and Tim Winton. Also, my high school English teacher Mr Dunlevy – he commanded only the best in sentence structure!
10. What/who made you start writing?
In kindergarten, a brand new blue crayon cast a magic spell over me to spend my life writing and writing. Also, my parents who were avid readers and ensured that libraries and bookstores were part of my life from a young age and encouraged me to enter writing competitions.
11. What is your favourite word and why?
Thank you. Gratitude and recognising how someone has helped you, or made a difference, is such a powerful word.
12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
OK, this is officially the hardest question ever! Enid’s Blyton’s The Folks of Faraway Tree because you might go easy on me and allow me the whole Faraway Tree Series. It never gets old reading about small houses in the clouds in tall trees, the grumpy Pixie and Dame Washalot.
Andrea Rowe is an award-winning author. Her children’s book Jetty Jumping won 2022 CBCA Picture Book of the Year – Early Childhood. Sunday Skating and In the Rockpools are out in 2023 (Hardie Grant.) Mornington Peninsula based Andrea is the winner of several short story literary awards, and a professional copywriter. For more information, see https://andrearowe.com.au/
