I love Aussie YA. I love reading books from authors that live in the same country as me, that know things that people out of Australia might be so confused about. I love how sometimes they can incorporate this into their book and it is fabulous. 

So in saying that, I have decided to start a new feature on Angel Reads spotlighting Australian YA Authors. Each Friday for the next couple of months, I am going to interview an OZYA Author. I thought it would be a fun way to share my love for Australian Young Adult authors with not only fellow Aussies, but everyone around the world. I want more Australian YA books to be read, because they are amazing. 

First week I interview Sarah Ayoub, followed Fleur Ferris, then last week Will Kostakis.  This week we have the lovely Shivaun Plozza.  Shivaun is the author of Frankie (Penguin Australia, 2016).

Hi Shivaun, and welcome to Angel Reads. First can you introduce yourself to everyone? Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I grew up on a sheep farm in southwest Victoria, which might explain why I’ve been vegetarian for over twenty years! I moved to Melbourne for uni where I studied Creative Arts, majoring in Creative Writing. I worked as a teacher for a while and lived in London for a few years and now I work as an editor and manuscript assessor whenever I’m not writing. I’m a tennis fanatic, craft enthusiast and crazy cat lady in the making.

What has your writing journey been like? Where did you start? Why?

I decided I wanted to be a writer after reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams when I was fourteen. I’d always been an avid reader but this was the first time I’d completely fangirled over a book. I knew that I wanted to be someone who could create stories and characters that people would fall in love with the way I’d fallen for that book. I studied creative writing at uni but my writing wasn’t initially well-received – in fact, I got some seriously negative feedback that made me doubt my abilities as a writer. I kind of lost my way a bit at uni, trying to emulate the style of writing the university wanted rather than being true to who I was. It took me ages to come back from that. I was working as a teacher and was in the library one day with a class of year eights quietly reading. I picked up a book to read too – it was On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, one of the best examples of contemporary YA you will ever come across. I completely fell for the story – Taylor and Jonah for ever! – and it reminded me why I wanted to be a writer and how I wanted to write.

What was the process of getting your first book published?

It took me around four years to complete Frankie. She actually started out as a character in a different story. And she wasn’t half as awesomely bold, sassy and kickarse as she is now. But I worked hard to make her the kind of character I wanted her to be and eventually she outgrew the original story. So I started again and wrote the story that she deserved. I made use of short courses (mostly through the amazing Writers Victoria) and my writers’ group to get Frankie ready for submission to publishers. I pitched the finished book at a Literary Speed Dating event in Melbourne, where you get to three minutes to talk to a room full of publishers. From there I had a couple of requests to read the whole book and then Penguin offered me a deal.

What has your journey been like after getting the deal for Frankie?

It takes at least a year from when you get the publishing deal to the book arriving in bookstores. It’s been an exhausting but exhilarating time. I really enjoyed the editing process – working with a talented editor to make sure the book was the best it could be. And getting to see drafts for the cover design was so much fun – I’m so proud of the final cover. The best part was when they told me Melina Marchetta would be reading Frankie and supplying a quote for the cover. To have an idol read and actually enjoy my story left me weak at the knees. I don’t think anything will ever top that. The publicity side of it has been surprisingly fun. I’m actually quite a shy person so I was really dreading it but everyone has just been so supportive and the response to Frankie has been overwhelmingly positive.

You are an OZYA author, what are some of your favourite Aussie YA books?

So many! It’s going to be hard for me to keep it to just a few but I’ll try. On the Jellicoe Road (Melina Marchetta), Everything Beautiful (Simmone Howell), Finding Cassie Crazy (Jaclyn Moriarty), The Protected (Claire Zorn), In the Skin of a Monster (Kathryn Barker) and Six Impossible Things (Fiona Wood). This is just the tip of the iceberg – there are sooooooo many great OZYA books. I think we do the best YA in the world (but I could be a little biased!).

You can find Shivaun at @ShivaunPlozza on twitter, shivaunplozza.com and add her book to your goodreads.  My review for Frankie will be up in the next couple of weeks. 

Frankie by Shivaun Plozza

Pages: 314
Publish date: March 23rd 2016
Publisher: Penguin Australia
ISBN: 9780143573166
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon US – Amazon AU – Dymocks

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Thank you Shivaun for joining me at Angel Reads. That is it for this week’s #LoveOZYA Interview. What did you think of Shivaun and Frankie? I hope you enjoyed it. Let’s Chat!

Come back next week for some more Aussie fun. If you want to know more about the #LoveOZYA movement check out the website for all the details.