Albert Elzinga
First-time author Michelle Adams will see her childhood dream turn into a reality when her first children’s book No Ordinary Excuse is launched on 11 February.
The book tells the story of 12-year-old Gemma, who wants to be an actress but finds it difficult to do her homework while pursuing her ambition. The young student decides to come up with an appropriately convincing excuse and is forced to deal with the consequences of her actions.
The book’s subject idea came from an exercise Michelle did to practise her writing and brought her back to her self-professed ‘default age’, around 12 years.
Having three children, two of them teenagers, helped Michelle, from Murwillumbah, obtain the right vocabulary used by today’s youth and allowed her to make her characters sound authentic.
Michelle’s insight into the art of writing resulted from her formal study for an associate degree in writing and years of note taking in her quest to become a published author.
The book was rejected five times before small up-and-coming publishing house Odyssey Books agreed to publish her first effort.
Michelle said it took six years to write the book and convince a publisher to print it.
She engaged a manuscript assessment agency before subjecting her book to the judgment of different publishers and said she never thought about giving up.
Michelle said she was ready to follow her first book with a number of others. One of her current projects was the publication of a cookbook but the competition from established chefs was fierce and made convincing publishers to print the book exceedingly difficult, Michelle said.
Michelle’s book launch will take place at the Coolamon Cultural Centre (the old art gallery) on Tumbulgum Road in Murwillumbah, 2–4pm on Saturday 11 February. She will also sign copies of her book at Heidi’s Place bookstore in Murwillumbah on Saturday 25 February, from 10am until 12 noon.
Image: By Katrina
