1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.
I once taught a Catholic nun how to bellydance.

2. What is your nickname?
Most people call me Karen, a few friends call me Kaz, but I’m just grateful that nobody has called me Ginnanny Goat since school days.

3. What is your greatest fear?
Being called Ginnanny Goat.

4. Describe your writing style in 10 words.
Immersive journeys through known worlds and stranger places just beyond.

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Lyrical, immersive, imaginative, warm (and occasionally) funny.

6. What book character would you be, and why?
I wanted to be Pippi Longstocking with her freedom and exuberance, her strength and her monkey, as well as Sam Gribley with his peregrine, Frightful, in My Side of the Mountain. I also wanted to be Mrs Pepperpot, so I could be tiny and irascible.

7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
London in 1858, so I could feel for myself the excitement, possibility and energy of the biggest city the world had ever known (and to see if I’d got all those details right in my books.) Then I’d pop back to pre-settlement Australia, to see for myself the incredible cultures that have lived here for millennia.

8. What would your 10-year-old self say to you now?
You took long enough.

9. Who is your greatest influence?
The incredible Ursula le Guin.

10. What/who made you start writing?
I’ve always written to make sense of the world. It’s how I process life.

11. What is your favourite word and why?
Discombobulated. It’s like marbles tumbling in my mouth.

12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
This curly question makes me too anxious to answer.

Karen Ginnane is a Melbourne-based author for middle-grade/young-adult readers. Her debut novel, When Days Tilt, was published in July 2021 and the sequel, When Souls Tear, was released in July 2022. These exciting historical fantasy adventures, set in Victorian London and a parallel city, are part of The Time Catchers series. For more information, see www.karenginnane.com.

August 16, 2022 at 12:53AM Penny Harrison