I grew up on a farm in New Zealand, in a small farming community. I was driving a tractor by the time I was twelve, and had my driver’s licence at fifteen. Although I knew everyone in my valley, as a child I didn’t know the gossip and the secrets. Years later, they’re inspiring story ideas!
Trust Me, I'm Dead
I always wanted to travel, like my big sister did. In New Zealand we called it going OS (overseas). I went to South Africa first, then the UK. I’m still travelling as much as I can, at every opportunity. I love being on a large plane with my own TV screen in my own little world for a while.
I have loved reading ever since I was a child. I read everything, including the 100-year-old books on the family bookshelf. My most exciting day was being allowed to join the public library in town and bring home a huge pile of books.
I’m a cat person. I don’t mind dogs but growing up on a farm means, I think, that I’ve “been there, done that” with dogs! Cats are good for quiet cuddling and they make great lap warmers.
When I left school, I had no idea what I wanted to be (training as a vet was going to take too long and I was a bit impatient to be getting on with life). I ended up training as a librarian. Given my love of books, I guess that wasn’t a surprise. I loved being allowed to read all the new books first!
I got addicted to crime fiction very early. I was lucky to have a teacher who gave me boxes of her cast-off books, and most of them were either crime or historical fiction. My early loves were Mickey Spillane and Winston Graham. Now I love Anne Cleeves’ and Tana French’s books, but they are just a few of many.
For the past 20 years I have been writing children’s and YA books – more than 70 of them. But all that time I’ve kept working on my crime novels. I have two awful ones in the bottom drawer, and I did write a middle grade murder mystery – Dying to Tell Me. I couldn’t help myself!
I got hooked on research when I was obsessed with pirates – I wrote a historical middle grade novel about the most hopeless pirate in history, Stede Bonnet, and that led me into a ten-year obsession with pirate history and stories. But I’ve also researched and written novels about the Great Plague of London, ballet, Australian history and motor racing.
One of my favourite things to write is picture books – but they are incredibly hard! I have some that I have written 20, 30 or 40 drafts of. I still don’t think they are publishable yet.
I’m a failed gardener. I would love to have a brilliant garden with flowers and vegetables and everything looking marvellous and beautiful and weed-free, but something doesn’t work. Most years I can’t even manage a decent crop of tomatoes, no matter what I try. I’m not sure if it’s Melbourne’s capricious weather or me – I suspect it’s me.
Trust Me, I'm Dead by Sherryl Clark is published by Verve Books on 25th July 2019.