Emma Homes
AFTER MAKING THE MOVE FROM GIPPSLAND AND SETTLING IN GEELONG, EMMA HOMES HAS MADE WAVES IN THE CHILDREN’S LITERATURE SCENE. SHE SITS WITH BENJAMIN SAVONA TO GIVE SOME INSIGHT INTO HOW HER STORIES WENT FROM HER IMAGINATION INTO THE PAGES OF MULTIPLE STORYBOOKS. I GREW up on a little farm out in Gippsland, with my family, which was a beautiful part of the world.
My mother was a teacher and also wrote books in her time — some of my happiest memories were when she would read to my brother and I, a lot of the time it was out of her own personal notebooks.
I remember us pleading with her to continue reading, but she told us we would have to wait because the next part of the story wasn’t even written yet!
My grandmother was also a great storyteller, not so much a writer, but she would always share stories of her childhood with us, so it’s not hard to see where my inspiration has come from.
I studied a science degree at university and that is what eventually led me to Geelong, after I was offered a position with the CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory.
That was where I met a PHD student by the name of Lee Berger, who was studying why there was a decline in frogs in the surrounding areas.
I even lived with Lee for a period of time in my life, where she and her partner had a pet wombat because he was also a PHD student specialising in animal conservation.
When I finally got time to settle down and write, I was obviously interested in some of the animals that my friends had studied and introduced me to.
The characters of my books are two wildlife scientists and their three children who travel around Australia with a laboratory on the back of their vehicle.
My first two stories in the Ruthie’s Wildlife series were inspired by those previous experiences with The Vanishing Frogs of Cascade Creek and Saving Wombats.
After these were completed I wasn’t too sure what to write about and I simply thought, what about a bird? So I did a little bit of research and came across the red-tail cockatoo and decided that it was a brilliant animal to continue the series with.
I travelled up to western Victoria and took part in the annual count of the red-tail cockatoo; it was such a thrill to a see a huge flock wheeling overhead and hear their mournful cries.
I continued to interview the right people and put together extensive knowledge about the animal and its circumstances and put together my most recent story Red-Tail Recovery.
It has been short-listed for the Wilderness Society’s Environment Award for Children’s Literature, which is a massive thrill. My first book, The Vanishing Frogs of Cascade Creek, was also nominated for the same award in 2015, but it’s still just as exciting this time around.
The award has been won by some really successful authors in the past such as Wendy Orr — I actually got to meet her and she was so encouraging and even invited me to write a guest piece on her blog!
I also received an email from Jackie French, I thought it was a scam initially, I couldn’t believe that she would be contacting me. It turned out that she is a massive lover of wombats and wanted to congratulate me on the release of my second book.
I guess writing is something that I squeeze into the margins of my life, so I am planning to continue writing, I just can’t put a time frame on when.