From The Twits to Twitter . . .
Roald Dahl’s great-niece’s writing journey
Her great-uncle Roald Dahl was one of the most famous authors in the world, but Emma Pearl had to go to Twitter to get a book contract.
She used to participate at events called #PBPITCH where hopeful picture book writers could pitch their book twice in a day. The only people who could like the post were literary agents or editors.
An editor liked Pearl’s pitch. Mending the Moon was published in the United States last year and recently released in New Zealand.
Pearl, a Brit who lives in Toko, in East Taranaki, has written all her life, she said.
‘‘Then, about five years ago I started buckling down. There’s a lot to learn about the industry and craft. I practised a lot. I wrote a lot. I read a lot. And then I got the book deal in an online pitch contest.’’
The book is for ages 4 to 8. ‘‘You have to be very concise. You have to grab their attention immediately, or it’s gone. You have to get up like a big, strong emotional message into a small number of words. So it’s quite a different skill set to writing a novel.’’
One person who influenced her interest in writing was her great-uncle, acclaimed British author Roald Dahl, who dedicated his book The Twits to her.
‘‘He’s my grandmother’s brother. We lived a few miles away from him. He was probably the closest thing to a grandfather that I had, because my grandfather died before.
He challenged her to learn to swim when she was a 5-year-old by promising her the biggest box of chocolates available when she swam across his pool.
Dahl, who died in 1990, has been in the news recently, because publisher Puffin announced it would rewrite parts of his books to remove language it now deems offensive. Pearl wasn’t impressed.
‘‘I don’t like censorship. I don’t really like that whole thing. But it was interesting that the American publishers and the European publishers were never going to go along with that. It just seems to be in the UK.’’
And the ‘‘uproar’’ around the proposal has seen the publishers backtrack a bit, she said.
‘‘So, they’re going to publish the originals as well.’’ It will be called the Roald Dahl Classic Collection.
Pearl’s picture book will be for sale in Poppies in New Plymouth.
It’s also available online at Paper Plus and Amazon.
Pearl has her second book with the same characters, Saving the Sun, coming out in September in the US.
‘‘I don’t know when it will be reaching New Zealand.’’