To celebrate this momentous occasion, we asked Kristin to answer a few questions to introduce herself to her new readership.
1. Tell us a bit about yourself.
I have been writing full time for about 10 years. Prior to becoming an author I was a scientist and then a science writer. I have published two biographies, a commissioned history of the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia, and a children’s picture book, which is the current Children’s Book Council of Australia Eve Pownall Award winner for non-fiction for children. My most recent work, Blue Flames, Black Gold, the history of multinational oil and gas company Santos, will be released into the general book trade in May. My new picture book, Meet Banjo Patterson, published by Random House, will be released in February 2015.
2. Why are you keen to publish Rock Star as an ebook?
The paperback edition of Rock Star: the story of Reg Sprigg, has sold greater than 10,000 copies, however it was produced by a rather small publisher in South Australia, and distribution to national and international readers can be challenging. The new ebook version of Rock Star produced by MidnightSun will allow Reg’s story to be shared with a much larger audience, no matter where they live.
3. What are the projects you are currently working on?
My latest adult non-fiction book goes to the printer this week. I am looking forward to working on some new children’s picture book ideas, and also continuing work on a family history/memoir based in the South Australian coastal town of Moonta.
4. Your book Tom the Mailman became a huge bestseller. What does it feel like to become a bestselling writer?
Mailman of the Birdsville Track: the story of Tom Kruse, was published in 2003 and has been continuously in print since, selling greater than 100,000 copies. Mailman was the first book I had ever written, so I had no idea that its success was so unusual. Tom Kruse was a family friend and I feel very lucky that serendipity put me in the right place at the right time to write the book. It was an honour to tell his story.
5. What are some of the major differences between writing for children and writing for adults?
Obviously the page length of a typical picture book leaves you very few works to work with. Words are traded for illustrations, which can convey so much to a young reader. Condensing Tom Kruse’s story, for instance, into a 32-page picture book, meant I had to focus on one facet of Tom’s life and distill the essence of that person into a handful of words. In Tom’s story I used the Cooper Creek flood to illustrate how reliant the people of the Birdsville Track were on the mailman. For the isolated residents of central Australia he was a lifeline to the outside world.