Coffee chat with Avril Sabine

Today I'm welcoming Avril Sabine to my blog for a coffee chat. Avril has had more than 30 stories published; a mixture of short stories, novellas and novels with the majority of them being novels. She has another 30 at different stages of production. But today we're here to talk about the release of the anthology where 14 authors from around the globe donated their time and stories for a charity called PLAN Australia. The anthology features authors such as D L Richardson, Druscilla Morgan, Jeanette O'Hagan, and of course Avril.

Welcome Avril.

D L: How do you have your coffee, and what is you favourite time of the day to partake? 

AVRIL: I don't drink coffee unless I have no plans to sleep for a couple of days. Although that happens regularly even without the help of coffee. I tend to mostly drink water and my last coffee would have been approximately twenty years ago.

D L: Why did you submit a story to the Like A Girl anthology? (3 copies to be won - Click HERE)

 

AVRIL: I submitted a story to this anthology because it's a cause I believe in. I've always encouraged my children to follow their own paths and I've noticed over the years that some people are rather negative about some of the choices I've allowed my daughter to make, telling me I should encourage her to be more lady like. That she's a girl, not a boy. Enjoying cars doesn't make you a boy, helping put up fences for your horses doesn't make you any less feminine and climbing trees isn't something only boys should be allowed to do. On the other hand boys should be able to play with dolls, have toy ovens and tea sets and gather wildflowers to arrange in a vase. Children shouldn't be discouraged from following their own path due to gender restrictions.

D L: As a child, is there a woman who influenced you? How did she help shape you into the woman you are today?

AVRIL: I was lucky to have a lot of strong women in my life and my mum was one of them. My mum might not have been perfect, after all who of us are, but she taught me a lot about being a woman. When something needed to be done, she did it. If she didn't know how to do it, she learned. I know there were times she found it difficult raising three children on her own, particularly a highly independent child who tended to stubbornly follow her own path. (With emphasis on the stubborn.) But by watching her I learned a woman can do whatever she chooses to do including house and car maintenance, cook, sew, travel and so many other things it would take pages to fill, and she can do them on her own if she wants. There are only the limitations you set upon yourself.

D L: If you could tell your teen self just one piece of advice, what would it be?

AVRIL: Don't change anything. Everything I experienced, both the good and bad, made me who I am. It also helped that I knew at an extremely young age that I wanted to be an author and I worked on making my plan a reality from that moment on.

D L: What are you currently working on?

AVRIL: I usually have twenty or more projects on the go, all at various stages of the process between first draft and final edits. I rarely have more than a couple of first drafts on the go at once.

D L: Which writer/s influences your writing?

AVRIL: When I first started writing as a young child I was heavily influenced by what I was reading at the time. First it was fairytales and later is was stories such as Famous Five, Secret Seven, Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden. These days I'm not as influenced by what I read as I was while learning to write.

D L: How many print books do you have in your house?

AVRIL: Ooh, a trick question! I remember when I was younger going into a shop and they had a large bottle of jellybeans. You could buy a ticket to guess the amount in the jar and the closest guess won the jar. I stared at that jar for ages wondering how it was possible to even come close to figuring out the answer. That's pretty much what it's like when someone asks how many print books I have in my house. Shall I count bookcases instead? There are ten tall bookcases, two short bookcases, books in cupboards because there's nowhere else to keep them and a couple of shelves. Most of the bookcases have double rows of books and books sitting on top of rows. I've had people who've stepped into my house for the first time tell me it feels like a library.

8. Because this is a coffee chat, I also must know, if you came to my house for coffee/tea would I have to put out a cake or biscuits for you?

Having a lot of food allergies I've learned to bring my own. It's much easier. So what would you like me to bring? Ginger cake? Or how about orange and chocolate chip cake? Maybe you'd prefer biscuits. What about vanilla and chocolate chip? I do like chocolate!

 

 

 

Thank you Avril for sharing with us your journey of writing. You can check out more about Avril below:

Links:

Email: avril@avrilsabine.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/avril.sabine

Website: http://www.avrilsabine.com/

On my website you'll find links to all my books, my release schedule and blog. You can also sign up to my newsletter to be kept informed about new releases, current projects, exclusive news, blog posts and more.

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/avrilsabine

 

Avril Sabine is a Queensland author who writes mostly young adult speculative fiction. She has been writing since she was a young child and wanted to be a writer the moment she realised someone wrote the books she loved to read. Avril is the author of more than twenty-five books, including the Demon Hunter series, Dragon Blood series, Elf Sight and The Irish Wizard.