Emily Rodda
Emily Rodda grew up with her two younger brothers on Sydney's North Shore and graduated from the University of Sydney in 1973 with an MA (Hons) in English Literature. Always an avid reader, she moved naturally into a career in publishing, first as a book editor, and finally as Publisher at Angus & Robertson. Later she became Editor of the Australian Women's Weekly.
Emily Rodda's first book, Something Special, was published in 1984. It began as a bedtime story she told to her young daughter, the eldest of her four children. Since then she has written over 100 books for children, ranging from picture books to novels.
As Jennifer Rowe (her real name) she has also written several mystery novels for adults, and created the characters and storylines for the TV series Murder Call. Her children's books include the internationally best-selling Deltora Quest and Rowan of Rin fantasy series. She has won the Children's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year for Younger Readers Award a record six times. She has also received many Children's Choice awards and the Aurealis fantasy award.
Emily Rodda has been a full-time writer since 1994. "I feel very lucky to have a job I love so much," she says. She is passionate about children's reading, believing that books stimulate the imagination and teach logic and empathy in a way that games and movies can't. She believes strongly that in order to develop reading stamina, and thus gain the tools to move on to more complex books, children need a good supply of fast-moving, entertaining stories that will grip their attention and make them want to read on.
In 1995 she won the prestigious Dromkeen Medal. The judges of the award said of her that she "maintains a prolific writing schedule, continues to provide a role model in promoting children's literature, and still spends many hours sharing her love of books with children and educators". In 2019 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Western Sydney, and in the same year was made a Companion of the Order of Australia for her services to Australian literature.
She and her husband Bob live in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney with a loving but very naughty Labrador called Sadie.
I have always loved reading and writing stories. English was my favourite subject at school, and at home I often wrote plays for my brothers to act out. But as I grew older I decided that I wasn’t very good at writing, and stopped. Then I began telling stories to my own children and remembered how much I’d enjoyed writing. I tried a story or two, found that others liked them, and soon writing had become my favourite hobby all over again.
It’s hard to explain where my ideas come from. Usually it starts when I’m just thinking about something quite ordinary. By asking myself “What if this happened...?” I get my imagination going. In this way a story can be made out of the most everyday situations. I always carry a notebook around with me and scribble down every idea that comes to me—ideas for characters, plots, or mystery clues, for example. That way, if I’m stuck for an idea later, chances are I’ll find something in my notebook to help.
It wasn’t hard to think of ideas for the Deltora Quest series—in fact the hardest thing was sticking to the word limit! I loved writing this series because I could really let my imagination go wild.
None of the characters in my books are exactly like anyone I know, but all of them have things in common with people I know. Everyone writes from his or her own experience. I look at people I know and listen to them and when I am trying to think of a new character, those things come back to me.
My real name is actually Jennifer Rowe. When I finished my first book, Something Special, I sent it to the publishing company where I worked as an editor. I put my grandmother’s name, Emily Rodda, on the manuscript. I was a bit shy about my writing and wanted to get an honest opinion about the book from the other editors in the office. Then Something Special was published, and won the Australian Children’s Book of the Year Award. The name Emily Rodda got quite a bit of publicity, so now I use it for all my children’s books, and use Jennifer Rowe for my adult books. I don’t find it confusing—it’s a bit like having a nickname.
Ever since I can remember, reading and writing have been my favourite hobbies. These days I don’t have a lot of time, but even so I might read up to three books a week—depending on how long they are, of course!
I am married with four children, and live in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. We have a dog called Sunny. And because we live next to the bush, the garden is always full of frogs, lizards, magpies, cockatoos and kookaburras.
My books are all special to me in different ways. Choosing my favourite would be as difficult as choosing a favourite among my children.
Just keep practising. It helps to write about the kinds of people and places you know. Pretend you are really living in the story. Describe how you feel, what you see, what you hear, so that the readers can feel they’re inside the world of the story too. Reading also helps, but the more you develop your own style, the better your writing will be. And most of all, enjoy yourself!
There are no plans for a feature film at the moment, but a Japanese anime TV series has been produced. It is shown on ABC TV in Australia.
It took about three months to write each book. But for a least two years before that I had been thinking about the whole series: making notes about the characters and the world of Deltora, planning the stories, and working on the brainteasers and puzzles I wanted to use in the books.