Here at Olympia, we love hearing from our authors, getting an insight into their lives in writing and asking them what their advice would be to future authors. This week we had the pleasure of interviewing Patsy Web about her book.
What has been your highlight of publishing so far?
The greatest highlight I had, was when Olympia accepted my book for publishing. Following that, I literally jumped with delight when I saw the front cover they produced for The Hungry Spider and The Picnic.
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
To be honest, because I teach English as a foreign language, I have to research new things every day to keep my students happy. If I didn´t do so, students would become bored very quickly, especially young children. I researched basic, but necessary vocabulary for this book, so that is, was simple but fun for both children and adults to read.
How many hours a day do you write?
I spend hours writing! I love writing!
Why did you decide to feature a spider as your main character?
Whilst I was teaching food vocabulary to my students, I hid a toy spider behind the students for fun and then told them there was a Hungry Spider behind them. They all jumped up from their seats and it was just so funny, we all cried laughing. I believe laughter is so important in life and so The Hungry Spider is the main character now, both in my book and in my classes for any young learner of English.
What was the aim you had in mind when writing your children´s book?
My aim is that children learn in a fun way. If we look at a word, we need to repeat it to learn it and it is such a pleasure for me to see this book published to help, even in a small way towards the development of a child´s language ability.
If you were to write another book, would it be a sequel or a brand new topic?
As mentioned above, I love writing! The Hungry Spider is a series of books for young learners of English and the next one to be enjoyed is The Hungry Spider and ´The Pizza´. There are many more to come! I am also in the process of writing a comic book called Boo Boo Bad Boy, so please look at my webpage thehungryspider.com for updates.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
That is quite a difficult question to answer, but I would say to them if you truly believe something will happen it will.
If you could review Olympia Publishers in a few words, what would they be?
That is an easy question to answer. Absolutely professional and I have personally acknowledged my thanks to them in The Hungry Spider and The Picnic book. It has been such a pleasure to work with them and I am so grateful for everything they have done for me. They are truly lovely people.
