[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello Authors. I'm Joanne Morell, children's and young adult fiction writer and author of short nonfiction for authors. Thanks for joining me for the Hybrid Author podcast, sharing interviews from industry professionals to help you forge a career as a hybrid author, both independently and traditionally publishing your books. You can get the show notes for each episode and sign up for your free author pass over at the hybrid Author website to discover your writing process, get tips on how to publish productively, and get comfortable promoting your books at www.hybridauthor.com au. Let's crack on with the episode.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Hello Authors.
[00:00:45] Speaker C: I hope you're all keeping well in whatever part of the world you reside and listen to the podcast in.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Today's interview is with children's co author.
[00:00:54] Speaker C: Lauren Hackney, and we're chatting about writing through difficult times. And Lauren certainly speaks from the heart about the struggles that she's endured over the past few years. And we talk about losing your job and pivoting your career during the pandemic, parenting whilst dealing with personal trauma after medical emergencies and family heartache, losing your self imagination and immersing yourself with the power of storytelling and so much more. This is probably truly one of the most inspirational interviews I've done to date, and it really shares the power a personal story can have through connection with other people.
So in my author adventure this week, I have found an editor for my women's fiction work, and I've just been busy polishing up the first few chapters of that to send across to her, then the rest of the manuscript. So I'm currently in editing mode, but publishing and production thinking about although I've moved the goalposts for release of this work, I am sad that I'm not going to probably put any workout this year, although there's still that little part of me that's like, well, you've got this idea, you might still be able to get a book out this year, but at the end of the day, I'm not just going to put a book out for the sake of putting a book out this year. It has to be right, it has to be ready. And I won't scrimp and save on any quality of the work or the book just to get it out to a deadline. It's on me why I haven't hit releasing it this year. But all that to come on my lessons learned show which Loaner sold, which comes up in the next month. At the end of the year, I also received another rejection from my junior Fiction book, which was again, the rejections. Now I'm definitely taking them hard and fast, and it's more a glance, an acknowledgment, and a moving on. I am not focusing on any children's fiction or submissions now for the end of the year or anything, although I will chat about obviously my lessons learned and what to expect for the next in 2024 from me. I will chat about the work that's coming then, and that does include more children's YA fiction, which, as you know, if you're an avid listener of the podcast, I aim to get a traditional deal with that. So this last month I have kind of stepped back from the literary scene. I've not been going to any book launches or events or anything like that. It's really just me getting my book ready for the steps it takes for early release next year. As I said, it starts getting into the really busy season for me with my children and personal life and all that sort of stuff. So how are you traveling? Are you happy where you're at in your author adventure? Have you hit the mark on the work of where you wanted to be at this point in your career? What are your plans going forward for next year? These are the questions I want you to ponder this week. It's never too soon in the year or too late in the year to be checking in with yourself and asking yourself these questions.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Lauren Hackney is the co author of the children's book series the Lolly Shop, a Bedtime Tale, collaborated with her two sons, emerging through the darkness of despair. Besides storytelling, Lauren strives to help children grow their imaginative muscle through encouraging the art of writing, reading, and laughing out loud. Welcome to the Hybrid Author podcast.
[00:04:25] Speaker D: Lauren thank you. Joe, thank you so much for having.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Oh, we're absolutely thrilled to have you. So just please tell know, tell us the story of how you came to be a.
[00:04:38] Speaker D: I still, I find it hard to see myself as a writer because I didn't grow up going, oh, I'm going to be a writer. I wrote because of a time in my life. I've always grown up a creative, like, I played lots of instruments at school and I love traveling and I love all this. But what made me actually want to write a book was I was in aviation and during the pandemic there was no planes flying and it was a really awful time. And I had a particular camping trip six, seven months into the pandemic where still no aviation job and it was awful. I had a camping trip with friends and I told the Lolly Shop story with my kids and it was a hit and I became a writer because the friends I was with at the time urged me to tell this story. I didn't think it was going to ever pan out to how it did. I just thought it was just like a regular story. Like, everyone tells their kids stories, but it's grown to this magical, imaginative story where kids are falling in love with it all over the world. So I became a writer because I needed a distraction because things went a little pear shaped.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Well, that is quite a different story. I haven't really ever heard anyone put it that way. And as you'll know, coming to be in this industry, no one's story is ever the same, which is fantastic, because we want different stories in the world. So we'll just go back to your aviation job. So, sorry, did you say, are you a pilot or what's your role in aviation? Are you like to say, no, I.
[00:06:19] Speaker D: Would love to say I was one of those.
No, I actually worked in the airport environment where I worked for the same company for 16 years. I loved it. I was that person who would go to work and love it, like, yes, those people are out there. I was one of them. And the skill set I had touched on the. It was a very specific genre skill set. I knew things like if you wanted to go to Port Mooresby and you had two months expiry date on your passport and it was an Aussie passport and you had a one way ticket, you weren't going anywhere.
I knew an aircraft door and a Boeing Seven, three seven and an Airbus A 330 weighed about 20 OD kilos and I had to open those on the daily. And I knew that when I drove, sorry, Aero bridges onto the plane to dock them, to open those aircraft doors, I knew exactly where I had to dock that aero Bridge to meet the aircraft safely. And so when the freight and the passengers got off and then new loads came on, that the door, and that wasn't affected. Like, very specific skill set.
And when the pandemic decided to come along, that skill set, it wasn't transferable. And it was really hard because I found the rush of working in an airport environment amazingly fun because it wasn't just everyone traveling every day. If you got to know the passengers, if you got immersed in the unknown of it all, because some days you would be helping the make a wish kids like, we have make a wish ambassadors who are there to show these families an amazing time before they travel. I got to help out with a couple of those. I got to help out with VIPs, I got to help out with honeymooners and people going on their very first trips ever. And I also got to help with loading passengers with special needs people who are traveling that live remotely, remotely in the country of Australia, but they're traveling for cancer treatment, and you would see them once a month and you would have to deal with oxygen tanks for certain people. It was an environment where if you immersed yourself in that, it was an interesting place to be every day.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: Amazing.
[00:08:37] Speaker D: Yeah. And then there was no work at all. That was hard because I didn't know what to do at all. And it was one of those situations where I ended up getting a role as a home care person, helping people in their homes, which was kind of transferable because I had my first aid certificate. I want to help people.
That's part of my personality. And I like to cheer people up. I like to tell really bad jokes and things, like, so I did find alternate work, but that work, it wasn't enough to pay the bills. Some weeks, like, if anyone has worked in the home care industry, where it's casual work and it's not full time, and if a client no longer needs you and you have no work for that day, you no longer get paid. And it was a very fish out of water moment, you could say, for me, because having two little kids at the time who were six and eight who were little, I didn't want my situation affecting them either, because the pandemic was new for them, too. They couldn't go out and play soccer and do things that they loved to do, and they couldn't just go see family and friends. So I tried my best to hide my heartbreak. Some days I was good at it, other days I wasn't. And I remember six months on where the country started opening up a little bit, doing this camping trip with friends and telling a Lolly shop story. It brought back a bit of life because I remember the nights we were telling the story and other kids from other campsites would join in and it would just go for so long, and we would get lost.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Oh, goodness. It sounds the passion you've had for your aviation job. You can hear it in your voice that's coming through. So, yeah, when you were speaking there, I was just thinking, obviously, with your children and then having to not be able to do that job, how have you pulled yourself up from obviously losing something you effectively love? But then, like you said, as a parent and as parents, we have to sort of put on that mask, that face sometimes for our children as well, in terms of the Lolly Shop book, and you sharing that story amongst the campers and things like that. Is this when it already been turned into a book or was this just a story? This was the story you were just telling people before you made it into the story, into the book?
[00:10:56] Speaker D: Yeah. So this is how I put the kids to bed. So when the camping trip happened, this was something where my kids were seasoned at the storyline, you could say. Because when I love being a mum, being a mum's fun, right? Like, there's some times where you want to pull your hair out, but then there's other times where you go, oh, that's worth it. That's worth it. And nighttime bedtime was it for me, because that was the only part of the day I could actually control. Because when you've got babies and toddlers, there's no control. You might have a teething day, you might have a fever day.
It all goes pet shape sometimes. But I just knew bedtime was a staple. It was happening every day, and I put my own spin on it, whether those kids liked it or not. My hubby would go off to work and work night shift, and I would smoosh their beds together when they were about two and four, because when they're newborns and toddlers, you can't interact with them like you can when they're two and four. Right? And we started this story, and we had other little stories. Like, one oD story we used to tell was the fridge was an apartment block, right? And the vegetables in the cRISPR down below wanted to move onto the top shelf, but the jam wanted to smash, like, stomp on the tomatoes. And that was a particular story we did. But the lollipop was so fun and enjoyable that years down the track. So four years of this story, retelling it at this camping trip was a piece of cake. It didn't have to be rehearsed. It didn't have to be. Not much thought went into it. It was effortless. It was one of those stories where Baxter, Ethan and myself could just tell it, captivate the kids and have a darn good time doing it. So he wasn't a storybook at this point, because I thought nothing.
I honestly just went, well, all parents do this. That's nothing special.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: No, they don't.
It's very special.
[00:12:57] Speaker D: Yeah. Well, I didn't think anything of it until all my friends were saying, the friends on this trip, oh, gosh, girl, you need to write this book. And at the time, I was like, yeah, but I need to work almost every day. Like, one thing that a lot of people in the pandemic who, and I don't want to make it all about me because everyone's got their own struggles when it came to the pandemic. But I know a lot of the aviation friends I was with, none of us were making enough money, which meant all of us had to work around the clock for at least. Oh, gosh, it was at least a good year of working casually. Some of us got jobs at Woolies, at retail, but it was all casual work. And because hardly any of us were making ends meet, you had to work all the time. I remember my friends urging me to write this book. And so I kind of thought I toyed with the idea and I thought, yeah, all right. Didn't think anything of it until we went on a good about 910 months of the pandemic and another lockdown hit. And I thought everything was coming back. And then, boom, it just all shut down again. And I got sad because I was ready for it to be over. I was ready for my old life to come back. One of my work colleagues just said to me, use this time because this could be the last time we're all stood down. If you could do anything, what would you do? And I said, well, you know what? I'm going to write this story. I'm going to do it. And I did it. And a manuscript was made. And those same friends who went camping with me and the same people who I no longer work with, who had their own struggles with aviation as well at the time, they all supported me by saying, send me chapters or, I want to read this. Where are you up to? And when I got it to a point where I thought it was worthy of publication to some degree, that's when I went, right, let's start submitting. And no one wanted it.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: It's a hard game.
[00:14:58] Speaker D: Well, that's. Oh, gosh. Looking back, I was so ignorant, too. And I'm really embarrassed to say that I was so ignorant because I thought, hey, I've got this great book. Hey, everyone who I've told it to so far loves it. Hey, it's going to get picked up. No, that's not how that works.
So I was fortunate enough, one of my neighbors was friends with a retired publisher, and she made it very clear. She sort of said to me, I'm retired. I do not want to see another manuscript on my desk, but I am happy to help you self publish it. I do not want to be hassled ever again.
So in all fairness, we decided to self publish because I think I lost count after 23 publishers or something, I just lost count. I just went. You know what? I get the feeling that self publishing is how I should tell our story. And if I could sort of just touch on the analogy I've been saying lately of when you climb your mountain and you get to the top and you look back at your view, you realize what that was all about. Because now that I've been dabbling in the publishing world, and I've networked and I've met people, and it's this one way street, and I'm calling it a one way street because I'm not turning around. I'm not going back. I'm 100 clicks down the highway. I'm good to go. But I've learned that a publisher could have changed a story that my children put so much passion into. And now that I look back, I'm glad I didn't.
And don't get me wrong, look at the time. If a publisher was to say, great, I can't speak for how much they would have changed the story. I can't speak for that. But I do know the three books we have brought out in that Lolly Shop series is authentic as that story gets. And for my boys, who are now, recently, they were asked to be on this New York podcast called the Little Leaders Podcast. Oh, gorgeous. Yeah, because. Because Tina Shepherdson, who runs it, heard about this situation where two boys helped their mum publish a book right when her heart was breaking. She thought that was amazing, and she had them on the show last month. My boys are still just grateful for the whole experience. So I'm really glad we self published it. I'm really glad we told it as true and authentic as it has been. And I'm really glad that my boys and I have been part of it because it's now a memory.
Unfortunately, losing my job wasn't the only heartbreak we had in our family. My husband almost died of a heart attack, too, within that time. And it was awfUl. Yeah, it was awful.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: Was that linked to COVID in any way?
[00:17:41] Speaker D: Well, that happened about twelve months after the pandemic. It happened three months after my first book was released.
Right when Lolly Shop Book was published. And we got to go to a few schools and the local bookstore stopped it. And it was a beautiful distraction where I wasn't focusing so much on the job loss and all that. I was focusing on this fun time I was having with my children creating books. And instead of my kids doing things like, oh, mom, I want to go jump on my iPad, they were saying things like, hey, mom, what about this in the story? Like, isn't that the biggest win you've ever heard of?
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:18:21] Speaker D: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
So there were so many little hidden gems, but no, my hubby, he unfortunately almost didn't come home one night, and it was awful.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: I can't imagine.
[00:18:35] Speaker D: But my kids were home. And it's interesting, when he went off in the ambulance, I didn't know if he was coming back because he had a 50 50 chance. He was straight into theater that night having surgery, and it was about, like, 1030 at night at this point. By the time the ambulance came and all this. But looking back on the last three years, it has absolutely impacted my children because my hubby survived. Thank God he has got a heart failure. It's awful. But if he's ever stuck back at work these days, the first thing my youngest says is, where is he? And is he coming home?
That's rubbish, right? So it's almost like with the Lolly shop, having the boys on a podcast recently, having the book sell all over the place, having reviews from people in different countries, having kids at the school still love it. Like, there's Lolly Shop books in their classrooms that the kids adore, that's been also a distraction for them, because not only has the last three years had some heartbreak memories for me, it's had some heartbreak memories for them. Yeah. And it's almost like that's what I also want to tell families as well, is, hey, reading doesn't have to be about who's got the gold star on the fridge sometimes creating a story, and even it's your own story, it's escape, isn't it?
[00:19:55] Speaker B: That's it. And I feel like they're the best kind. And it sounds like you've gone through an absolute horrific time as a family. And the Lolly Shop series is something that's been some good that's come out of it as well. So with the story itself, when you were telling it of bedtime, did it change at all? Because I'm sort of picturing the Lolly shop, and then you're telling the bedtime tale. Does the story stay the same? And your boys were helping sort of chime in, this could have happened. This could happen. Were you writing it down, or were you guys just sort of making it up, and then you kind of kept that same story and put it out to the world?
[00:20:30] Speaker D: It actually evolved as they grew. So when they were two and four, let's face it, they fell asleep quite easily enough so it's not know they're up for 3 hours. Making the story. The basics of it was Baxter and Ethan owned a Lolly shop. This was the infancy of it. And you can tell how simple it is in the beginning. And by the third book, you can tell their ages are showing. So how I put them to bed when they were young, young was, OK, what's your favorite Lollipop today? And Baxter might say Lollipop, or Ethan might say jelly bean or Gummy bear or something, and then it was, what color is it? And that's also teaching your kids colors and things like this. And then I would ask them, what flavor? And if Baxter said, oh, red, I said, well, you know what? Let's go wild. You don't have to have strawberry red. You could have beetroot red, or you could have carrot red, or you could have mint red. Trick people, they think it's strawberry, but it's mint. And he'll be giggling away. Ethan's nodded off by now.
So that was the infancy of it. But then when Baxter started getting into prep, he started reading bigger books.
Know, teachers force you to do that. Whereas when he was in Kindie, I just forgot to challenge him because I was just like, oh, grug, grug's fine. Let's reAd, you know, Dr. Zeus. Dr. Zeus is fine. I didn't think to challenge him the way school does. And so he then started to branch out. By the end of prep, beginning year one, he was reading these very basic chapter books, which meant the Lollyshop story had more layers to it. Where did the magic come from? There's a secret world. And at the time, he was enthralled with dragons. He loved. In years one and two, he loved the wizards of once. Absolutely, like, went mental over it. And so to begin with, the Lollipops, Flip world had dragons and sorcerers and things like this where the magic came from. But then we started traveling in Western Queensland and visiting the Bilby exhibit and all this. And the boys and I were thinking, hey, wouldn't it be really cool if the hero of the flip world was a Bilby? And, hey, wouldn't it be really cool if Volpez, the bad guy is actually a fox? And Volpez is the scientific word for fox. So in the story, Volpez, that's his name, but that's the scientific word for. Right. So as the boys have gotten older, the three books, the story gets deeper because they've grown with it.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: Oh, that's amazing. No, I love that. That's really gorgeous. And you can tell how passionate you are and how much of a good storyteller you are. And I could just sort of picture it all in my mind. You guys all sort of pitching off ideas from each other. So. No, it sounds absolutely amazing.
Who's done the illustrations for the book?
[00:23:20] Speaker D: We all did.
That's very bright.
[00:23:24] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:23:25] Speaker D: Well, we're not Picasso.
Well, it's a bit abstract.
No. Again, this is our heart and our soul, and my boys love drawing. And look, some of it is basic, but it's beautiful because if you look at some of the characters, again, you look at book one and you can tell some of those characters come from a six year old. And then you look at book three and you can tell some of those characters came from a nine year old. Same person drew them, but they've grown, and they still, to this day, love drawing. Like, when they get up in the morning, Baxter's been known to sit in bed like he's an early bird. Like me. Right? Like, just hears those morning birds and that's it. He's awake. He'll get out his little sketch pad, and then he's not necessarily drawing for the Lolly shop. He's just drawing because we've done that so much in the last few years that it's actually now a passion he has. But, yeah, if you look at the Lolly Shop drawings. Yeah. They're all us.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: Yeah. That's absolutely incredible.
I can tell how, as you've said, this work got you through some of the darkest times, I would imagine of your life. Do you have advice to other writers who are sort of facing difficult times in their life? Yeah. What would you be your advice to anybody who's sort of. Not even just through what we've been through, but with the pandemic and things like that, but this time right now, with the financial crisis and people sort of struggling and things like that, and even if someone's having an emotional time or stressful or physical time, because sometimes difficult times in our life, it can be hard not to sort of focus on them and then get lost in them. Like you said, darkness of despair. This, for you guys, has been a distraction. What would be your advice to people sort of facing difficult times?
[00:25:27] Speaker D: I'm so happy to answer this, but a quick little disclaimer is I'm not a therapist.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:25:34] Speaker D: I can only tell you what worked for me. And I would like to also mention that my husband came home, so try not to get emotional. I know people in worse situations. So I would like to just say, I think, really, with what we've gone through, I think we're nowhere near as some people out there. But at the end of the day, I've got some advice. But it worked for me. So I guess one of the biggest things was who you surround yourself with is really important. And that camping trip had never been so much more of a light bulb moment, honestly, because I've been surrounded by so many different people. I'm in my 40s, right, and I have had a rainbow of people in my life. But the difference with this group of people was they urged me to do something.
I've been around people and just people who you think have your best interests at heart. Like, I've had the energy in my life of people who are very much. Oh, God, what's she doing now? What's she trying to be now? What's she trying to do now? That energy, right? Had plenty of that. But then I've got this other energy from these other people. Hey, this is a great story. You should do it. We believe in you. We know you can do this. You were made to tell this story. What a difference. What a contrast, right?
Two different opinions from two very different types of groups. And not saying you have to get rid of the. I wouldn't say non supportive, but people have their reasons to say what they say. And it might be out of fear or it might be out of. They don't want to see you further heartbroken or whatever. But I couldn't believe it when for the first time in my life, I've had a group of people as an entity go, you need to do this. That made the biggest impact. The next thing I would have to say is journaling, because I wrote a short story when my husband fell ill, because I remember him coming home with all the machines. And at home we've got everything that heart patients need. And I sobbed a lot. And again, you don't want your kids, because when he came home, all we had was weeks and couple of weeks of constant visitors. And I would rehash the story of, oh, yeah, he almost didn't come home that night. And my children were the biggest audience to that. No matter how much you would say, go outside and play, I live in like a postage stamp of a house. Yeah, that's it. Kitchen.
They're going to hear everything I say.
So we got a dog to distract them and, oh, my word, she has helped heal our family. But when I was really heartbroken over what happened to him, one of my girlfriends said, you should write everything down and you should write about this, because look what the Lolly Shop did for you with your job. And so I did, and I put down all these thoughts and it took a good few months because he didn't have just one heart attack. He had a couple. Like, he had one big one. And then a couple of little ones followed. And it was awful.
And I did, like, what they call journaling, right? All my thoughts out. When I could clear my head a bit more, I put it into a short story and I edited it and I changed it, and I did a few bits and pieces. I put that on kindle, and it's done. Amazing.
Done so well. So I now have encouragement from my writing group in Brisbane to novelize it, which I think is amazing. But writing all those thoughts down at a raw time. And some days the salt water in my eyes would just blur my computer screen like I was sobbing at the keyboard. But I got everything down when I could and how I felt. And I didn't beat myself up once. If one day I wrote 50 words, good. If one day I wrote none, I just cried, fine. But I was kind to myself. But honestly, getting it out, whether it be intentional or unintentional, got me a book. And when I say unintentional, just get it out. Just start writing. If nothing happens, if nothing comes of it, no big deal. But it might make you feel a bit better.
[00:29:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, gosh. Honestly, Lauren, I just think that so many people connect with your story and your words and things because you're so authentic and human emotion is what we connect with. And I'm almost tearing up.
No, no, it's absolutely gorgeous. Did you encourage your boys to journal as well during any of.
[00:30:13] Speaker D: Well, we've had to counsel them a lot with what had happened, and we kept a very open mind because, yes, writing down your thoughts 100% can work, but also verbalizing your thoughts, recognizing your feelings, knowing it's okay to talk about it, because still, at the time, my youngest was seven, going on eight, when he saw what he saw. And I remember the next day when he was coming out of surgery and I said to the doctors, I was up there, I was waiting for him to come out of recovery. I was waiting in the ward, and it was all groggy and he had like twelve tubes. And I said, oh, I don't know if I want the kids to see.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: This be quite scary.
[00:30:58] Speaker D: But he wanted to see his kids because he said for him, it was like, I just want to see my kids. Yeah, and I did. And I brought the kids up and I warned them. And also the ward, when you go into wards like that, it's not McDonald's play center.
You got to warn the kids. What you're going to see is it's full on. So look, they're glad they saw their dad, but we still talk about it to this day. And I do encourage them to write their thoughts down, but I don't encourage that as the only outlet. I make sure I stay open with developing lots of ways.
I'm trying my best.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: No, it sounds like you're doing an absolutely amazing job. And as a family, oh, gosh, what you've been through. Hats off to you all.
Now that obviously, COVID kind of. It's not long gone, but it's a sort of distant memory to some. Are you back in the aviation game or are you really giving this writing and publishing gig a go?
[00:32:04] Speaker D: Well, yeah, no, I don't work in the airport environment at all. I do work at an engineering sector as a day worker in like a day job Monday to very, very different. I am trying to find some sort of translation with the experience of it all. It was hard to let go of it all. But I now just go. I have a full time job, Lauren. Stop your complaining.
So I don't know if I'll let go. I don't know if I'll go back to airport environment ever. Because now that I feel like I want to pursue this writing business and I feel like I belong because I remember for a good 18 months, I didn't feel like I belonged in the industry because there's so many amazing authors doing amazing things for someone like myself, I kind of think, oh, I do not compare. But now that I'm able to go to a couple of writing groups on a Saturday, I can do Zoom meetings at night with like a critique group I'm now part of, I'm happy to work in a boring nine to five day job that's not so fulfilling like that. Like the rush of all the different passengers if it means I get to now fulfill this. Because this writing journey has been amazing, because you do connect with a lot of people who've got stories to tell also, and they're incredible.
[00:33:26] Speaker B: Yeah. But also to know that your work has helped another through that connection, whether it be like you said, the Lolly Shoppers escapism for all in that way is just providing a bit of relief, even for me. The other day I listened to a podcast and just what was said on it was exactly what I needed to hear for a bit of inspiration, for a bit of spurring on in that very moment. And it sort of thought to me, well, my work or my words or this podcast or books or whatever could be that for someone else. And I think that's really important.
[00:33:59] Speaker D: And isn't that just magic? Because at the right place at the right time, you'll find something that feeds your soul, and we all need it. Absolutely.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: And so what are you working on now? Are we still in the children's genre and collaborating with the boys, or are you heading into different areas of interest?
[00:34:17] Speaker D: Well, now I feel the floodgates are open. Yes. We're going to continue with books like the Lolly Shop.
I do have a wee rule, though, is anything I collaborate with my boys and that I feel is worthy of publication. We're going to publish it because I need to tell their stories how they want to tell them, anything I work on by myself.
I like writing for kids because why not? It's fun. And I have picture book memories of my first books. I would love to be someone's picture book memory. That's cool, right? If you're going to have a kid read your book and that's one of their first ones and they loved it, and they're going to tell that to their kids and their kids kids, that's gold for me. That's Olympic gold. So I would love to, of course, work with a publisher or somehow have my work published, for sure. But anything I create that's mine will go down that path. Hopefully. I understand rejection. I've had plenty of that. But anything I do with my children, I will happily self publish because I want to tell their stories as authentic as possible. And as far as their writing for adults, after having people like my Land Angels short story on Kindle, I am working on novelizing that story, and it's very close to the original storyline.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Wow. So you're a hybrid author.
Going it both ways.
[00:35:46] Speaker D: Yay.
[00:35:50] Speaker B: Well, honestly, thank you so much for coming on, Lauren, and sharing your amazing story. And it's just what you've all achieved and come through on the other side and your character is really infectious. So thank you so much. Please tell our listeners where they can discover the Lolly shop yourself and everything. You know, are they in stores or are they online?
[00:36:13] Speaker D: Yes. Well, I know my local bookshop, the little Gnome at Winham, definitely has them. But that's just in Winham. But, yeah, you can get them from Amazon. You can get them from Booktopia, Barnes and Noble. You can also contact me through Facebook at the Lolly Shop. Instagram lbe Hackney I do have a website, but Gee Weez Louise, it does need updating. And recently I have just started a YouTube channel where I put all my author interviews and tips and tricks that I have learned. And our homemade ads. We've filmed homemade ads for the Lolly Shop. Yeah, that's another platform. You can check out what we've been.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: Up to there as oh well, thank you so much for coming on, Lauren. That was fantastic.
[00:36:58] Speaker D: Excellent. Thanks, Joe.
So there you have it, folks.
[00:37:07] Speaker C: The utterly inspirational Lauren Hackney. And I just absolutely adored that interview. And I can't wait to support Lauren by buying the Lolly Shop for my children and joining her on that imaginative adventure there with her children. Next time in the Hybrid Author podcast, we have Julie Grasso on producing indie audiobooks for kids. I wish you well on your author adventure this next week. That's it from me. Bye for now.
[00:37:32] Speaker A: That's the end for now, authors. I hope you are further forward in your author adventure after listening. And I hope you'll listen next time. Remember to head on over to the hybrid Author
[email protected] Dot au to get your free author pass. It's bye for now.
