Featured Author: Sonya Spreen Bates

Bibliography at Orca

[New!] Smuggler's Cave: Jake and his younger brother Tommy are visiting family at a beach house on the coast. Having already lost a race to his cousin Lexie, Jake can't resist a second chance at victory when she challenges him again. Only this time it's a boat race-to the legendary Smuggler's Cave and back. The ocean is deep and choppy, and the boat is harder to control than Jake thought it would be. When he and Tommy reach Smuggler's Cave, the unthinkable happens. The boat capsizes, and they are swept into the cave. Lexie comes to their rescue, but the rising tide prevents them from escaping, and the three of them soon realize they are trapped.

Marsh Island: Jake and his younger brother Tommy are on their first camping trip. While exploring in the woods on Marsh Island, they lose their way. When the boys start to feel like they're not the only ones wandering in the woods, they begin to wonder if the story their dad told them about old Alfred Marsh and his lost fortune is true.

Interview

Why do you write, and why children's books? I write because it's what I love to do. Even as I child, I often had a scene or dialogue running in my head, and now, when I'm lucky, it will turn into a story. Usually I plan my stories before writing them but find that the story takes on a life of its own and often moves in a direction I did not expect. It's interesting and satisfying to follow the story to its conclusion, and it's sometimes frustrating when it takes me down a dead end and I have to turn back.

I write for children because, as a speech pathologist, I have worked with children for most of my life and that's where my story-writing started—writing stories for therapy, and then later, writing stories for my own children. Seeing the joy they get from a story, helping them develop a love of books and reading, entertaining them in a way that engages their minds is very rewarding. Besides, those are the characters and ideas that come to me to be written, stories about children.

What kind of research do you do before writing a book? As yet I haven't written anything that requires a huge amount of research, such as a historical novel. But I do research on the Internet, and through reference books, as well as consulting people with knowledge in the field to ensure the story is accurate and believable. I also draw on my own experiences. I use settings similar to places I have been and make sure the settings and characters are firmly established in my mind so that the characters' actions and reactions are believable.

Do you put your family and friends in your books? I don't put my family and friends in my books, but I do use interesting characteristics of people I know to give my characters more flavour. I have to say that, as a mother, I find it difficult to create mothers who do not react as I would to children and situations, but I’m getting better at it.

What is your favorite children's book? I have many favourites. The Narnia series by CS Lewis, Inkheart and The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke, Once by Morris Gleitzman, The Tomorrow series by John Marsden to name a few. As a child I loved the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Anne of Green Gables books by Lucy Montgomery.

What's the funniest or most interesting reader response you've had? I had both a child and her mother tell me that, while this child usually found it very difficult to find a book she was interested in reading, when she read my book, she couldn’t put it down and finished it in one weekend. Hearing that made me very happy.

A friend’s son recently read Marsh Island. The next weekend, they went for a family picnic at a nearby island, "Hindmarsh Island." Upon sighting a strange older man with a beard and slouch hat, the story suddenly became very real for him!

Biography

Sonya Spreen Bates is a Canadian writer living in Australia. As a child, when she wasn’t riding horses, she loved to read, daydream and scribble down short stories that she never dared to show anyone. She dreamed of traveling to Australia, but never imagined she'd be living there one day. Sonya obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Linguistics from the University of Victoria and a Master's degree in Speech Pathology from Dalhousie University. She has spent many years working with children with communication disorders, both in Canada and Australia, and often writes her own stories to use in therapy. For more information, please visit http://sonyaspreenbates.wordpress.com.