Local Author Michael Davies leaves nothing to chance when writing books for children. Rather than try to guess what will appeal to young minds, Davies runs workshops in schools around the Mid-North Coast where he collaborates with his young audience on the topics they want to read about before bringing their ideas to life in a novel.
Classes of fifteen to twenty children aged between eight to eleven seem to be the numbers to make the magic happen.
‘I work with them for a couple of hours per week for maybe eight or nine weeks… I get the kids to come up with the plot, the storyline and the characters… In the end, I’ll write a book based on everything they’ve given me.’
Most astonishingly is the fact that other than reimbursement for travel, Davies does not charge for his school workshops. In addition to bringing the ideas of his charges to life, Davies also publishes the resulting work in partnership with Amazon and then distributes copies to the school and to the children who helped write the story.
‘Their faces when they get their book is just amazing’
Davies has written collaboratively with students from Comboyne Public School (The Quest for The Locket), Rolland Plains-Upper Primary School (The Julie Malloy Gang and The Smugglers), The Children from Byabarra (The Secret of Yuri Kirilenko) and many more collaborations and independent works with a total of twenty seven books published.
‘I’ve not knocked J.K Rowling's off her perch yet, but I keep hoping’.
Says Davies with good humour.
Davies love of the craft and the joy he brings to his readers are his first considerations with monetary gain low on his list of motivators.
Davies also writes for grown-ups. His adult stories trend toward espionage and intrigue and make use of his degree in Russian studies. Dreamkill, his first novel, was successfully published after being rejected by fifty-one literary agents and twenty-two publishers.
‘It is based on the experiments conducted by the CIA and the Soviet KGB to create a ‘Manchurian Candidate’, an agent with a completely false life history who cannot stop himself carrying out orders and then forgets the mission.’
Davies has certainly not forgotten his mission. His greatest work continues to be the time, energy and passion he has invested in the community of the Mid North Coast where he continues to inspire young readers with workshops and personal appearances at schools and also at markets.
