Amelia is an award-winning author specialising in children’s fantasy fiction and is most well known for her series The Grandest Bookshop in the World.
Her latest series Oceanforged begins with The Wicked Ship. Set in an island nation on the brink of ruin, following an orphan named Cori who finds the magical gauntlet of an ancient dynasty of heroes.
We were lucky enough to ask Amelia some of our burning questions!
- To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
I was born in Melbourne, and from the ages of three to six, I was educated in the Steiner system. It allowed for lots of imaginative play and we were encouraged to do things for ourselves, such as polish our shoes with shoeblack like it was the 1800s. But I also remember being frustrated with the emphasis on loose abstract drawing and painting. I just wanted to paint fairies and animals that looked like fairies and animals, but we had to work on soaked watercolour paper, so it always turned into an anodyne pastel blur. And looking back on it, I know it didn’t satisfy my scientific curiosity or my love of reading. Just before 2000 hit, my family moved to Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula, where my three younger siblings and I had the freedom to explore and play in the bush. The Mellors’ attendance Red Hill Consolidated School was fifteen consecutive years – which meant about fifteen identical Christmas concerts for my poor parents. In Grade Six I got a scholarship to Toorak College in Mount Eliza, and although I went through all the usual stuff a nerdy teenager endures, it was a perfect school for me – all-girls, with an academic focus. I was never in the cool crowd (or wanted to be), but I got on with the other creatives and achievers and I liked being in the school musicals.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
I decided I wanted to be a writer when I was three. At twelve, I was writing on the school bus on my laptop every day, and sometimes at recess, too. At eighteen, I watched my first play – commissioned by the drama teacher – being produced and performed by students from the younger year levels. And I’m thirty-two now, so thirty was pretty recent. By then, I already had The Grandest Bookshop in the World and The Bookseller’s Apprentice published to huge acclaim, and I was drafting The Lost Book of Magic and brainstorming the Oceanforged Series. The why runs so deep that I’m not sure I can explain it. I love language and storytelling, and always have.
4. Please tell us about your new book.
The Wicked Ship is the first part of my new five-part high fantasy series, Oceanforged. It’s inspired by my interest in maritime history, adventure travel and the natural world. The main character is Cori, a selfish, reckless, greedy orphan ragamuffin who becomes the Chosen One of her country when she tries to steal a magical gauntlet from an ancient vault, and it irremovably bonds to her hand. This instantly makes her a target for pirates, monsters and the corrupt Prime Council whom she’s one day destined to overthrow. With the help of a sullen farm boy who communicates with animals, and a cheerful but accident-prone student witch, Cori embarks on a quest to collect the other pieces of the magic armour and restore her homeland’s Age of Glory before the arrival of a calamitous solar eclipse. It’s ideal for readers aged 8+ and I’m thrilled that it’s the Kids’ Book of the Month!
5. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
I’d like to leave readers with the sense of having discovered something new or explored something familiar in a new way, whether that’s the magic in my stories or the real-world inspirations behind them. It is a compliment if a reader thought one of my books was weird, and the highest compliment if they loved that it was weird. Weird is stimulating. Weird prompts curiosity. I like to play around and find my own space in an idea. If a surreal scene or unexpected turn of the plot provokes surprise or curiosity in the reader, that’s perfect – especially if it prompts the kinds of questions that The Grandest Bookshop in the World did, which drove readers of all ages to seek out information about Cole’s Book Arcade! But it’s also nice to hear that they simply enjoyed the ride. Fun and entertainment are important, too.
6. Whom do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?
I really look up to Terry Pratchett. He was curious about the world and furious about its injustices and hypocrisies. He had a simultaneously funny and wise way with words. He asked interesting questions about why we tell the stories we tell – something I’m trying to do with Oceanforged.
7. What advice do you give aspiring writers?
I tell kids and other beginner writers to keep practising and writing what they love, and I often compare writing to playing a violin – you’ve got to spend thousands of screechy, messy hours training before anyone really wants to hear it. I advise adults to work out what their story is selling, because their struggle is more often to do with querying and publishing. Writing a book is a huge achievement, but it has to offer readers something enticing to stand out both in the slush pile and on the shelf. Adults should, of course, keep practising and writing what they love as well.
The Wicked Ship
First in the Oceanforged series
The realm of Aquinta has fallen into a dark age. And no one knows that better than thirteen-year-old Cori, who is fighting for her life in a pirate crew more beastly than Aquinta's sea monsters.
But Cori's life changes when she finds the Oceanforged Gauntlet - a piece of armour belonging to the legendary Champions who once ruled the islands. Whoever wears the armour wields the Champions' magic and has the power to return Aquinta to its lost glory.
Cori must begin a treacherous journey to find the rest of the armour. But first, she'll have to escape from her captain, who craves the gauntlet's magic for himself ...
The quest begins in the first instalment of an epic new fantasy adventure series from the bestselling author of The Grandest Bookshop in the World.
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