Interview with Helen D Bailie, Author of "The Azura Stones"

Today, John Tyler R. Tichelaar of Reader Views is happy to be joined by Helen Of Troy Of Troy Bailie, who is here to speak about her new children's book "The Azura Stones," Bedside Books (2007), ISBN 9781589823747.

Helen Bailie was born in Brisbane, Australia. As a secondary school teacher, she always desired to transfuse a love of reading in her pupils as well as to assist them go womb-to-tomb scholars and readers. She have realized the important function instructors play in the lives of children as they turn and develop into immature adults, and she hoarded wealths the chances she have had to assist her pupils to develop good reading skills, to stand out in their chosen callings and to go productive members of society.

Tyler: Thank you for joining me today, Helen. I understand "The Azura Stones" is an escapade some children have got during their school vacation. To begin, will you state us a small spot about Hayley and what do her an interesting chief character?

Helen: I have got portrayed my chief character, Hayley, as being the ultimate heroine-courageous, bold, echt and loyal; the individual in the novel who stays firm and strong in any situation. Hayley have a very positive mentality on life; she doesn't dwell on the negatives when in a crisis. She have the enterprise and thrust to work through hard states of affairs and the strength to promote her friends when the going acquires tough. She basks new challenges and booms in scenes where she is faced with new jobs to tackle, though at the same time, is realistic and logical when making decisions. It is her strength, finding and loyalty that assists pulling her friends through the hard modern times they confront on their unsafe adventure.

Tyler: What is it that Hayley happens that gets the adventure?

Helen: At the oncoming of the novel, the reader larns that Hayley's grandfather, a world-renowned archaeologist, have got died and that all of his military expedition diaries have vanished. His decease was very sudden, which do Hayley wonderment if he did in fact dice of natural causes. It is when she accidentally lurches across his last journal, something he had kept a secret from her and her parents, that she recognizes the significance of what he had discovered up on Silvertop Mountain and just how unsafe his last military expedition had been. This is the beginning of an escapade that she and her friends will never forget.

Tyler: Why makes Hayley include her friends in the escapade and what make they add to the story?

Helen: Hayley, Alex and Spence have got been friends since primary school. When an article entitled "Gold Establish in Niobe River" looks in the local newspaper, Hayley and her friends make up one's mind to program a camping trip during their summertime break. While in the loft looking for camping gear wheel and prospecting pans, the children falter across Hayley's grandfather's diary outlining the military expedition he had been working on before he died. In his journal, he adverts that he establish the lost Native American civilisation he was searching for and have also discovered some very unusual looking rocks that this folk possessed. He died, though, before the rocks could be retrieved. The children recognize the importance and urgency of determination these stones, so they take substances into their ain custody and follow Hayley's grandfather's map in hunt of the Azura Stones.

Hayley, Alex and Spence are the best of friends, and at the beginning of the novel, the reader can see the loyalty, trust and the stopping point chemical bond they have got with one another. When Spence, though, is placed in a hard situation, he takes to manage it himself rather than confiding in his two friends. Throughout the novel, we see a alteration in Spence's personality as he fights with the determination he have made and the quandary he have set himself in. This put option a strain on the friendly relationship and do for some interesting turns in the plot line that the reader will not expect.

Tyler: Helen, will you state us what exactly are the Azura Stones and why are they so of import to find?

Helen: The Azura Stones are unlike any rocks that have got been discovered before. Sapphire in coloring material with a strange, snowflake designing in the centre that freshnesses in the dark, they have got very particular places that the children are unaware of until partway through the novel.

A short letter left by Hayley's grandfather foregrounds that other men-men portion of a ill-famed law-breaking gang-are aware that such as rocks be and they too are searching for the Azura Stones. The children recognize that lone Hayley's grandfather's diary throws the cardinal to where these rocks are located. The children are determined to follow the map Hayley's grandfather left in his diary and happen the rocks before they fall into the incorrect hands.

Tyler: You mentioned that the rocks belonged to a lost Native American civilization. Volition you state us more than about this civilization, and why the rocks were of import to its people?

Helen: Archaeologists believe that the first Native Americans came to the Americas from Asia and settled in the sou'-west portion of the United States. The civilisation in my novel is based on the possibility that a little grouping separated and chose to dwell in the northwest mountain ranges. Over time, a fable developed amongst the encompassing Indian folks about a cryptic folk life in the Cascades. The fable told of unusual rocks that they possessed-stones truthful powerful that other folks were afraid to come in into their territory. The importance of these rocks and this folk are discussed in item throughout the novel.

Tyler: Volition you state us about the children's journeying to attain the Azura Stones?

Helen: The children, who dwell in the fabricated town of Shastar Hills in American Capital State, have got to tramp up Silvertop Mountain, a inactive vent located in the Cascade Mountain Range. Being summertime, much of the versant is overgrown, making the tramp more hard than the children realize. The fact that the children have got taken substances into their ain custody by going alone into the Cascade Range heightens the suspense throughout the novel as the reader is left wondering about the possible dangers that prevarication ahead for them on their adventure.

Tyler: Why did you take to put the novel in American Capital State? Besides the town of Shastar Hills that you fictionalized, did you make a batch of other facets of the setting, or will people familiar with American Capital acknowledge the area?

Helen: I traveled through American Capital State on my last trip to the United States. There were so many beautiful countries that I visited that it became the inspiration for my novel. Even though most of the geographical locations in my novel are fictitious, I have got got got made mention to Lake Chelan, the Columbia River River, and Rattlesnake Flat (which I renamed Rattlesnake Plains in the novel) so people familiar with American Capital should be able to find where Shastar Hills would be located.

Tyler: What sorts of responses have you received so far from readers of "The Azura Stones"?

Helen: I have received first-class feedback so far from parents, instructors and children. The mark marketplace is 11-14 years, though I am pleased to state that I have got got got got received very positive feedback from many children as immature as 10 and as old as 16, so the plotline, word pictures and subjects I have developed throughout the novel have proven to be appealing to children and adolescents of varying ages.

Many parents and instructors experience that the subjects I have addressed in the novel do it an first-class piece of adolescent fiction. "Teachers and parents looking for ways to positively act upon striplings will happen tons of things to speak about in this book. This book is the gem that outshines all other gemstones in the jewellery box."
- The Reading Bathtub ®

"A nail biting escapade ideal for children's libraries." - Middle West Book Review

I have got got got got received many letters and electronic mails from children both in the United States and in Commonwealth Of Australia that state that they establish "The Azura Stones" to be "an gratifying and exciting read," "a antic suspense narrative with an piquant plot," "a book that tin be enjoyed over and over again," "a superb book with an first-class plot, great verbal descriptions and a shattering ending."

I have included transcripts of other reappraisals and letters on my website.

Tyler: Helen, what gave you the thought to compose "The Azura Stones"?

Helen: Iodine have always loved to read and have affectionate memories of years spent as a kid reading classic escapade novels. I have got got got realized the importance of children developing good literacy accomplishments and that such as accomplishments make better significantly when a kid basks reading.

Throughout the old age that I have been a teacher, I have noticed a diminution in the figure of children who bask reading and, ultimately, a diminution in literacy skills. Many children look to fight with literacy, which impacts their enjoyment of reading. I wanted to compose a book that would be full of escapade and suspense, as well as written in a simpler style to assist promote more than children to desire to read and develop an enjoyment for reading. An electronic mail I received from one of my readers stated that my novel was the first book he had read in its entirety. This is great feedback for me, knowing that I have got helped a kid who at one clip disliked reading to begin developing an enjoyment for this fantastic pastime.

Tyler: Helen, to what make you impute this diminution in literacy and enjoyment in reading among children? What make you believe can be done to change this downward trend?

Helen: Reading to children from a very early age is very important. I retrieve when I was as immature as two, my female parent would read narratives to me every nighttime before going to bed. I could see the enjoyment she had for reading and throughout the years, this have been a large influence in my life and fuelled the reading desire in me. So, I believe that the more than clip spent with children reading and exposing them to the rich diverseness of fantastic escapades and phantasies in so many classic books volition assist them develop a love for reading and this will Pb to an improvement in their literacy skills.

Tyler: Helen, what were those escapade novels you read as a child? Which books or writers would you state were influences on your ain writing?

Helen: I have got got so many favorite novels which I have listed on my website, but these are my all-time favourite novels I enjoyed reading (and still bask reading):

"A Journey to the Center of the Earth" by Jules Verne, "The Time Machine" by mercury Wells, "Treasure Island" by Henry Martin Robert Joe Louis Stevenson, "The Swiss Family Robinson" by Johann Wyss, "Watership Down" by Richard Adams, "Charlotte's Web" by EB White, "Tom's Midnight Garden" by Philippa Pearce, and "The Adventures of Private Detective Holmes" by Sir Chester A. Arthur Conan Doyle.

I love the rich imaginativenesses of both Jules Jules Jules Verne and mercury Wells. Their novels as well as my involvement in archeology and history have got got influenced my writing.

Tyler: Helen, would you state there is a subject to "The Azura Stones" or some significance you trust your readers will come up away with?

Helen: There are a figure of chief subjects that I have developed throughout the novel.

One of the chief subjects in my novel is friendship-how to handle your friends and what it intends to demo loyalty to your friends. Hayley is the best friend you would wish to have. Throughout the novel, the reader is exposed to the interactions between Hayley and her two friends, Alex and Spence, and the troubles they happen themselves in during their unsafe adventure. Hayley assists maintain the friendly relationship together, and at modern times when her friends are finding it hard to get by with one another's weaknesses, she assists Alex and Spence to understand what it really intends to be a true friend.

Another chief subject is pick and consequence. The states of affairs the children happen themselves in significantly diagnostic tests their friendly relationship with one another. When faced with hard situations, they are forced to do picks that eventually take to consequences, either good or bad. Apart from affecting their friendship, their determinations ultimately put their lives in danger. There is some self-reflection throughout the novel between the children as they contemplate the determinations they have got made and the personal effects of these determinations on one other and others around them. I trust that readers will come up away with the conception that it is of import to believe about the effects before making decisions.

Tyler: Did you always desire to be a author of children's books?

Helen: I have got always loved writing, though first and foremost, I always wanted to work in an business where I could assist children to stand out in their learning, to stand out in life and to break themselves as individuals, thus the ground I became a teacher. As an English teacher, I began writing short narratives and using these in the schoolroom to learn not only literacy accomplishments but also life skills. My pupils really enjoyed the narratives I read to them, so I decided to compose a full-length novel. The full process, from authorship the ms through to the concluding product, was a fantastic experience and I'm looking forward to continuing in my authorship career.

Tyler: Make you have got programs to compose any more than books?

Helen: I am currently working on a subsequence to "The Azura Stones" which should be in the supplies sometime adjacent year. I'll maintain you posted on its progress.

Tyler: Thank you for joining me today, Helen. Before we go, will you state us a small spot about your website (www.helenbailie.com) and what further information can be establish there about "The Azura Stones"?

Helen: I have got included an overview of my novel and an infusion of one of the chapters. I have got got also included reappraisals and other feedback I have received from parents, instructors and children.

Readers can see the "Frequently Asked Questions" subdivision to larn some information about my background and addition some tips on writing. Also, readers who purchase my novel direct from my website through the Publishers Direct Bookshop have got an chance to come in a fantastic competition with great awards to be won. Read all the inside information on my website!

Because of the involvement I have got got received from many teachers, I have also created some English resources to attach to my novel that I am making available for usage in the classroom. Teachers can electronic mail me directly for more than information.