V. P. Girling has released three books with us, the popular Ollie Meadows series. We wanted to catch up with the author and find out how their life has changed since becoming a published author. 

Did you always dream of becoming an author?
I did dream about it but I never dreamed it would happen, though I certainly have always written and drawn and painted and made little books with pictures in for my children when they were small.

What was your first job?
I was an art teacher in a secondary school in Leicestershire.

How did you come about writing your book? Was that your intention or did you start writing for fun?
I usually set myself a goal at the start of the year. One year it was to have a one-man exhibition of my paintings, which I did. This time it was to get something published.

I had done a course at City Lit on writing picture books for children in the three months prior to writing the first Ollie story. I found out that my ideas were far too weird and exciting for 3-5 year olds and so I decided to try to develop some of the very good ideas I had had into a story for older children and that is how the first story was written, exactly as it has been published, written in the two weeks over Christmas a year ago!

What was your life like before you became an author?
I have always been extremely busy and the previous fifteen years I had travelled a lot working as an Ofsted inspector and a teacher trainer and Advisor around the country, abroad and especially in Inner City areas. I wrote factual reports but also produced a large number of written and visual resources to support my trainee teachers and to illustrate my lectures. I became very comfortable with writing and had to be good at it to do my job well. Visual resources have always been important to me in my work as an art teacher, adviser and trainer.
 

When I retired two years ago, I found I had the time to indulge my remaining ambition, which was to be a published author.

I then did a course in children’s book illustration as I realised that if my books were to be published, no one but me could illustrate them. So that is how I also became an author/illustrator.

Did you face any struggles before becoming an author? If so, how did you overcome them?
The struggles I still face are a lack of confidence. I have never been good at promoting my work. As an artist I have sold work over the years but find it difficult to ‘sell myself.’ As a writer I have also faced this, but J.K. Rowling’s persistence helped me to brace myself for rejection! Actually I found my publisher after only approaching eight publishers, and I am very grateful for their support.

Now that you are a published author, how has your life changed, if at all?
It’s too early to say but my life has changed immeasurably over the last year and has been taken over by my work totally in lockdown-a real lifesaver!

Can you please describe a typical day in your life now?
- Lockdown has changed things a little, but my typical day for the last year has generally been the same:
- Up about 7am and black coffee.
- Exercise – used to be the gym locally but now is with Joe Wicks in my living room, followed by a 40 minute -walk around my local park.
- Emails and then lunch at noon with my husband in the garden.
- 2-5pm Working in my study on illustrations and/or writing the next Ollie story.
- Sometimes I review the day’s work 7.30-9pm
- Sometimes I write ideas down in the night about current stories.
- Basically I never switch off!

What is your most memorable moment of your life as an author?
Receiving that first email from Suzanne Mulvey saying Pegasus were interested in the first Ollie story. I realised then that it was REAL- not just something I had been messing around with in my study or that was just inside my head. Someone else who knew about writing had read it and liked it. It was a marvellous-scary-feeling!

In a few words, how would you review your experience with Pegasus Publishers?
Enthusiastic and ‘can do’

Why did you choose Pegasus Publishers?
I had heard of them and they were well-established in the industry.

You can view the Ollie Meadows books here