EILEEN O’HELY “Write your story, pop it out of your mind for a couple of months, then go back to it with fresh eyes.”
Kelly’s Writerly Q&A October Author Interview is with Eileen O’Hely, a children’s author and a PhD astrophysicist! What a combo! She’s published 16 books, including her P.E.P. Squad duology for big kids, 4 books for kids learning to read, 9 middle-grade books, and her most recent, 50 Ways to Die in Space, a graphic novel that’s interesting and funny in the most unexpected ways!
Congratulations and welcome, Eileen, it’s so great to chat!
Kelly: Thanks for taking the time to answer some writerly questions. Congratulations on publishing your 16th book, 50 Ways to Die in Space. What’s it about?
Eileen: Thank you, and thanks for having me, Kelly! 50 Ways to Die in Space is exactly what it sounds like: 50 different ways a human body would become unalive in the varied extreme environments of space.
Kelly: This is such a brilliant concept! What inspired you to write this story?
Eileen: I have a day job as a science communicator, and one Halloween, I worked on a show called ‘Trick or Treat Through the Milky Way’. I was talking to my publisher about it, and my husband (who was also there – it was a party, not a business meeting!) said what the show should have been about was all the ways you can die in space. My publisher flicked her head around so fast she must have got whiplash and said, “Can you write that book?” My response was “of course”, followed by a silent ‘not gonna’. But over the next few days, I thought about it, and realised while I knew lots about the environments of space, I didn’t know exactly what effects they’d have on a human, so I did some research and realised the story could really go somewhere. (And I also realised Hollywood gets it wrong A LOT!)
Kelly: Your publisher has a good ear! How do you go about creating a graphic novel?
Eileen: This book had to be a graphic novel, because it has very snappy dialogue, and I didn’t want that interrupted by he said/she said. I didn’t even give my characters names! So the only way the story would work is if it were a graphic novel. The dialogue came first, then I divided my page into 2 columns with dialogue in one column and illustration briefs for each panel in the other column.
Kelly: This is so interesting to learn. I had no idea this was how graphic novels were created. That makes perfect sense! What does your typical day of writing look like?
Eileen: Being an author and mum yourself, you know there’s no typical writing day! So here’s all the writerly stuff I’ve done so far today after morning household chores:
8:30 – 11:15 Worked on a grant proposal (still not finished),
11:15-12 Lunch at Grill’d (they had a special giveaway on Oscar Piastri burgers - yum!),
12:30-2 Worked on a pitch document with a friend for an educational resource,
2:01-2:02 Returned a text to my boss saying I can do an extra day job shift tomorrow (there goes that writing day),
2:30-3:15 Did my ‘homework’ for the pitch document,
3:15 – 3:45 Author interview,
4-5 Continued on unfinished grant proposal
Kelly: I love this day in your life list! Yes, motherhood is all about crazy, unexpected schedules and fitting things in no matter what. Let’s talk about querying and publishing. How did you get your yes?
Eileen: For this book, it doesn’t really count, as my publisher asked me if I could write it. But if I’m approaching someone, I check out prospective publishers’ websites for their submission guidelines, then I use the exercises in “A Decent Proposal” by Rhonda Whitton and Sheila Hollingworth to get my submission together. I have a spreadsheet of all the publishers I can find in Australia, and I put down when I query them and what response I get. Several never bother to reply. ‘No’ is only 2 letters – put me out of my misery!
Kelly: I’ve never heard of this book. Thanks for recommending A Decent Proposal; it sounds like a great querying resource.
Kelly: There’s nothing like celebrating a publishing win, but I believe it’s even more important to talk about what came before. Can you share a rejection story?
Eileen: As I alluded to in the previous answer, most rejection stories are not written. It’s just an absence of a response within a certain timeframe. However, there was one book I wrote, which has now been published, that has a character with a limb difference who does ballet. One company I sent it to thought it wasn’t diverse enough and said the character should have been a boy rather than a girl. Seriously?
Kelly: Sometimes, the industry can be so cruel. What can you tell me about puppets and book launches?
Eileen: I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to read a graphic novel out loud, but it’s very hard to give an audience the full sense of the story just by reading the dialogue and sound effects. So I made a pair of puppets to act out the story. This also led to many non-writing days, because I had to research how to make puppets and what materials I’d need, design the characters, actually get over my self-protection mechanism of refusing-to-start-something-new-because-I’m-frightened-of-failing and just do it. The puppets have proven very popular with adult and junior audiences.
Kelly: The kids at your author events are in for a treat! Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
Eileen: Write your story, pop it out of your mind for a couple of months, then go back to it with fresh eyes. Oh, and there’s no excuse for bad grammar/spelling/typesetting.
Kelly: Fresh eyes can do wonders. What are you currently reading and loving?
Eileen: I’ve just finished reading ‘Atmosphere’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid, which was awesome. Nothing I’ve read in the last couple of weeks has lived up to it.
Kelly: What an exciting book rec! TJR is so good! So, what can we expect from you next?
Eileen: 50 Ways to Die in the Ocean is currently scheduled to be out next year, and I’m working on a third book in the series. Or, at least, I will be working on the third book in the series as soon as I get my grant written and submitted and don’t get called in for a work emergency!
Kelly: Amazing! I see huge potential in this series and look forward to many more 50 Ways To Die sequels! Thanks so much for your time.
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