Q&A With Guest Author Giles Paley-Phillips

The Fearsome Beastie Blog Tour

Before I introduce my very special guest author Giles Paley-Phillips, lets get to know him a bit more by reading his bio (courtesy of his blog page)

Giles was born in East Sussex in 1977 and grew up on the south coast. He neglected his education to pursue a career in music. He spent a number of years performing extensively around the UK, including slots at the Glastonbury festival. In 2006 Giles released a collection of lyrics and poems in aid of Leukemia Research, a charity dear to his heart, having lost his mother to the disease when he was six. After the birth of his first son, and a chance encounter with a collection of nonsense poetry by Shel Silverstein in a charity shop, he was inspired to turn his attention to Children’s writing. His debut picture book 'THE FEARSOME BEASTIE' CAME OUT IN MAY(Maverick Books) followed later in 2011 by THE THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT DINOSAURS which will be published by Gullane in a collection of nonsense poetry THERE IS A LION IN MY BATHROOM (Rebel books 2010, with proceeds going to Leukemia Research) and is OUT NOW in all good bookshops Giles still lives in Seaford with his wife, Michelle, and their two sons, Elijah and Sonny.

Welcome to My Book Chatter Giles, and thank you for being my very first guest author.

I have to say that my girls and I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Fearsome Beastie together. (You can read the review here)

Where did the idea or inspiration for TFB come from, and how long did it take to write?

The story was inspired my two son's desire to play hiding under blankets from monsters. Writing the story took about a day, but tweaking and refining it took a lot longer.

The illustrator, Gabriele Antonini has done a beautiful job with the pictures in this book, they're just gorgeous. Did you have any input into the look of your ‘Beastie’?

Not really, I saw an initial colour sketch and it looked great.

My Miss 4 thinks that The Fearsome Beastie is naughty and shouldn’t eat children!! If you were a Fearsome Beastie, what would you eat? 

I would eat Pork Pies! 
(insert sigh here....I miss pork pies something fearful nom nom!!!---Cath)

You’ve had some success with your band Burnthouse in the past and I know you wrote song lyrics. When did you realise that you wanted to write children’s books and was it an easy transition? 

It was when my first son was born, I just wanted to write for him, but it took a while to figure it out.

What have been the biggest challenges and/or surprises you’ve faced as a writer?

I find editing extremely hard.

Do you have any plans to write or would you consider writing a novel for adults?

Not for adults, but I would like to write something for older children

Who are some of your favourite authors and what books do you have on your ‘to be read’ pile?

In children's literature I love the work of Roald Dahl, Shel Silverstein and Brian Selznick. In adult books, I really like, Chuck Palahniuk, David Glen Gold and Bret Easton Ellis.

What are three quirky, interesting, or little known facts you can tell us about yourself?

I got run over by a car when i was 10! 

I ran 400m in my county championships, I'm tee total!

Is there anything else you’d like to add that we haven’t touched on yet? 

I have two books out The Fearsome Beastie and There's A Lion In My Bathroom!
 
Be sure to check out the rest of the tour for more surprising information and tidbits :)

If you would like more information about Giles and/or his books, here are some links that may interest you:

Author's Blog: http://gilespaleyphillips.blogspot.com/ 

Author's facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/giles.paleyphillips

Author's Goodreads Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3195778.Giles_Paley_Phillips?origin=

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/tenderbranson10

Publisher's Website: http://www.maverickbooks.co.uk/books/the-fearsome-beastie/

Fearsome Beastie Activity Page: http://www.maverickbooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Fearsome-Beastie1.pdf