Dyan Blacklock has written nine books, many of which are Notable books, including a picture book, short stories, a novel and nonfiction books. Her book Crash!: The Search for the Stinson was the Honour Book in the 2000 Children’s Book Council Eve Pownell Award. In 2001 Olympia: Warrior Athletes of Ancient Greece won the Eve Pownell Award.
Dyan is also the Publisher at Omnibus Books. Her youngest son Joe wants to take after her as an author, and maybe even as an illustrator. He shows no inclination to become a publisher, however.
Dyan says, ‘Books have always been an important part of my life. I loved going to bed when I was young because it was when I had my mum to myself. There were five of us kids, so getting Mum alone was a wonderful feeling, and getting her to read aloud to me was very special. She read to me every single night and now that I have my own children I wonder how she found the time. She put on voices for all the different characters; sometimes, if the book was sad, she would start to cry and then both of us would be blubbing and hugging and the story had to wait.
‘I wanted to write books from when I was very little. Nowadays because I work as a publisher I find I give away all my good ideas, and besides I have very little time to write my own stories. I always have something on the go, however. Writing is like breathing for me, I just have to do it.’
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