Today I had the absolute delight of meeting Sally Rippin. Sally's passion for creating books for children shines as brightly as her infectious smile. 
Sally loves reading, writing and drawing and says that she is lucky to do what she loves every day. Sally has been writing since she was very young. When she was about 15 years old Sally was a babysitter and would made books like this one for the children she looked after. Sally was destined to become a book creator!
Sally explained that stories come from two places - your imagination and your experience (things that happen to you). Books are a combination of both. When you write a story it needs good characters and a problem.
Sally wanted to write a series with two new characters and use lots of imagination. She likes witches and thought a monster for a best friend for her witch would let her use her imagination. The next step was to create a problem for her characters and after filling her notebook with lots of ideas, Sally decided her problem would be that her friends were not allowed to be friends any more and they would have to fight for their friendship.
Next step was to decide what her characters would look like. Sally's first picture was in pen and the start of her ideas. Someone told her that Buster looked like a 'hairy potato'!!
Sally did lots of research about different types of monsters and witches before she created her final pictures of Polly Proggett and Buster Grewclaw using charcoal.
Once Sally knew her characters then she began to create their world of Blackmoon Coven that we enter when we read the Polly and Buster series.
Me and you,
You and me,
That's the way it
will always be ... (Buster)
Polly the witch and Buster the Feelings Monster have the sort of friendship that makes your heart squeeze with happiness. In a world where witches can never be friends with monsters, Polly and Buster have managed to keep their friendship a secret. Until one day when everything changes...
What would you do
if everyone thought
your best friend was
dangerous?
In this book, Polly and Buster are on the run from nearly everyone in town. Who is sending Polly messages through the magical stones and will Polly follow the messages? Polly and Buster have big decisions to make. Will they stay safe and hidden or risk it all to save the day?
At the end of her session, Sally gave one of the best gifts an author can give their readers and read some of her new Polly and Buster book. It is such a privilege to hear an author read the words they have carefully chosen to write their story.
If you haven't met Polly and Buster yet, then it's time you did! Polly and Buster's friendship is warm, funny and magical and together as friends they can face whatever comes their way...they would love you to join them on their adventures!
If you ever have the chance to go along and meet Sally, please make sure you do because you will will be in for a wonderful treat!
Happy reading!
