During Covid, Lauren Hackney lost her aviation job, had to sell her house, and also had to navigate her husband's life threatening heart attack. And creativity is what saved them.

In episode 18 of The KidLit Pod, host Shara Curlett welcomes Queensland author and screenwriter Lauren Hackney, who began writing with her children during this challenging time. Their bedtime idea became the internationally sold chapter book, The Lolly Shop, which was later adapted into an award-winning animated screenplay.

Lauren discusses early creativity through a love of music. When she later discovered travel, her world view was opened up and she pursued a career in the aviation industry. But when Lauren found herself without a job after sixteen years, she had to rethink everything, digging back down into those creative roots and deciding to embark on the pursuit of a creative path, leading Lauren to believe that everyone's story is important, and it may not land where you thought it would, but it's still going to land somewhere if you believe in it.

Since then, Lauren has persisted through many rejections, learning to “foster the no,” and has slowly built relationships in publishing and screen. She explains how her curiosity led to her YouTube interview series organically unfolding, which came from her innate curiosity of really wanting to know how others got into the hot seat, and how could she get there. This in turn landed her a role the content manager for Inspiring Minds Magazine.

Now, Lauren is fully immersed in the kidlit world. Alongside pursuing her passion of creativity, she has also developed a workshop to help bridge the gap with English. Lauren shares her classroom workshop “Build a Burger,” a kid-friendly story-structure analogy adaptable to books, film, and articles, which helps to understand storytelling in a fully immersive way that hits all the sense.

Lauren also talks about her debut picture book Panda (Daisy Lane Publishing), about a cow who believes she’s a dog, which explores identity and friendship, before sharing upcoming launch plans and current reads.

LINKS:

Lauren Hackney on Instagram - @lbe.hackney

Lauren Hackney's YouTube Interview series

BOOK SPOTLIGHT - Panda by Lauren Hackney, illustrated by Emma Hay

Emma Hay, illustrator on Instagram - @emmahayillustrator

SHOUT OUTS:

Jennifer Sharpe of Daisy Lane Publishing

Jess Galatola on Instagram - @jess.galatola

Julie Ann Grasso on Instagram - @julieannegrasso_books

Adam Wallace on Instagram - @adamwallacestuff

READING:

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Black Gully - Jack Roney

Dragon Snare by Rhiannon Williams

Beautiful Chaos by Jess Urlichs

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Follow The KidLit Pod on Instagram (@thekidlitpod)

Find out more about The KidLit Pod host, Shara Curlett, here:

Shara Curlett on Instagram (@sharacurlett)

Shara Curlett Website (www.sharacurlett.com)