Carrie Sellon: 'Put your characters in tricky situations and see how they react'
BY Katie Smart
14th Jun 2023
Carrie Sellon took our three-month online Writing YA & Children’s Fiction course with tutor Catherine Johnson in 2020. Now she has a three-book deal with Guppy Books for a children’s book series for readers aged 7+. The first book in the series Pizza Pete and the Perilous Potions was published earlier this month.
We spoke to Carrie about her time studying with us, how she approaches writing comedy for young readers and her advice for budding children’s authors.
How did the Writing YA & Children’s Fiction course impact your approach to writing?
Before the course, I’d never taken my writing very seriously. It was something I’d done on the side while I was working at the BBC Natural History Unit, or to distract me when I had small babies. The course made me think about writing as a career for the first time. As well as learning a huge amount about the craft, there were lots of practical tips on how to get published, such as the session on writing a synopsis.
What’s the most memorable piece of advice you received from your tutor Catherine Johnson?
Two bits of advice stick in my mind. Firstly, to make sure Pete’s personal journey was at the heart of everything. Secondly, Pete had to be the one driving the story. In my first draft, Pete was too passive. His friend, Anna, found the potions and suggested making magical pizzas. It seems strange now that I didn’t think of this, but it was easy to make the changes and give Pete more agency, and it made such a difference!
Many of our students find lifelong writing friends on our courses. Are you still in touch with anyone you met on the course?
Absolutely! We had a brilliant group of writers on our course – even Catherine commented on how engaged and supportive we were. Once the course finished, we set up our own writing group on Slack – the Dead Pets Society (rather morbid name but all our pets kept dying, hopefully not as a result of author neglect). A core group of us still critique each other’s work, and we’ve met up a few times. Lots of them have now got agents and I have no doubt we will see their books on shelves soon. A very talented bunch. Four of them came to my launch party – two in full pizza costumes. You don’t get much more supportive than that!
Your debut children’s book (7+) Pizza Pete and the Perilous Potions is out now with Guppy Books (it is the first book in a trilogy, illustrated by Sarah Horne). Can you tell us a bit more about the book and the inspiration behind it?
Pete is a 12-year-old boy who lives with his dad above the family pizza shop. He’s always been a homebody, but after he has a panic attack at the swimming pool, he refuses to leave home ever again. When the story opens, he hasn’t stepped outside for twenty-five days. However, everything changes when a shiny new robotic pizza shop starts stealing their customers. Pete has to come up with an ingenious plan to sell more pizzas, otherwise he and his dad will be evicted from their home.
When Pete and his best friend Anna stumble across a mysterious briefcase full of potions in the attic, he thinks he might have found a solution. Everyone wants to eat magical pizzas that can make them fly or turn them into animals. But little do they know what chaos and mayhem will ensue...
The idea for Pizza Pete came to me in lockdown. We built a pizza oven in the garden, and started eating a LOT of pizzas. The kids decided they were bored with the usual mozzarella and pepperoni, so we got everything out of the larder and started experimenting. We tried fried bananas, marshmallows, cashew nuts, Nutella, anchovies... and it got me thinking. What if toppings could give you superpowers? What if chilli powder could make you breathe fire? What if prawns could turn you into a mermaid? The next day I scribbled down some ideas for a picture book, and then wrote a few lines, and a few more, and suddenly I’d written ten thousand words and it definitely wasn’t a picture book anymore.
Tell us about your approach to writing humour, particularly for young readers – do you have any advice for the budding children’s authors reading this?
The magical potions lent themselves to humorous situations – for example Pete and Anna’s English teacher’s chin grew as long as a carrot – but I didn’t particularly intend to write a humorous book. Most of the humour came from Pete and Anna’s interactions and dialogue – and I can’t really explain how I wrote it, it just sort of flowed. I think it helps if you know your characters really well, and also if they’re different. Pete is a bit anxious and nerdy, whereas Anna is more of a stick-two-fingers-up-at-anyone sort of girl, so when they’re put in an uncomfortable situation they deal with it in different ways. My advice would be not to try too hard at the outset to write a funny book, but to put your characters in tricky situations and see how they react. Maybe they respond in a completely unexpected way? Maybe they say one thing but do the exact opposite? Have fun with it and see where it takes you.
What children’s books do you always recommend to others?
I love the My Brother is a Superhero series (David Solomons). He’s the man to ask about writing humour. I reread The Secret Life of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾ (Sue Townsend) whenever I’m feeling a bit down. It’s as funny now as it ever was. I always recommend A Monster Calls (Patrick Ness) and Skellig (David Almond) – both haunting and beautiful. The last book to make me cry was The Last Bear (Hannah Gold) – such a simple, sweet, beautifully written story.
What is your writing routine and where do you like to write?
Every day is different but my ideal writing day would be to start at 10 o’clock, once I’ve done the school run and walked the dog. I try to write until lunchtime, but that’s punctuated with lots of coffee and trips to the fridge. I’m good for nothing in the afternoon so that’s when I catch up on emails and prepare for school visits etc. I’ve got a desk in our sitting room – great when the children are at school, not so great when they’re watching TV. My window looks out onto the chickens so I spend quite a lot of time with my feet up on the window sill, gazing at Bluebell and Snowy, hoping they’ll impart wisdom and ideas.
Finally, are you able to give us a peek into your thoughts on books two and three?
In book two (coming out in June 2024), Pete vows to never touch the potions again, until they’re stolen, and somehow he is the main suspect. Da-da-dahhhh! In book three (June 2025), Pete and Anna run out of potions so they track down the inventor, but they’re not given the warmest of welcomes...
Pizza Pete and the Perilous Potions is out now with Guppy Books. Order your copy here.
Applications for the next three-month online Writing YA & Children’s Fiction course are open.
Or you can enrol now to join our six-week online Writing YA & Middle Grade Fiction course.
The books linked in this blog can be found on our Bookshop.org shop front. Curtis Brown Creative receive 10% whenever someone buys from our Bookshop.org page.