On the 9th of July, we launched Andrea Kaczmarek's beautiful children's book "Pink Wish Ice Cream" in the P'kaboo Book Club.
The book is about a pink witch (more like a Fairy Godmother) selling delicious strawberry-and-magic ice cream and granting wishes... but only to those who deserve them.The P'kaboo Book Club interviewed the author amidst much ice cream and pink champagne.
In the Book Club, being a Facebook group, often questions and answers overlap each other as people write at the same time. Nevertheless, having tried to organize them into a logical sequence, here are a few salient questions and answers from the interview:
Interview of Andrea Kaczmarek about "Pink Wish Ice Cream"
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| Author Andrea Kaczmarek and Illustrator Eva Kuenzel |
Yvonne Walker Please tell me a little about you. Where are you from? Do you have children you tell these stories to, or grandchildren perhaps?
Andrea Kaczmarek I come from Wales originally, but live in Germany. My husband is Manfred...is that a clue? I have 3 grandchildren...yes, Lilly likes my stories. Best storyteller in the world - says Lilly! I mostly read stories to my children.. But I have written...or scribbled - a bit for years.
Yvonne Walker Is this your first published book then?
Andrea Kaczmarek No I had a few books published long ago...I taught business English, but didn't like the textbooks, so I wrote my own...as one does!
Lili Rossouw What was your first story about?
Andrea Kaczmarek I wrote a story quite a few years ago about a little girl who found some magical worry dolls. I was doing a worry doll project at school..I don't think the story was so good.
Jane Wright I like the idea of children having to say please and thank-you to get their wish and be polite.
Jane Wright Andrea, how long did it take you to write the book?
Andrea Kaczmarek I think writing is more about re-writing, changing, putting the story away & then going over it all over again... About a year with long breaks...but there are more stories. The colour witches..
Carmen Capuano So is this a series Andrea?
Andrea Kaczmarek Not yet, but it could be...the other witches are resting.
Andrea Kaczmarek Polly is the anchor witch...her friends developed from there...
Lili Rossouw Does Polly grant her friends' wishes too?
Andrea Kaczmarek No, but she gets them out of trouble when things go wrong.
Carmen Capuano I see and is Polly based on a real person?
Andrea Kaczmarek No,she is fantasy, but has a lot of things going for her...
Carmen Capuano That's a lovely picture of you Andrea, where was it taken?
Andrea Kaczmarek Today is my grand daughter Lilly's birthday...I hope they had ice cream & wishes.
Carmen Capuano I'm sure they did. Childhood can be a magical time.
Lili Rossouw Andrea,
most of the many colour witches have pets, a lot of them cats. (Though
I think one has a canary?) Do these animals have magic too?
Leslie Noble Congrats to Andrea and Eva for producing this delightful book. I want a print copy as well, as soon as it is available!
Leslie Noble Indeed! I yam [here now] - having just wrestled with some very tricky problems and won by a knockout - oh, no, that's boxing ...
Lili Rossouw One last question Andrea - knowing that you are off to an early start tomorrow, so it's probably time to close... why witches? What inspired this?
Andrea Kaczmarek It just came to me... mainly because I saw an ice cream van.
An author sees an ice cream van, and a beautiful children's series comes into being! It is always surprising where inspiration can come from. We will launch the Amazon versions (paperback and kindle) of this book on 18th July, also in the Book Club. Please be ready for another round of wishing ice cream and, if our author feels so inclined, pink wishing champagne.
