Sandy Fussell
Welcome to Creative Kids Tales Sandy Fussell.
This month’s author, Sandy Fussell has a secret. She collects Yowies! In fact, she has hundreds of them. Not real ones, well not that she’s letting on. So far, she is only admitting to little plastic ones.
She loves Sudoko, sushi and chocolate, but most of all she loves writing.
Sandy Fussell was born in 1960 and grew up in a house with few books. Her love affair with reading began when she started school and discovered the school library. Prizes for academic achievement were awarded in the form of books. Sandy studied hard to ensure she was the recipient of many of those awards. Her favourite subjects were mathematics and history which has helped her in writing.
She began writing in 2002 and refers to herself as an ‘accidental writer’. Devastated at the thought of her eldest son losing interest in reading Sandy decided to re-ignite her son’s passion for reading. Unfortunately her mother-son writing project ended with her promptly being told to ‘write your own book’. Sandy did and the rest, they say is history.
Sandy honed her talent by consecutively writing nine manuscripts. It was manuscript number eight that Sandy showed to friends. All of which encouraged her to pursue it. Her ninth manuscript was Samurai Kids which was accepted by Walker Books and published in 2008.
She is most recognised for her Samurai Kids series which was seen her win many accolades. The most significant was the CBCA Notable Book for Young Readers for book three, Shaolin Tiger in 2010. It was also short-listed in the Speech Pathology Awards for the same year.
Her other awards are listed below:
- 2009 Short Listed CBCA Children's Book of the Year, Polar Boy'
- 2009 Honour Book CBCA Junior Judges Project, Polar Boy
- 2009 Short Listed Sakura Medal Chapter Book (Japan), Samurai Kids Book 1 - White Crane
- 2009 Panda Book Award Middle Readers (China), Polar Boy
- 2010 CBCA Notable, Samurai Kids Book 3 – ‘Shaolin Tiger’
- 2010 Shortlist Speech Pathology Book of the Year, Samurai Kids Book 3 – ‘Shaolin Tiger’
- 2011CBCA notable, Samurai Kids Book 5 – ‘Fire Lizard’
- 2011 CBCA Notable, ‘Jaguar Warrior’
- 2011 IBBY Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities, Samurai Kids Book 1 - ‘White Crane’
Book eight and the final in the Samurai Kids series was released in September this year.
Sandy lives south of Sydney in Wollongong with her husband and two sons. She is an author who has successfully balanced her fulltime work in IT with raising a family and becoming a successful author.
Her workshops have assisted thousands of children in the craft of writing and her Samurai Kids website has been archived by the National Library’s Pandora Archive.
Enjoy Creative Kids Tales featured author of the month, Sandy Fussell.
To read more about this talented author visit her website: www.sandyfussell.comSamurai
Kids website: www.samuraikids.com.au
You can also check out Sandy's blog: www.sandyfussell.blogspot.com.au
'I’m thrilled to be Creative Kids Tales author of the month.' 'I hope in some small way by me taking part, I might help and inspire young authors and artists to follow their own artistic path.' 'The key I believe is to seek to enjoy what you do. Even though doing your best is a constant challenge I find it is a worthwhile one. So, get drawing and / or writing.' Good luck ! - 
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'If there's anything emerging authors struggle with (beyond the dreaded writer's block), it's receiving recognition or even acknowledgment of their work – battling for a slice of that incredibly elusive publishing pie. Georgie Donaghey has created a priceless promotional and networking station that allows new authors to not only share their work, but gain the courage and nous to take their work to a whole new level. Creative Kids Tales is a valuable addition to Australia's burgeoning children's book market.' - 
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