Olive's Birthday
Choosy Olive Series Book 1
by Elizabeth & Roger Milbourn
Genre: Children's Picture Book
Olive is very excited about her birthday! What presents will she get? What sort of party will she have? What will her birthday cake be like? Help Olive Choose. In this first book of the Choosy Olive series, the reader gets to decide how Olive's birthday unfolds. See if you can dodge the odd outcomes. Help children feel empowered and learn about the consequences of choice from an early age in a fun and silly way with Olive as she embarks on her day to day childhood journey.
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Can you, for those who don't know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?
I am Australian and came to the UK to work in London as a lawyer. I was only planning to stay for a year or so but that was nearly 20 years ago. I am now living in the English countryside with my English husband, two children and lots of pets.
I started writing children’s stories about 6 years ago after having my own children. I have always loved reading and books and I wanted my kids to love them too.
On my son’s birthday one year we were looking for a book about a birthday on his bookshelves and we couldn’t find one. So, ‘Olive’s Birthday’ was born! It was originally named after my son, but once I’d had my daughter, I thought I’d better change to a neutral name. I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books as a child, and we wanted to recreate that concept, but for younger children. I am now focusing on writing full-time. My husband co-wrote ‘Olive’s Birthday’ and the children also helped especially with coming up with the ideas for choices. It’s great to discover how their minds work.
What is something unique/quirky about you?
My children think I am very weird! This is mainly related to my cooking and baking.
Tell us something really interesting that's happened to you!
A bird pooed on my face the day before my husband proposed and he saw it as good luck!
What are some of your pet peeves?
So many, I am quite impatient. I think the main one is when there is technology to make life easier but then it doesn’t always work eg Alexa, a great idea but it drives me mad when she doesn’t do what she is told!
Where were you born/grew up at?
I was born in Sydney and grew up there and then in Adelaide in Australia.
If you knew you'd die tomorrow, how would you spend your last day?
Somewhere in nature (probably the beach if not too cold!) with my husband and kids and the dog, eating cake and chocolate.
Who is your hero and why?
I have a few but Agatha Christie is my writing hero. I’m a little bit obsessed with her. She was just wonderful, and I wish I could have met her. She was so clever and such a prolific writer who led such an interesting life. I read her books over and over and at the moment am on a mission to read them all in order. I find her very inspiring.
What kind of world ruler would you be?
I’d be an eco-friendly hippy!
What are you passionate about these days?
My three main passions are books, nutrition (hence the quirky cooking) and the environment.
What do you do to unwind and relax?
Read a book! Or a paper or a magazine or articles on whatever I am currently researching. There is nothing better than a nice cup of tea and sitting on the sofa reading. I also like doing yoga and walking the dog in our beautiful surrounding countryside. With the kids, we like to play board games. We have some very silly ones and they are particularly fond of the ones that involve throwing things at each other (eg Throw, Throw Burrito) or ones that make a big mess (eg Pie Face).
How to find time to write as a parent?
Very good question. I am lucky that I am focusing on raising my family and writing at the moment and am not juggling being an employee too. But it is still really hard. I realised recently that I need to switch things around and leave things like housework and errands and general life admin and first and foremost just write. This can mean doing laundry late into the night though. I also find it helps to schedule it into my weekly planner which I update and print out every Monday morning. I always work better to a deadline and so I set myself weekly writing goals and deadlines.
Elizabeth and Roger's children's book, Olive’s Birthday, has been a work in progress for over 5 years. Life got in the way a bit as did running around after their young children. Olive’s Birthday is the first book in the 'Choosy Olive' series, which allows readers to choose how the stories unfold. Elizabeth and Roger wanted to create something a bit different in a picture book and are passionate about giving children choices (within appropriate boundaries!) to empower them. Elizabeth is an avid reader and will read anything and everything but can barely go a day without an Agatha Christie fix. Roger loves children's books and reading to their children and is partial to a non-fiction. Elizabeth is Australian but has called England her home for nearly two decades. Her and Roger (originally from Liverpool) live in the Worcestershire countryside with their two children and quite a lot of pets. When not writing or reading, they spend most of their time washing mud off the children and the dog.
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