By Callum Ludwig
A Warburton author has been sharing her latest story, hoping to make it accessible to as many children as possible.
Jo Rothwell recently published the latest in her Yelpie Kelpie series, ‘One Yelpie in a Sticky Situation’, and is visiting local schools and holding her usual charity ‘non-book launch’ to mark the release.
Ms Rothwell said she first started writing and publishing books in 2004.
“It’s been almost 20 years and I think the latest one is my 18th book, I started dabbling in writing when I used to work as a governess on a cattle station in the Northern Territory a long time ago,” she said.
“I found that instead of going down the traditional route using a publisher, I published my own books because most of the books are geographically able to be used by tourists as well,” she said.
“My very first book was ‘My Warburton Adventure’, then there was ‘My Phillip Island Adventure’, ‘My Melbourne Adventure’, then Syndey, the Grea Ocen Road and it just meant that there was other outlets other than just bookshops that would stock the books for sale.”
Ms Rothwell’s notable lack of any book launch events is so that she can instead put the money that holding an event would cost towards donating books to charity, which she has done since the release of her first book.
Ms Rothwell said she’s not a fan of being in the limelight and sometimes people get a little bit disillusioned with becoming an author and selling books.
“I’d rather just get the book out there and my way of doing it is that instead of paying for the whole cocktails and canapés thing, I’d rather just go to schools and give them to the kids,” she said.
“I find there’s an awful lot of joy when you when you’re able to do that, I try and make it as entertaining as possible and I feel like I get probably more back from that than than anyone,”
“One of the most amazing ones was when we went to the Royal Children’s Hospital when we did My Melbourne Adventure, we collaborated with the Starlight Foundation, Carp Productions entertained the kids and we gave all the kids a book.”
Ms Rothwell has visited Warburton Primary School to give away some books and share the story with students and is also set to visit Millwarra Primary School.
Ms Rothwell said the bottom line for her is merely about having someone enjoy what she’s written.
“When you write a book for the reason of wanting a child to enjoy it, that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day, it’s not about sales,” she said.
“You get direct feedback from children when you’re reading the story so you learn from that as well, you’re always learning how kids react to certain things.”
Ms Rothwell’s relationship with local tourism has continued, with the Warburton Waterwheel Information Centre still stocking Ms Rothwell’s books, including One Yelpie in a Sticky Situation.
Anyone who picks up a copy can keep an eye out for a few signature features of Warburton that have found their way into the story.
