Prize-winning children's author on a roll

Rosemary Neill writing in The Weekend Australian, August 16, 2008

BY any measure, it was an unglamorous start to a literary career. Two years ago, Aaron Blabey, who had just turned his back on a flourishing acting career, started work on his first children's book -- writing on a toilet roll.

Blabey was staying at a friend's house in Adelaide and scribbled down his ideas on toilet paper, the only paper he could find, as the rest of the household had gone to bed. "I was getting frustrated and I thought, 'Well, that will have to do'," he recalls sheepishly.

Yesterday, with a theatrical flourish, the former actor unfurled the same roll of loo paper as he accepted his Book of the Year: Early Childhood prize at the Children's Book Council of Australia awards in Melbourne. The CBCA awards are the country's most prestigious for children's literature, and this year attracted 453 entries.
"It was delightful news. You never expect that sort of stuff," Blabey, 34, said of the win by his book Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley, adding that he avoided thinking about the prize once he was short-listed.

Read the full story at The Australian online.