At the beginning
The idea came about while we were staying in a bushblock in central Victoria, where there was no television, computers, internet and only patchy mobile coverage.
Zoe, who was 10 years old at the time, was very bored (boredom is a great thing!) and she drew a picture of Rapunzel on a magnetic board. She describes the drawing was “so bad, it did not look like Rapunzel”, so she renamed it Rapunzel’s Sister. I remember saying to her at the time, it was a great idea. Later that day, we went on a bushwalk and the plot developed.
Getting Published
We paid an editor prior to sending the book to publishing houses, such as Penguin, Allen and Unwin and Pan Macmillan. We waited a year to be rejected. We then decided on partnership-publishing and decided on Little Steps publishing.
I tried to draw a cover to save money and also for the challenge of it. However, Little Steps suggested that we use a professional illustrator! Via Little Steps to ask on our behalf, Angelo Rinaldi agreed to illustrate the cover for us. After we sent through a creative brief about what we wanted. We were blown away by the quality of his work.
We are extremely happy with the quality of the book as well as working with the approachable staff at Little Steps.
Our books arrived in October 2018, and we began signing the books, in anticipation of the book launch and author visits.
The Authors
The authors are a mother and daughter team.
Zoe Reddaway
At the end of grade 5, Zoe was bored, so she got out a magnetic drawing board. On that board, she drew a picture of a girl in a tower, with long hair. The all-time favourite, Rapunzel. But she labelled it “Rapunzel’s Sister”. She showed her mum the drawing and from there, the idea started. They wrote the book, and Zoe illustrated a few of the characters so her mum could describe them.
Zoe is currently a ballet student of The National Theatre (St Kilda). Her initial training was at Kew School of Dance (Kew) where she learnt Jazz, Ballet and HipHop. She also studied VCE dance with Cheryl Kaloger Brown. She previously learnt singing from Alyssa Wood from Armstrong’s School of Singing. She loves to read, especially fantasy. She also likes writing stories, but only narratives! Her favourite food is chocolate.
Belinda Lui
Belinda has always dreamed of publishing a book since she was a child, having sent numerous manuscripts to magazines and publishers throughout the years.
Belinda has been interested in art since childhood, mostly portraiture. In 2009, she produced a short picture book, “Cooking with Doggy”. She loves reading children’s books. Favourites include “Charlie and the Chocolate factory”, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and most of all “Harry Potter” series.
Music is also a passion. She grew up playing the piano and violin but recently took up singing which is her current musical outlet, learning from Adam Wood at Armstrong’s School of Singing. She enjoys listening to anything by Mozart and musicals such as Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and Chicago. The play “Harry Potter and Cursed Child” tops anything she has ever seen, including musicals!
She also has a new project about wellness, meditation and healing. Please see her YouTube site :