Check out the interview transcript from Marks Motivational Podcast below. Or click the link or image to access the podcast episode.
Mark (00:02):
Hi, and welcome to Mark's motivational podcast, another author's Tuesday. Today I'm delighted to welcome Helen O’Sullivan on the show today. Helen is a brilliant author behind the Gollogans series, a collection of enchanting chapter books for seven to nine year olds set in the beautiful woodlands of South County Dublin. The Gollogans stories take your young readers to magical adventures through the four seasons of the year with nature at the heart of her tales, Helen brings the wonders of the outdoors to life inspiring kids to explore and imagine. Let's dive into the world of the Gollogans and discover more about the creative mind behind these beloved books. So Helen, thanks a lot for joining me today. It's nice to meet you.
Helen (00:58):
Thank you so much for having me on the show, Mark.
Mark (01:01):
Yes, no, it's great to meet you. Yes, so we might start off the podcast if you want to tell the listeners a little bit about yourself for us please, and how you began as an author would be great.
Helen (01:13):
Yes, so I suppose, originally, I've been a languages teacher, linguistics lecturer. I've done a lot of different things in my time, actually, but writing has always been my greatest love ever since I first put pen to paper, and when Covid hit – the big C word – I was heading out into the woodlands a lot with my kids, and there was that time and space to kind of connect with the things that really mattered in life. And it was getting out with them, being in nature, seeing the woodlands through their eyes. My twins were four at that stage and my eldest son was eight. It was that that really got me started with actually putting pen to paper and obviously having that bit more time in the evenings or whenever to do it, and that's how the gollogans came to be. And it was also a bit of a challenge, I suppose, from my husband. We live close to the leadmines tower, and before the trees grew up, you could see it out the window and he was like, write a book set in the woods. Sometimes you need someone to lay down the gauntlet to kind of give you that push to get going. So that's how it all began.
Mark (02:45):
Great, brilliant. That's a great story behind that. That's brilliant. Thanks Helen. And each book in the Gollogans series represents a different season. How does the changing of the seasons influence the adventures or themes in the stories?
Helen (03:06):
So when I set out to write the books, I decided that I would write them in tandem with the seasons. So I would be going out into the woodlands in spring, autumn, summer, winter, obviously, and seeing what was around. And for me, because I originally grew up in London, having the opportunity to live so close to nature and explore it – that's one thing I should say as well, so my 4-year-old twins and my son were exploring nature for the first time, but essentially, so was I so being able to bring that into the books was quite important. And also just getting out there and seeing what's around in winter, what's around in spring, what are all these wildflowers, what is all this? It's fantastic. And it was fascinating, and particularly during Covid when life was so, so quiet, we didn't have access to all the things we normally do. The level of stimulation you get from nature, it's really a gift. You don't realise it until you're out there. And I think they did actually show that children who had access to nature during Covid did a lot better in lots of ways. And I've been reading a lot around it recently that just how vital it is for our health and wellbeing to be in nature. So that's one of the things I want to bring children through the books. But in terms of the seasons, I saw a bee in the middle of winter, so that's why there's a bee on the middle of the winter cover. So yeah, that's how all that emerged.
Mark (04:46):
Because it’s very educational for kids as well, isn't it? Like you say, going out to nature and seeing all the different plants and do you want to talk a bit about that? That must be brilliant and educational for your own children and for everybody reading the book as well.
Helen (05:02):
Yes, I think I'm a linguist and I love words. I'm very passionate about words – and a writer as well. So I just think some of the names, like all the names of the different plants in themselves are kind of fascinating and fun and interesting, and I want to bring that to children in the books. Like, oh, what is Herb Robert and what is a dandelion? I mean, obviously kids tend to know some of the basics, but them going, okay, nettle, dandelion, herb robert, figuring out what all these things are as they go around. We're always frightened of things that we don't understand. So being able to educate children a bit about nature, make it seem like a place of value, a place where you can spend time and have adventures, and just bringing out that connection to nature through the books. I think that's something I wanted to do for children.
Mark (06:14):
Great. And basically it's great as well to be able to inspire your own children to maybe when they're a bit older or even now, making up stories about it and just, it can really help, can't you?
Helen (06:27):
Oh, absolutely. I know I see with my own children that it certainly, two of them are very interested in writing and creating stories as well.
Mark (06:41):
Brilliant, brilliant. Thank you very much for that. And can you tell the listeners more about the gollogans themselves? What are they like and how do they interact with the woodland environment? The Woodland environment?
Helen (07:00):
Yes, so I think the gollogans were really inspired by seeing the squirrels in my garden. I've always loved squirrels. When I was growing up, we'd go to Richmond Park and there'd be loads of squirrels, and you'd see them in the garden as well at home. But yeah, just their energy, the way they move and jump around and all the rest. I think a lot of people are quite drawn to that. There's something about how they get about, and the energy they give off that is very appealing in some way. I can't say exactly what, but the gollogans themselves, so they're these small squirrel-like creatures about the size of the dolls in a doll's house, and they've got these pouches they can collect things with. When I think about it too hard, their quality is a kind of an amalgamation of chimps, squirrels, and kangaroos, but that sounds dreadful, so let's just say that they’re gollogans. (07:55) And that's what they're like and their characters ... I know that in schools some people were like, how did you come up with all the characters? And I was like, I really don't know. I suppose they're just particular qualities of people that I've met at some point, or having taught in classrooms, you start to notice different types of characters without thinking of any person in particular. And that's just how they emerged, I suppose. This cast of, there's Dil who's a bit more anxious, and then she's a twin sister who's much more adventurous and impulsive, and actually she steals the show from book two. (08:45) And then you've got some of the boy gollogans – one who wants to be more in charge, and another one who's a bit more, he likes to entertain people. And you've got a girl gollogan who is a bit more sensible, and she's more studious in the sense that – not that they read and write, they're kind of modelled on perhaps what you might imagine human life to have been way back when we were more connected to nature. So everything they convey to each other isn't written down. They tell each other stories. So she's the one who's the best at remembering these stories where they convey wisdom to each other, and that's Bretia. (09:34) And actually the names are something that people come up to me and say, well, how did you find all these names? From the plants. It's from the colours. They're all different colours as well. So Verdant is green and Gurrem is blue, and Bretia and Monty are kind of an orange colour, like the Montbretia that I saw one time in Clare, and I was just like, Clare Island, actually. I was blown away by it and just how beautiful it was. And everyone was like, yeah, that’s just Montbretia. But that's where Monty and Bretia get their names, for example.
Mark (10:15):
That's great. You just imagine you've go around to the schools and the kids, the children might ask great questions. Do you go around to much schools and do readings?
Helen (10:28):
Yes, I've been to a few now and it's fabulous. I get the best questions and the most challenging questions.
Mark (10:41):
And why did you decide to write for the seven to nine age group, and how do you approach crafting stories that resonate with younger readers?
Helen (10:55):
So I suppose I had children of that age at the time, but when I started writing the books, I quickly realised that that was probably the age group that they were going to fit. I originally thought six to nine, but when I went to them with the editor, she said the category is actually seven to nine. And so I was like, okay, well, that's it then. But I think six year olds enjoy hearing the stories as well. But for actually reading them, it would be from age seven. And then so in terms of the themes and the length of story, yes, that's the category they ended up falling into. And my eldest son heard the stories, and so he would be the first person to hear them, and I'd be checking to see how much he was getting from them at the time as well. And then I kind of sent them around to my nephews and to friends’ children and all kinds, just to see how they were coming across. And I suppose I also thought back to my own childhood and the stories I enjoyed because I was a voracious reader, that's practically all I did, but I also still have that taste for novelty and excitement and adventure. So I think that's how that ended up in the books.
Mark (12:08): Great. I know we spoke about this earlier, but basically I suppose for children reading this book, it makes them really appreciate the outdoors.
Helen (12:22):
Yes, I mean, I know children who already love nature really engage with the books. And I'm surprised, actually, there seems to be a lot of – I didn't particularly write them for boys or girls; I actually specifically wanted them to be for both boys and girls – but a lot of boys seem to engage with the books and really to the point where boys who perhaps wouldn't otherwise read to themselves want to read. And that's really exciting for me.
Mark (13:02): So a good mixture of children like it.
Helen (13:04): A good mixture. Yes. And girls as well, but it is just – that's nice to hear. It's lovely to hear.
Mark (13:12): Great. For younger kids, would you say you could sit down and read them with your children going to bed at night? Is that something that you've brought in with the books as well, Helen?
Helen (13:26): Yes, so when I was writing them as well, obviously I'm writing them for children, but I was also thinking, because I'm reading stories to my children all the time, and some of them are like, everything is just a little bit silly as if children are silly and I have the greatest respect for children and for my own children. And sometimes I felt like, oh, they're not all about being silly. Yes, okay, they like to be silly and have fun, but actually children can be very serious and deal with very serious things for whatever reason. It could be, say, the death of a parent, or it could be something else. They are living in an adult world at the same time (14:09) One of my friends had passed away, and I was kind of mindful of that. She had children the same age as mine. So those things were in the back of my head while I was writing it, that children are children and they love being playful and silly, but they deal with serious things. And I would love to have books myself to read to my children where we're both enjoying them in different ways. So I wanted them to be books that parents would enjoy reading to their children, because that is a very important moment when you're bringing them to bed. It's a time when you can really connect with them perhaps after a frantic day where you're like, they're asking you questions and you're trying to cook dinner, and you've got 20 WhatsApps coming on your phone and all the rest of this kind of thing. All these distractions that it's like, if you can offer something where children and their parents can enjoy it together (and it's a bit, there's playful and silly and funny bits in there as well.) I think that's what I would love people to get from the books.
Mark (15:13): Yeah, makes sense. Thanks so much for that. I suppose, what's your biggest achievement so far in your writing career? Having a book, any kind of book, published yourself and written yourself as a big achievement, but what would you say you're most proud of? I suppose probably the right word to use.
Helen (15:39):
Oh, that's a really tough question. Oh, sorry. No, no, no, that's fine. Yes. I'm proud of having got them out into the world because I think I'm the kind of person who would reject herself before anyone else had rejected what she was doing. So even overcoming some of the fears that there can be around actually doing what it is you want to set out to achieve. And I just took it very much step by step the whole way. I was like, okay, all I have to do today is, and it might be just edit this page, or it might be send that email that I'm not sure I want to send, all that kind of thing. And I think that's the only way you can approach any big project in life – just one thing at a time and try to forget about the big picture. So, I'd say I'm quite proud of having managed to do that. That would be the main thing.
Mark (16:43):
Yeah. Great. Yeah, thanks very much for that. Because people listening to this, they might hear you saying that, and it will inspire them as well. So thanks so much for that.
Helen (16:53): No problem at all.
Mark (16:56): Yeah, yeah. Great. And do any real life places or childhood memories from South County Dublin inspire the magical setting in your books?
Helen (17:08): Yes. Well, the actual settings are real, a lot of them. So I mean, that was quite nice. I could bring the children out then and say, oh, look, there's the crevice where all the gollogans live in Knocksink. It's kind of magical. And at one point they were repairing the bridge and the crevice was gone. And I was like, “Oh, no!”, because actually, I mean, I do get caught up in my own imagination to the point where I'd be like believing in the gollogans myself. It's terrible. But I suppose part of the, that's a risk factor of the job, in a sense, writing stuff. But yeah, the gollogans, there's the bridge in Knocksink, and then there's this lovely pool that sometimes develops at certain times of year after there's a lot of rain and there’d be tadpoles in it, and that features in the books. There's the leadmines tower and the tunnel and Carrickgollogan Hill, in book four, Stephen’s Green, one of the gollogans ventures into Stephen’s Green.
Mark (18:20):
Brilliant. Yeah, it's true what you're saying there, because when you're writing the book, the characters sometimes come to life. And do you find they even can instruct your writing in a way, in a sense?
Helen (18:35):
Yeah, they do. I mean, I know every time you hear an author interview, it's like, oh, you're a pantser, or a plotter, or whatever they call it. I was very much one of these people in the beginning who was like, well, I want to be able to plan these things, and maybe I'd start a chapter with an idea of something that had to happen. But very much as you write the story, a character might just say something to someone else and you'd be like, oh, I wasn't expecting you to say that, but let's go with that. And then the ideas start to flow as you're writing. And I find that's much more exciting as I'm writing, and it probably ends up more exciting on the page. And then sometimes I find you can draw things back to the general direction you were heading in. And then in hindsight, when you go back and you edit and you edit and you edit, you kind of go, okay, so I need to now foreshadow this thing that I wasn't expecting to happen. And it's like your own life. You look back and things make sense and you can create a story out of it.
Mark
Yeah, yeah.
Helen(19:46): I think, so it's in hindsight and in the editing process that sometimes the story emerges. I think that's the way I would say that roughly that it all happened.
Mark (19:59): Right. Yeah. That's great. Thanks so much. Because it makes so much sense. Even as an author myself, I found that when I was writing my books, it's like you're prompted for what happens next. Do you find that as well for as you're writing story ideas come from them characters?
Helen (20:21): Oh, they do. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was incorporating the weather and the nature and the seasons into what I was writing very much. And there's a very sad scene in book three, and it just so happened – and it sounds like a fairytale itself, but it's true. I swear it's true – there was a hailstorm, a real freak flash hailstorm outside as I was writing this scene, and I was like, oh, okay, so that's going in.
Mark (20:55):
Wow. It was meant to happen.
Helen (20:58):
It was meant to happen. I know it sounds bizarre in hindsight, but that's the way it did.
Mark (21:02):
Yeah. Your books sound brilliant. I'm looking forward to getting the hands on myself. Really, really good.
Helen (21:09):
Thank you so much.
Mark (21:11):
And with four books already in the series, do you plan to continue the adventures of the gollogans, or are there any new projects you're excited to explore?
Helen (21:23):
Yeah, so I am at the moment writing some of the tales that the gollogans tell each other. So that's one idea I have at the moment, but like that the way I work is kind of organic. So I have a couple of picture books as well, I've written and things like that. But yeah, I’ll just, I'll see how things emerge over time.
Mark (21:49):
Yeah. I suppose the question is, what's next for yourself? Do you have anything else you'd like to tell the listeners to expect from yourself, Helen?
Helen (22:03):
Well, I hope in the next while that these gollogan, I don’t know if I want to call them gollogan fables or gollogan tales, emerge in a way that I am satisfied with. So that's the project I'm working on at the moment. And then, time will tell because I'm doing everything step by step.
Mark (22:23):
Yeah. Great. No, best to luck with everything you do. That's great. And during Covid, did you get involved with any kind of writers’ groups? Because myself personally, I got in touch with the Inkslingers where you write off prompts every week, just a half an hour off a prompt. Is that something you've done before?
Helen (22:44):
I'm actually doing that more and more now at the moment. Yes. So I go to the Zoom calls for the London Writers’ Salon, and I find that that's really useful on those days when you just need a bit more structure or connection with other writers. It's really good. And there's some fantastic Facebook groups, like the Indie Authors Ireland is a good group, really good group. And things like that – there's a wonderful community of authors out there if you look for it.
Mark (23:15):
Brilliant. Yeah, thanks so much for that. And what ways have you found to be the best ways to market your book? Have you self-published or do you have a publisher?
Helen (23:26):
Oh yes, so I've self-published these books, and that was really on advice. It's next to impossible to get your foot in the door of traditional publishing at the moment. And because people were enjoying the books, at least a few people said to me, just publish them. I was like, just publish them. What does that involve? So by connecting with other authors, I slowly figured it out, and that's how the books came to be.
Mark (23:58): Right, yeah. And as I said, what have you found the best ways to market your book? What's been the best avenue you've found to go with?
Helen (24:11):
Oh, that's a tricky one. I'm not sure if I found the best way yet, but I'm still just talking to people though. And that's the main one. I think we try to do a lot of things online, but actually meeting people in person and talking to them, and that's still so, so important.
Mark (24:32):
And have you went to any markets like myself, I've went to Patrick Street Market where you can sell your books, which is a nice little avenue to meet people and to be able to sell your work. Is that something you've looked at?
Helen (24:46):
Yeah, I have done that, actually. I was really lucky to be at the Richmond Barracks Fair last year. I'm going to be at Ballymaloe Christmas Fair this year, and the local parish fair in Kilternan. And I actually love getting out there and meeting people and chatting to them at the markets.
Mark (25:07):
Yeah. Great. Okay. I really appreciate you coming on Helen, and your stories sound great. I'm looking forward to make sure everybody who's listening make sure you look at, I'm going to share all your links on the show notes for people to find the books, so everybody makes sure you check them out. And lots of sales for you. Helen.
Helen (25:26):
Thanks so much, Mark. I really appreciate you having me on today.
Mark (25:29):
Great. Okay. So is anything else I haven't asked you you'd like to share with people before we go today?
Helen (25:37): No, I think that's everything.
Mark (25:41): Great, Helen. So I wish you all the success going forward to having you do Helen O’Sullivan. Thanks a lot for joining me today.
Helen (25:48): Thank you. And all the best with the podcast. It's very inspiring.
Mark (25:55):
Thank you so much. So thanks for listening to Mark's motivational podcast and another author’s Tuesday with Helen O’Sullivan. So make sure to check out the show notes and like and subscribe to my podcast. Till next time, take good care of yourselves. Thank you. Yes, big thank you, for tuning to Mark's Motivational podcast and our author’s Tuesday with Helen O’Sullivan. Just to let everybody know, Helen is doing story time in Tales for Tadpoles in Bray this coming Saturday at half two, just to let everybody know who would like to turn up for that and live in the area. So once again, thanks for tuning to Mark's Motivational podcast until next time, take care agus slán go fóill.
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