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Book Week Series: The Art of Literature and Illustrations ft. Laura Jackson | Ep. 10 image

Book Week Series: The Art of Literature and Illustrations ft. Laura Jackson | Ep. 10

The Zainab Khan Podcast
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31 Plays10 months ago

Welcome to our tenth podcast episode, where we have the privilege of diving into the world of literature and illustrations with Laura Jackson. This special episode is a part of the Book Week Series.

Join us as we embark on Laura Jackson's journey, from her early days as a budding writer in Australia to her influential role as a celebrated playwright, children's book author, and novelist. In this episode, we'll uncover Laura's passion for crafting compelling narratives, particularly those that amplify the voices of strong women. From her education at NIDA and the University of Wollongong to her collaborations with illustrator Brandon Wong on children's books, Laura has demonstrated a dedication to storytelling across various mediums. Her debut novel, "Keeping Score," promises to be a captivating exploration of complex themes.

Whether you're a theater enthusiast, a literary aficionado, or simply intrigued by the power of storytelling, this episode promises to provide valuable insights and inspiration from Laura Jackson's remarkable career. Join us as we delve into the imaginative world of Laura's narratives, where every word resonates with depth and authenticity.

About Laura Jackson:

Laura is a versatile performer, writer, and producer passionate about crafting compelling narratives, especially those highlighting the experiences of strong women. With degrees from NIDA and the University of Wollongong, she's written plays, children's books with illustrator Brandon Wong, and is polishing her first novel, "Keeping Score." Laura's work delves into themes like street harassment and domestic violence, earning recognition such as the Ian Potter Cultural Trust grant and international play readings. Represented by BMEG, she continues to develop new plays while drawing on her diverse training in writing, accents, and screen acting.

Laura's website: https://www.lblibrary.com/


About Book Week Series:

Book Week Series is a celebration of authors and illustrators from around the world. For the past two years, this series has been a favorite on Studimation, where we've explored the art of storytelling through insightful interviews. This year, we're excited to move the series to The Zainab Khan Podcast, now available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, iHeart Radio, and more. Join us as we highlight diverse voices in literature, sharing their journeys, inspirations, and advice. Whether you're a literature enthusiast or an aspiring writer, our Book Week Series offers enriching and inspiring conversations. Tune in to The Zainab Khan Podcast and celebrate storytelling with us!

To see the video version of this episode subscribe to the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thezainabkhan

Website: https://thezainabkhan.com/

Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/zainabkhanpodcast/

Transcript

Introduction to Laura as a Creative Force

00:00:00
Speaker
Laura is a versatile performer, writer, and producer passionate about crafting compelling narratives, especially those highlighting the experiences of strong women.
00:00:09
Speaker
With degrees from NIDA and the University of Wollongong, she's written plays, children's books with illustrator Brandon Wong,
00:00:16
Speaker
and is publishing her first novel, Keeping Score.
00:00:19
Speaker
Laura's work delves into themes like street harassment and domestic violence, earning recognition such as the Ian Porter Culture Trust Grant and international play readings.
00:00:29
Speaker
Represented by BMEG, she continues to develop new plays while drawing on her diverse training in writing, accents, and screen acting.
00:00:37
Speaker
Hi!
00:00:45
Speaker
Hi, thanks for having me.
00:00:46
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining in today.
00:00:48
Speaker
Are you excited for the interview?
00:00:50
Speaker
Absolutely, I'm very excited.
00:00:52
Speaker
Had a look at the YouTube channel and it looks like it's an amazing resource.
00:00:55
Speaker
So thanks for having me on.
00:00:56
Speaker
Thank you, thank

Journey from NIDA to Playwriting

00:00:58
Speaker
you.
00:00:58
Speaker
Can you tell us about your journey from studying acting at NIDA to becoming a prolific writer and producer?
00:01:05
Speaker
Yeah, of course.
00:01:07
Speaker
I mean, it's a bit of a long journey, I guess.
00:01:10
Speaker
When I was a kid, I really liked...
00:01:13
Speaker
all things creative.
00:01:14
Speaker
So I was, you know, into writing and I was in choirs and playing musical instruments and that sort of thing.
00:01:21
Speaker
And so then when I graduated school, I was trying to work out what do I do?
00:01:24
Speaker
You know, how do I use these, these interests?
00:01:28
Speaker
And so I initially went to the University of Wollongong and I studied there
00:01:32
Speaker
three-year acting training there and yeah, kind of found my voice as a creative and did a lot of, it was an acting course, but I did a lot of writing electives and kind of found this real passion for writing there too.
00:01:48
Speaker
And so then when I graduated there, I ended up doing a master's of creative writing and wrote my first play.
00:01:55
Speaker
And I met a couple of really impactful female mentors through my studies who then ended up being my master's mentors and have had a really fruitful relationship with them since, you know, graduating and the years in between.
00:02:12
Speaker
So and then that play that I wrote as part of the masters, I toured around and yeah, I did sort of a bunch of different cities with that one.
00:02:20
Speaker
And all the while I had my sights on NIDA, which is, you know, one of the big acting schools in Australia.
00:02:28
Speaker
So there's kind of this, yeah, there's three sort of big ones.
00:02:33
Speaker
And then there's a lot of other amazing schools as well.
00:02:35
Speaker
But I had my eye on trying to get in there.
00:02:37
Speaker
And so it took me four years to get in.
00:02:40
Speaker
I had to audition four years in a row.
00:02:42
Speaker
And then the final year I was...
00:02:45
Speaker
kind of making strides with my plays and I created a theater company, a music theater company, and I was working with those people.
00:02:52
Speaker
And I, at that point, when the fourth year came around, each year I get all the way to the end, but not quite in.
00:02:58
Speaker
And the fourth year came around, I sort of thought, oh, do I even need to go?
00:03:01
Speaker
Do I even need to audition?
00:03:02
Speaker
And anyway, I think because I had that mindset and I wasn't too
00:03:09
Speaker
desperate to get in.
00:03:10
Speaker
I just kind of had a whole life outside.
00:03:12
Speaker
That of course was the year that it did happen.
00:03:15
Speaker
And I did get in, did another three years of study, another three years of acting training.
00:03:20
Speaker
And then yeah, I've written a few other plays in that time and I've kind of gone on to, yeah, as you said, write and produce.

Inspiration from Female Narratives

00:03:28
Speaker
And so I've, yeah, taken those, those plays onto tours and continue to write in various genres and,
00:03:36
Speaker
really enjoyed that side of my creative life and continued to audition and tried to build my world as an actor too.
00:03:44
Speaker
So it's kind of been a combination.
00:03:47
Speaker
Can you name some authors or books that pretty clearly inspired you?
00:03:52
Speaker
Oh, that's a good question.
00:03:54
Speaker
I think I loved reading books.
00:03:58
Speaker
novels, novels kind of, even as a teenager and all the way through.
00:04:01
Speaker
I mean, I love Harry Potter.
00:04:03
Speaker
I love, there's a Jodie Pickle is a great writer here.
00:04:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:08
Speaker
And then as far as kids books, I've got to got to explore kids books again because I have a little boy.
00:04:14
Speaker
He's now two.
00:04:15
Speaker
And so I've got to read all these great kids books that, you know, Mem Fox is a fantastic Australian writer and I've just enjoyed re-experiencing children's books through his eyes.
00:04:27
Speaker
That's wonderful.
00:04:28
Speaker
What inspired you to focus on creating strong female narratives in your work?
00:04:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think I have a real interest in female experiences, of course, because I am a woman, but that really kind of germinated when I was at Wollongong Uni and I met some really powerful and amazing female friends and they helped me to
00:04:51
Speaker
find and then craft my feminist voice.
00:04:54
Speaker
And then because of that, those interests just naturally then found their way into my writing.
00:05:00
Speaker
Also because I'm an actor and I was looking to create a role and roles for myself, I ended up writing stories about women of a similar age to me with, you know, similar interests and that meant that I could play those roles.
00:05:15
Speaker
So I think that's how that formed.
00:05:19
Speaker
And that's really fascinating
00:05:20
Speaker
specifically for my plays.
00:05:22
Speaker
Some of the other writing isn't quite so focused that way, but it's really, I think, because it's the combination of the acting and the writing, and that comes together to tell female stories.
00:05:33
Speaker
Do you think there are enough books that cover strong female narratives?

Balancing Genres and Overcoming Writer's Block

00:05:37
Speaker
oh, I think there could always be more.
00:05:39
Speaker
I think there's more emerging, which is great, that shift to there's a hunger for some more diverse stories.
00:05:47
Speaker
We want to see stories of people who we can relate to.
00:05:50
Speaker
And I think that there has been a shift to include more stories of different races and different sexual identities and different gender identities.
00:05:59
Speaker
And to let everyone see themselves represented, I think is a really beautiful journey we're on.
00:06:07
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:06:09
Speaker
How do you balance your various creative pursuits from writing plays to self-publishing children's books?
00:06:15
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, balance is a big one, especially now being a mother, trying to fit it all in.
00:06:21
Speaker
But I really enjoy doing writing in different genres.
00:06:27
Speaker
I know I have some writer friends who don't like that, who really like to focus on I'm a playwright or I'm a children's book author or I'm a novelist.
00:06:35
Speaker
But I actually really enjoy that kind of
00:06:38
Speaker
ability to shift between genres because it helps me to get through writer's block.
00:06:42
Speaker
If I'm writing something, I'm working on a play and I can't really get something, then I just can put it to the side and have a look at a children's book or have a look at the novel.
00:06:54
Speaker
And that project jumping allows me to stay productive.
00:06:58
Speaker
So that's how I balance it and enjoy it.
00:07:01
Speaker
What motivated you to collaborate with illustrator Brandon Wong on the LB Library children's books?
00:07:08
Speaker
Oh, well, Brandon and I have been friends for a very long time.
00:07:12
Speaker
He initially went to school with my brother.
00:07:14
Speaker
So that's how we met.
00:07:15
Speaker
And then he reached out to me.
00:07:18
Speaker
I think it would have been 10 years ago now, or maybe longer.
00:07:21
Speaker
And he had he had an idea for a children's book.
00:07:23
Speaker
And he is a really talented graphic designer and illustrator.
00:07:26
Speaker
And so he had these beautiful images of a polar bear.
00:07:30
Speaker
experiencing the world for the first time and trying to kind of go on a journey of discovery, but he wasn't sure how to get the words together the way he wanted them.
00:07:39
Speaker
So he said to me, look, I have these images.
00:07:41
Speaker
Would you write the words or would you take what I've done and rewrite the words for me?
00:07:46
Speaker
And, yeah, that was a really exciting kind of first foray into children's books.
00:07:51
Speaker
And from there, we've just kind of kept it as an ongoing collaboration.
00:07:55
Speaker
We've got two already.
00:07:56
Speaker
We've self-published them.
00:07:58
Speaker
They've been a real passion project.
00:07:59
Speaker
So we've just kind of enjoyed, yeah, just creating them ourselves and putting them out there ourselves.
00:08:06
Speaker
But we've got a couple more in the works.
00:08:08
Speaker
So we'll see what we do with those, whether we kind of, yeah, try to approach a publisher or just enjoy the
00:08:14
Speaker
self-publishing route and keep building our library.
00:08:17
Speaker
That's why we called it LB Library, Laura Brandon's library.
00:08:20
Speaker
We just wanted a bookshelf full of books that we had created.
00:08:25
Speaker
What impact do you hope this project has?
00:08:29
Speaker
My goal for the kids' books, I think is, yeah, you know, I started writing before I had my son, but now that I have him, it feels like it has a different purpose for me.

Venturing into Children's Literature

00:08:41
Speaker
It's
00:08:42
Speaker
It's such a beautiful time at the end of the end of my day every day to sit and read a book to my son as he goes to bed.
00:08:50
Speaker
And it's created a real love of reading for him and a beautiful connection point for me.
00:08:55
Speaker
And so I think that's why now I write the kids books is because I want to give other parents that beautiful moment of joy with their child, you know, and contribute to that.
00:09:07
Speaker
that bedtime thing that happens in so many in every household that has a child usually.
00:09:12
Speaker
Yeah, what a privilege to think that my book was one that that family enjoyed in that moment.
00:09:20
Speaker
I think that's what inspires me.
00:09:22
Speaker
Can you share a memorable moment from like the children?
00:09:28
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:09:29
Speaker
So, well, the last little bit, so my son's now two and a bit.
00:09:35
Speaker
He's got really, really
00:09:37
Speaker
vocal, he started talking more and more.
00:09:39
Speaker
And there's a book that he really likes called Where is the Green Sheep, which is one by Mem Fox.
00:09:46
Speaker
And yeah, and I think I have it somewhere around here.
00:09:50
Speaker
But he has, even though he can't read yet, because it's so simple and beautifully written,
00:09:56
Speaker
as I turn the page, he knows what the next line is.
00:09:58
Speaker
So he'll start like memorizing it and reading it out.
00:10:01
Speaker
And it's almost like he's reading back to me.
00:10:04
Speaker
So that's really special.
00:10:05
Speaker
And I'm sure when he can actually read back to me, I'll really enjoy that.

Exploring Themes in 'Keeping Score'

00:10:09
Speaker
Could you share some insights into your novel, Keeping Score and its themes?
00:10:13
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:10:15
Speaker
So Keeping Score is a different genre and audience altogether.
00:10:19
Speaker
Obviously, the children's books are, you know,
00:10:21
Speaker
for children and for adults who like picture books.
00:10:24
Speaker
But Keeping Score is a book for adults.
00:10:27
Speaker
It's based in Sydney.
00:10:28
Speaker
It's about the world of Sydney tennis.
00:10:31
Speaker
There's a bit of drama, a bit of scandal.
00:10:34
Speaker
So it's really quite different thematically.
00:10:37
Speaker
And that's also, as I said before, I enjoy that genre jumping because it allows me to kind of, yeah, by writing for different audiences, I get in a really different mindset and I enjoy that.
00:10:48
Speaker
What's the best genre for you?
00:10:51
Speaker
I think the best genre for me is plays.
00:10:53
Speaker
Even though I really love the novel and the kids' books, I think I really enjoy dialogue because I'm an actor and so that kind of sharp back and forth dialogue is the best for me, I think.
00:11:04
Speaker
Even though it helps me write dialogues for the novel and the kids' books I enjoy, but you've got to be so economical with words because you have so few.
00:11:13
Speaker
Whereas plays I get to elaborate and be a bit cheekier, a bit funnier and I enjoy that.
00:11:21
Speaker
How do you approach addressing sensitive topics like street harassment and domestic violence in your place?

Addressing Social Issues Through Characters

00:11:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's a good question because they are sensitive and everyone has had a some kind of experience of unfortunately in our world, some kind of experience of sorts of topics, whether it be themselves or through friends or people they know, or even just absorbing the news.
00:11:46
Speaker
And so,
00:11:47
Speaker
I know that telling those stories can be challenging and triggering for people to watch.
00:11:53
Speaker
So because of that, I address those topics with what I call a light touch.
00:11:57
Speaker
So the topics are very much rooted in the story, and this is particularly for the players, but the realisation of the story is very much through character, conversation, natural back and forth, friendship,
00:12:15
Speaker
jokes, warmth.
00:12:17
Speaker
Obviously we're not joking about the topics.
00:12:19
Speaker
It's the jokes and the banter between the two friends that creates a sense of safety to allow them to talk and share their experiences with each other.
00:12:29
Speaker
So I guess that's how I approach them sensitively and also just through research and speaking to people and trying to make sure that I've done kind of due diligence and that I'm being thoughtful about my realizations of those topics.
00:12:45
Speaker
Those are some great techniques.
00:12:48
Speaker
Can you share your experience of receiving the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant and how it impacted your career?

Impact of Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant

00:12:55
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:12:56
Speaker
So, yeah, I was the very lucky recipient of the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant.
00:13:01
Speaker
I received, I applied, I was at that time, I was working on a development of my play The Culture.
00:13:09
Speaker
And I was looking for, yeah, some support to develop myself as an artist to get myself, yeah, able to rise to the standard that I wanted.
00:13:19
Speaker
And so I connected up with a director who is based in New York and she had toured us at NIDA for just a short time, I think two weeks, but I really, she was a guest director and she came in and worked with my year, but I just really loved her approach and,
00:13:38
Speaker
She, I mentioned a couple of mentors earlier, she has been another really important mentor to me.
00:13:45
Speaker
And then I saw the Ian Potter Cultural Grant, which was looking for artists with a goal to study internationally.
00:13:56
Speaker
So I applied to work with that director, Bethany Caputo.
00:14:00
Speaker
I applied to study under her, to work with her, to create a development of that piece so that it could then go on to a bigger kind of career and trajectory on its own, the play afterwards.
00:14:16
Speaker
And so, yeah, they awarded me $5,000 Australian dollars.
00:14:19
Speaker
I was able to travel to New York, work with Bethany and, you know,
00:14:24
Speaker
build this piece into something and come back.
00:14:29
Speaker
And then it went on to a, to a international tour after that.
00:14:32
Speaker
So I was very, very lucky.
00:14:35
Speaker
Has this allowed you to reach a wider audience?
00:14:38
Speaker
I think so.
00:14:39
Speaker
It, it gave me a framework to then build a team.
00:14:44
Speaker
I met a really wonderful creative colleague who produced my tour for me and her
00:14:56
Speaker
Her name's Carly Fisher.
00:14:56
Speaker
Her drive is really, really enviable.
00:15:00
Speaker
And I think with her help, we took
00:15:03
Speaker
my play to six cities.
00:15:05
Speaker
And then so we reached audiences in a lot of different places.
00:15:09
Speaker
And, you know, we did 63 shows.
00:15:12
Speaker
And so I'm really grateful for the whole team that came on board for that project.
00:15:16
Speaker
I had some really wonderful, thoughtful, generous people who gave their time and their talent and allowed me to build it and create something really special.
00:15:25
Speaker
So I'm really proud of that.
00:15:28
Speaker
Is there any feedback from the readers that stand out to you?

Audience Feedback and Personal Connections

00:15:32
Speaker
Oh, absolutely.
00:15:33
Speaker
I mean, one of the most powerful things with the tour that I experienced, because as I mentioned, it does address sensitive topics like domestic violence, and they can be really personal for some people.
00:15:47
Speaker
I quite regularly had people approach me at the end of the show in the foyer and say to me, oh, you told my story or thank you for sharing that.
00:15:57
Speaker
That really meant something to me personally.
00:16:00
Speaker
This was my mum's story or, you know, they had a really kind of personal and close attachment to the character and they wanted to tell me thank you.
00:16:11
Speaker
And I was just so touched by that and so...
00:16:15
Speaker
blown away at people being, yeah, sort of compelled to disclose their experiences to me based on the play and watching it and wanting to connect with me more closely.
00:16:31
Speaker
That's beautiful.
00:16:33
Speaker
What was the process like for having your play The Culture chosen for rehearsed reading in London's Arcola Theatre?

International Exposure and Challenges

00:16:40
Speaker
Yeah, that was really a surprise, a really lovely surprise.
00:16:44
Speaker
My agent submitted and I then received, you know, the email from them that they'd like to include my play.
00:16:51
Speaker
It was one of 10 outstanding plays from around the world and they did a rehearsed reading.
00:16:57
Speaker
And the timing was quite funny because the night of the reading,
00:17:02
Speaker
was the same day in Australia when we were bumping in to do the show in Sydney.
00:17:07
Speaker
So we had already done, I think that was our fifth city by then.
00:17:10
Speaker
We'd already done quite a few cities, but Sydney is where I'm from.
00:17:12
Speaker
Sydney is the home of a lot of the team.
00:17:15
Speaker
And so we were just getting ready to show our work to our friends and family and then the wider Sydney audience.
00:17:25
Speaker
And on that same day, they were doing the reading in London.
00:17:27
Speaker
So I was able to zoom in for a minute and, um,
00:17:30
Speaker
you know, just kind of have a talk to the beautiful director and actors who took the piece and, you know, did the reading at a very, very busy time for me.
00:17:40
Speaker
And they were enjoying because I could talk really quite in detail about my experience of the character because I was right in the middle of playing her as well.
00:17:50
Speaker
So, yeah, that was pretty special.
00:17:53
Speaker
Could you tell us more about your international tour with the culture and the challenges and highlights you experienced?
00:18:00
Speaker
Yeah, so, well, we went to, we started in New York, which is, you know, a funny way to go because we're Australian and that's, you know, normally you would test it out at home and then take it internationally, but that's not what we did.
00:18:12
Speaker
We started in New York, then we went to New Zealand and then we did a number of cities around Australia.
00:18:19
Speaker
So we did Hobart, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
00:18:25
Speaker
And so with each city, I think we,
00:18:30
Speaker
explored more deeply what we were trying to say and the characters grew and the storytelling grew and the whole show is just me and one other actor on stage.
00:18:40
Speaker
So the two of us, as we moved through each city became more and more, yeah, just more and more playful with the text because we were really, really familiar with it.
00:18:53
Speaker
And, yeah, so there were a lot of highlights.
00:18:56
Speaker
I think the...
00:18:59
Speaker
Probably bringing it home to Sydney was a big highlight.
00:19:02
Speaker
Each closing night when we kind of went, oh, look, we did another one.
00:19:05
Speaker
The closing night in Melbourne, that was a very, very last city, was a very emotional and wonderful experience.
00:19:14
Speaker
That producer who I mentioned, Carly, she created a little video where she got everyone who had been involved all the way along to say a few words on a video.
00:19:21
Speaker
And I watched that in the theater and felt very touched and proud of what we've created.
00:19:26
Speaker
And we did have challenges, you know, we had,
00:19:28
Speaker
moments where we would disagree as a team, where we had to find our ways through, you know, we would have just logistical problems because we were traveling everywhere.
00:19:39
Speaker
I was traveling around with my baby then, you know, he's a bit older now, but, you know, the team was wonderful in supporting me as a mother and trying to balance it all and juggle it all, but wouldn't have changed it for the world.
00:19:52
Speaker
It was wonderful.
00:19:53
Speaker
Did you learn anything from the experience?
00:19:56
Speaker
Oh, so much, so much.
00:19:58
Speaker
I think I had multiple roles to play because I was the writer, the actor, and then I was the producer with, yeah, I was the executive producer and I know I had Carly as a creative producer.
00:20:09
Speaker
And so I had to learn
00:20:12
Speaker
how to take one hat off and put the other one on when it was time to rewrite or when it was time to focus on the acting, you know, and when it was time to produce, but when it was time to relinquish that responsibility to someone else so that I could focus creatively.
00:20:28
Speaker
I think it helped me grow as a woman and grow as a writer and an actor.
00:20:32
Speaker
Certainly just the experience of doing it over and over again gave me a real kind of confidence.
00:20:37
Speaker
So, yeah.

Mentorship and Persistence in the Arts

00:20:39
Speaker
What inspired your one woman play Handle It and how did it evolve over its seven season run?
00:20:45
Speaker
Yeah, so Handle It was the play that I wrote as part of my masters.
00:20:48
Speaker
That was my first play and my first foray into writing.
00:20:53
Speaker
I'd kind of done little bits and pieces, but a first full piece where I wrote the role for myself.
00:20:59
Speaker
And that one was a one woman play.
00:21:02
Speaker
I had six different characters that I played in.
00:21:06
Speaker
And so I would kind of go off quick costume change and come on as the next one in six different monologues.
00:21:10
Speaker
And yeah, I guess the inspiration for it was just around that time, as I mentioned, when I was trying to find my feminist voice and I had all this passion and a little bit of anger and a frustration about some of the things that women experienced.
00:21:26
Speaker
And I just wanted an outlet.
00:21:27
Speaker
And so I put it into this work and
00:21:30
Speaker
And then it kind of went on a tour and I took it around to, I was based in Wollongong at that time, which is a town, you know, a little bit south of Sydney.
00:21:38
Speaker
And so I did it there and then did it in Sydney.
00:21:41
Speaker
And then I did the fringe circuit, some of those fringe festivals.
00:21:45
Speaker
And then that kind of led me on to writing more things.
00:21:48
Speaker
So it was quite formative.
00:21:50
Speaker
Lastly, what advice would you give to aspiring actors, writers and producers who are looking to break into the industry and create meaningful work?
00:21:59
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:21:59
Speaker
That's a big question because I still think I'm finding my way in, you know, obviously I have, you know, the experience we've discussed, but there's still lots of things that I haven't yet done and lots of things to, to explore myself.
00:22:13
Speaker
But I think the biggest thing for me is the wonderful gift of mentors.
00:22:21
Speaker
I just, I've mentioned a couple and those, those I've had a number of women who have been
00:22:28
Speaker
a bit older than me, a bit more experienced, so generous with their time, so skilled in their own crafts and the gifts that they have given me with just helping me to find my way has been really, really, really wonderful.
00:22:43
Speaker
So I guess, you know, if you see someone who's a little bit more experienced than you and you admire them, you know, ask to work with them or ask them to, you know, give your time and just go follow them for a day if they'll let you.
00:22:55
Speaker
And then I guess,
00:22:56
Speaker
Following on from that, I've tried to pass on that gift of mentorship myself and have had some people who, you know, wanted to ask me questions and wanted to have that same relationship with me and I've tried to kind of pay it forward.
00:23:09
Speaker
Yeah, and I think just keep going because there's lots of rejection, lots and lots of rejection.
00:23:13
Speaker
And so, yeah, where you can fit it in around your other work and just keep on going because in time something will happen.
00:23:22
Speaker
That's a great piece of advice.

Availability of Laura's Works

00:23:24
Speaker
Before we end our conversation, where can the audience find your work?
00:23:28
Speaker
Yeah, so you can find the plays.
00:23:31
Speaker
Sorry, no, you can find the kids' books.
00:23:33
Speaker
I was thinking about two things at once.
00:23:34
Speaker
You can find the kids' books at lblibrary.com.
00:23:37
Speaker
And also we've got a little Instagram account, which is lb.library.
00:23:43
Speaker
But me generally, I am at different times I've got shows on different times I don't.
00:23:49
Speaker
So the best place to probably stay in touch with me is on my Instagram, which is at Laura Y Jackson.
00:23:55
Speaker
Yeah, you'll be able to kind of from there you can get to.
00:23:57
Speaker
my website and my production company.
00:23:59
Speaker
That's the sort of the place to start, I think.
00:24:02
Speaker
And yeah, then from there, they can also go on my website and reach out to me if they want to talk to me about anything further.
00:24:07
Speaker
Awesome.
00:24:08
Speaker
With this, we end our chat.
00:24:10
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining in.
00:24:12
Speaker
It was fun talking to you.
00:24:14
Speaker
So good to talk to you too.
00:24:16
Speaker
Bye.