Maddy Mara, DRAGON GIRLS
[1:20]Zibby Owens: This is Zippy Owens, and you're listening to the award winning podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. I'm also the host of Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight, and I'm the editor of the anthology, which you should run out and buy, called Moms Don't Have Time to A Quarantine Anthology. All proceeds of that book go to COVID nineteen vaccine research. And I'm the editor in chief of Moms Don't Have Time to Write a New Publication on Medium, and we're accepting submissions, so please send your personal essays there. And if all that isn't enough, you can follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens, and my website is zibbyowenscom. Okay. Now back to this amazing podcast. Another day of my book blast. Enjoy these children's book one children's book, one middle grade book. And actually, one of them is cohosted by my children, which you will figure out if you listen to both. So enjoy. Maddie Mara is the pen name of Australian creative duo Hilary Rogers and Meredith Badger. Hilary and Meredith have been collaborating on books for children for nearly two decades and now have come out with the Dragon Girls series. It's their first time co writing under the name Maddie Mara, which is the melding of their respective daughters' names. Hillary is an author and former publishing director who has created several series that have sold into millions. Meredith is the author of countless books for kids and young adults, and also teaches English as a foreign language to children. Wow, I wonder how many books you have to write to consider them countless. It's pretty awesome. Meanwhile, my three kids helped out by cohosting this episode, so it's a little non traditional for me, but I had a lot of fun and so did they because the Dragon Girl series is their favorite. So enjoy this funny episode. Welcome, ladies. The team behind Maddie Mara are here to discuss your Dragon Girls. Welcome. Welcome. And we have some special guests from my family, which is I think they already came out May 4. That's right. Wow. You're amazing. I'm not May 4. Well, why don't these guys let these ladies introduce themselves, then we're gonna jump in and talk about the book. What came out me? The book. The the the The books. And there's gonna be six. Right? There is. Exactly.
[3:25]Meredith Badger: Yeah. You should do our publicity. You're amazing. I know it all. Okay. Quickly introduce yourself before we get Okay. Sorry. Hi, my name is Meredith Badger and I'm the Maddie part of Madi Mara.
[3:38]Hilary Mara: And I'm Hilary and I am the Mara part of Madi Mara. Wonderful to see you all.
[3:47]Zibby Owens: Thanks for being here. Okay. As I mentioned, we read these a lot and everybody has very strong relationships with all of your characters. My daughter's holding your book now to the screen. Wow. Why don't you go first and ask? You said something about her being six. What did what were you asking? Yeah. So they're gonna be the dragon
[4:04]Guest: girls treasure dragons. Right? Mhmm. The next three are the treasure dragons. I know that because There's something at the back that shows the next book, the dragon.
[4:14]Zibby Owens: I think his name's May or something. Mhmm. Exactly. May is the first of the treasure dragons. That's right. What do the try treasure dragons do? Because I know they just sound like dragons that protect treasure. But Why why don't we first, can we just ask them to describe what the series is like for people who are listening now for the first time and they don't know anything about or if say do you wanna just describe what it is for them? It's basically
[4:37]Guest: a book about three dragon girls, and there's these bad villains in this book are the shadow sprites. And in the third, there's the shadow queen. Mhmm. Did you find her scary? I only read the interesting pages.
[4:53]Meredith Badger: That one I Which is all of them. Right? There
[4:56]Hilary Mara: are no boring pages. Right?
[4:59]Guest: And so it's also about that every time they get a magic apple that they make potions. And when my nanny and me were reading, when we saw the photo of the squid thing. Mhmm. The giant squid? Yeah. My nanny said that's big. And then when she saw heard that it was just a biggie, it was like, it couldn't get any bigger.
[5:23]Meredith Badger: I know. But it's still quite a quite a cute little baby.
[5:27]Guest: This is already huge. Should I see it? But then it becomes huger when you see this. Okay. Mhmm.
[5:36]Meredith Badger: Exactly. Sadie, were they were they your favorite animals in the in the book? The the squid? Was that the favorite? Is this the shadow queen?
[5:45]Guest: No. That's that's the shadow queen. Do you have any questions for me? My favorite dragon girl could probably ask Mina. Okay. No. We Mhmm. Yeah. She's pretty cool. Willow was my favorite dragon girl. This one's my favorite.
[5:56]Meredith Badger: Yeah. Rhyme vibe. Naomi's pretty special.
[5:58]Guest: Yeah? That's your favorite because you've only seen the cover. That's cool. The cover's great. That's lovely. Hold on. My older daughter has a question too. Here. And How did you come up with that books? Yeah. How'd you come up? Yeah. Hey, would you like to Yeah. Well, when we're writing for kids, we know there are two things that we're always trying to do,
[6:18]Hilary Mara: and that's make sure we create something that kids are gonna lose themselves in. So, a sort of idea that they can dive into and they can escape real life. There's no pandemic and there's no worries and there's no friendship issues. You can just dive in so you can lose yourself. But we also wanna do something that kids can find themselves in as well. So that's one of the reasons why each book has a different character so that there are different personalities that you can follow on the journey into the magic forest, and there's different cultural backgrounds. So we're always really hoping that the kids will both lose themselves and find themselves. And we were thinking about doing a series, and we didn't wanna do a series on fairies. We thought that fairies are kind of, they're a bit dainty and they're There's a lot of books. There's a lot of fairies out there. We think that maybe fairies are a bit dumb. But the thing that we really loved about dragons, which was actually Meredith's daughter's idea, Madeleine so she's the Maddie of Madi Mara. She said, make them all dragons. And we thought that's actually very cool, like, to find your sort of inner dragon because they're such magnificent and fierce creatures, and they're really brave. And so we felt like that would be a really exciting idea for girls.
[7:36]Zibby Owens: What does it say? Freedom. Quiet say it. Madeline and With dedication. Yeah. Dedication.
[7:42]Meredith Badger: So that's our daughters. Yeah. So my daughter is Madeline, and Hillary's daughter is is Mara. So, yeah, we decided to put their names together. That's how we got our pen name as well. So Maddie Mara is our daughter's names, and we dedicated it to to them as well, of course, because, you know, that's the good thing. That's really the only reason why authors have children is that you can then
[8:02]Guest: pick their brains and steal their ideas. So true. Steal their experiences. I made this for mom at school.
[8:08]Meredith Badger: That's so cool. That's really nice. Wow. That's really cool. I posted this on Instagram if you want to get a closer look at Okay. Your I will check it out. I read her video thing. Yes, you did. You did. Really? Wow.
[8:21]Zibby Owens: Your team. I have the video. I colored something. Okay. Now my son's going to ask a question. Oh,
[8:28]Guest: question. Ask a question. Cranky. What do think? Through it. He's he's doing like this. I need a query. Need a Let's a certain page. People have to look for a certain page. I know. Fair enough.
[8:44]Zibby Owens: Why did you choose a pen name to begin with? While you find the page, unless you're ready. Are you ready? Group quick. Oh, he found the page. Found that page. Hold on. It's a treasure dragon.
[8:55]Guest: What object does a treasure dragon find that turns him into a dragon?
[9:01]Meredith Badger: Well, they actually when they come into the magic forest, it just happens automatically. So they're just normal kids in the real world. And then when they kinda get called into the magic forest, they get called in when the forest needs them to help them out, help it out. So they get called in and they just automatically change into a dragon, which is kind of amazing, and at first they're not quite sure what's going on. As Mina, it's like, what's happening here? Why is this giant snake following me? And then she realizes it's actually her tail. And then she's like, then she has to learn how to fly, know, like you wouldn't remember how you learned to walk, but you know, you have to learn to fly just like you learned to walk. So, yeah, they learn on the go, basically. They get in there and they have to save the forest as they're learning how to be dragons at the same time. So it's quite a big art.
[9:48]Hilary Mara: It's also a good question about the treasure because in in this in the first three books, they may have to make a potion, and so they have to collect the magical ingredients to make a potion. And in the second three, it's more like a treasure hunt. I'll be very excited for you to read those because they do have to find objects and return them to a magic vault that lives underneath the forest. Did the other three already come out? No. They're coming out, I think is it October in The US, Mayor? It could be October, I think. So they're all written. They're ready to go. The illustrator's finishing off the illustration, so they're they're ready. But I I think it is October that they're coming out. Yeah. Because that's the funny thing. It's so exciting to see you guys holding the books and being excited about them because I live in Australia, and Meredith lives in Germany. And the books are not on the shelves here. So and we can't come to America because it's a long way away and there's a pandemic. And so we can't pop into a shop or see we can't visit our little babies sitting on the shelves. We're very pleased that you three are looking after them. And seem to be enjoying them too. That's great. I it. How's the weather? I know that's odd. Can I It's like eighty, hundred feet? I'll tell tell you. Look. If you look out my window, look at that. See, it's dark. It's because I'm speaking to you from the future. It's Friday morning here, and it's the sun's not even up. But I can tell you the future is actually just fine.
[11:19]Guest: It's probably just a big not daylight savings time, but, like, in in Los Angeles, there's a three hour difference. It's a big time difference. So my favorite little can you give if the when the books are ready, can you give them to my to my mom early? Because I really want Sure. To read
[11:36]Hilary Mara: Sure. We'd like you to be the first girl in America to read them. My favorite little helper to the Drawing Girls is Unichick.
[11:43]Meredith Badger: Oh, really? Oh. She's bit of a Yeah. Unichick's pretty cool. Yeah. The Yeah. Buttercup is pretty cute too. I mean, they're all pretty cool. Unichick's
[11:52]Hilary Mara: right on the back there. Mhmm. Yeah. We wanted each of them to have their own companion to sort of guide them through the forest. Yeah. Just a little helper.
[12:01]Guest: Four of us, we are down to seven of us. Get. Did you I love the knitish. Shock with two of us. Kind of. Yeah. Okay. So a dog between two. That sounds fair. That's a good way to do it. Twins and we have two little siblings. So at all times, we'll always create someone. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's got a everybody's got a buddy. Perfect.
[12:20]Zibby Owens: How did you two end up teaming up to write these books?
[12:23]Meredith Badger: Well, we've we've got a long history, actually. We know we've known each other for a long time. I actually met Hill through my sister who is actually also called Hillary, is kind of weird. Very weird. I met this Hillary through my sister Hillary. And I actually employed Hill. I gave her a job working I worked at a jazz club and I gave Hill a job as my door girl. She would take the money and yeah, so she would say no to people or let them in, take their money, stamp them and then she got a job in publishing and we started working together in that capacity. So we worked together for quite a few years now and created quite a few books together. So yeah, it's been a really fantastic partnership for Yeah, a few it's quite an unusual way of working.
[13:08]Guest: You've got a microphone. Yes, I want to ask something. Irene, How many children's book have you wrote and how many will you write? Great question. Oh. I
[13:17]Hilary Mara: don't know if we've I've written a lot. I'm not really sure. How many of the Go Girls books I think do. Did. So the first series that Meredith and I ever worked on was when I was, as Meredith was saying, I worked as a publisher. So I worked in house for the publishing house, and Meredith was one of my favorite authors. And we did this series called The Go Girls, and we also did a series called Zac Power. They were the first two series that we did. And there were lots of writers working on them, but both of those series had 50 books in them. And Meredith, I reckon you must have written at least 15
[13:53]Meredith Badger: of four. Maybe 15. Between ten and fifteen of those. And now the Zacks, I probably wrote about four. I I actually lose track, but I think I've probably written about 30.
[14:03]Hilary Mara: I think Yeah. Around about 30. Yeah. Because I was I was publishing lots of books, but I only moved into writing probably about four or five years ago. So I've written, yeah, maybe 10 or something. And this is the first series that Meredith and I have sort of half written, sort of co written. And one of the things that's so amazing about it is even though we're both Australian, as you can hear from our funny accents, Meredith lives in Germany and I live in Australia. So even before there was a pandemic and everyone did everything on Zoom, we used to work in a similar sort of way. So we would never be out we would see each other maybe once or twice a year. But the rest of the time, when one of us is sleeping, the other one's working and vice versa. So we we joke that it's like you wake up in the morning and it's like the elves have come and they've made you little red velvet boots. And you wake up in the morning and think, oh, what's happened overnight?
[14:59]Meredith Badger: So someone's working off them twenty four hours a day. Yeah. So it's it's a really nice way to work. And the other thing that works really well is that Hill and I are both obsessively fast to getting things done. So we just like it's crazy. We'll we'll just set ourselves these crazy deadlines to get them done like before the crazy deadline. Always have to beat a deadline. Why.
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[17:32]Guest: Is there gonna be a Dragon's Girls movie?
[17:36]Meredith Badger: Would be cool. Would you organize That would that be cool. Yeah. We would love that. Would it be a live action or would it be animated, do think? Animated. Yeah. I think it would be. But I'd like both too. Mhmm. But I feel like the dragons in the live action would be a little scarier if you want. Yeah. Yeah. They could be a little bit scary. I think they're kind of like they're impressive. They're big and strong and powerful, but they're not I think they're just yeah. They're more scary, but they scary. Yeah. Exactly.
[18:07]Guest: I think so too. Weird scales and weird ice.
[18:11]Meredith Badger: But they're magnificent. Yeah? It's like they've got armor on and they're glowing and strong.
[18:16]Guest: Is there ever gonna be a Dragon Boys?
[18:19]Meredith Badger: That's a good question. Dragon Boys? We did actually talk about that at one stage. Didn't we know about having another forest that had the dragon boys in it and that, you know, there might be a bit of rivalry maybe or they might, you know, make friends with each other? It could be part of the same forest. Yeah.
[18:37]Guest: Girls could Yeah.
[18:39]Hilary Mara: You could talk to our publishers. Again, I think you've got a good role as our publicist here.
[18:44]Zibby Owens: How many are gonna be in the series altogether? Just the next three? So
[18:49]Hilary Mara: far, I think it's probably just a matter of seeing how they go. If everybody responds like you three, I think we'll be doing some more. Oh, you've a question. Go for it. Go for Another question.
[18:59]Meredith Badger: How many Dragon Girl books is there gonna be? That's what I just said. Well, we hope lots. That would be nice. Yeah. We'll be busy, but that would be cool. How many do you think?
[19:11]Guest: A belly. 50 something. Yeah.
[19:14]Hilary Mara: 50 would be a good number.
[19:16]Guest: Let's aim for 50. Finish this book so I can read the other book. And then the other and then the other and then the any book in my room. Okay. What are the treasure dragon girls little
[19:26]Meredith Badger: companions? Do you remember Hill, what they are?
[19:29]Hilary Mara: Oh, let me see. What have we got? So Maze is
[19:36]Meredith Badger: good. I've drawn a blank too on what they are. We'll have to get back to you on that one. Oh my goodness. But we've only just written them. Yeah.
[19:43]Hilary Mara: Well, pretend it's a mysterious surprise.
[19:46]Meredith Badger: Mysterious surprise.
[19:48]Hilary Mara: What about isn't there one named Quinn or something? Yes. But they're the girls. So the girls are Asia, Quinn, and May.
[19:54]Meredith Badger: And oh, she's got Husky Pup during summer. Husky Pup. Yeah. Got Husky Pup who's amazing. She's a sort of a bit like a beautiful Husky with the really bright eyes. And she's also he's also got a little sister who's called Plushy Pup who's even smaller and cuter and more fiercer. We had a lot of fun naming them. Well, no, they just run into the youngest sister of the companion and she helps them out for a little while, but she's not the main companion. She's too small, too young. Gosh,
[20:23]Guest: she's brave. I have a question. Actually, I forgot.
[20:29]Hilary Mara: Zibby, you were asking about advice for aspiring writers. And it's interesting because we're quite unusual because we're writing together, which obviously a lot of people don't do. And one of the things that we love about that is that it counters the solitary feeling that you can have. It can be quite therapeutic to do work on your own, of course, particularly when you've got kids at home just to dive into something. But it can also be quite isolating, and you can really lose perspective on whether what you've done is genius or dross. And so, one of the things that I certainly love about working with Meredith is that there's always someone else that you can bounce ideas off and get feedback from. And if you're stuck, they might come at it from another angle. And it's a really, really rather than it being half, it's double for me. I feel like it's twice as much fun and twice as creative. So, we really love it. But obviously, not everybody's going to want to co write. One of the things, Zibby, I know you're working on your memoir now. Obviously, you're not gonna wanna I don't have time to do that as you can. Well, you're busy talking Going to really great. Right now. But one of the things, I guess, that you could do, because obviously you don't wanna co write because that turns it into a biography rather than a memoir. But you might wanna find a colleague or a friend who's also working on something, and you might share chapters. Because we find knowing you really never wanna disappoint someone else. You're comfortable disappointing But to disappoint someone else is really bad. So I always think to myself, I've got to get this done because I've got get this She's done to so savvy. She's done all this work, and I don't want to let her down. Because you're such a mean, mean person. But to have someone to know that you need to send that thousand words to or send that chapter to, we find a really wonderful discipline. So, people might like to think about teaming up with someone so that it's not quite so lonely and you've got someone else to be accountable to rather than just yourself.
[22:26]Guest: I love that. That's good advice. Yes. Go ahead. Can the husky or I think it what's the name called Husky
[22:33]Meredith Badger: pup. Well done. Husky pup. Can he float in the He can fly. Yeah. Almost all of the companions can fly. There's a couple again, like Willa's companion who can swim, but I think most oh, actually there's another one who rides on the back. Rides
[22:47]Hilary Mara: on the shoulder. Yeah. Does he have wings?
[22:50]Meredith Badger: Yeah. Yeah, he does. Exactly. Yeah. I think for kids, the tip for kids who want to ride as well. Yeah. The kids who want to ride, like we're talking about what if adults want to write, for kids who want to write, I think, like I often think about those like books that you used to write when you were a kid where you'd staple them up the side and you'd put your name and all of that sort of stuff. I think that really does help, even just doing that is a useful practice. It's self publishing, so I think that that's sort of I've still got all those books that I created as a little kid. So it's all worth it. All writing is good practice. So I think just getting into the habit of doing it is the main thing. Awesome.
[23:26]Zibby Owens: Any last questions guys? We're going to say goodbye.
[23:29]Meredith Badger: Will Dragon Girls ever get I think they've a lot of things to get through before they can possibly have the headspace to think about that. But I don't think they're against it. I think they'd be up for it for sure. Why not? And they've got a perfect location for a wedding as well. The magic Forest would be I very do. It would be quite scenic.
[23:50]Zibby Owens: Uh-oh. Guys? Yeah. Okay. Alright. On that note
[23:56]Hilary Mara: Thank you, Zibby. Thank you so much. Thank Thanks you for this traditional your
[23:59]Zibby Owens: podcast,
[24:00]Meredith Badger: but they were so excited I was talking to you. We're really glad that they enjoyed it. That's wonderful. They're the first kids that I've seen have read it. So it's really other than ever. I know. It's quite thrilling. Quite. Yeah. So it's very cool.
[24:13]Zibby Owens: Awesome. We gotta say goodbye and say thank Bye,
[24:17]Hilary Mara: guys. See you.
[24:20]Zibby Owens: Bye. Thank you. Thanks for listening to part of my June Book Blast. I hope you enjoy it. Come back tomorrow for more. Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens and at moms don't have time to read books. Also sign up for my newsletter at zibbyowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the sound editing, and thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and outro music.