Papers Pens Poets is a blog where writers, book bloggers and illustrators can share their passion for all things stationery. It was the brain child of children’s author Jo Franklin. The blog contains reviews, articles, and weekly interviews with a wide range of authors, covering books of all age ranges and genres. Jo set up the blog and I did the majority of the author interviews.

The second interview I did for Papers Pens Poets was with YA author Sue Wallman. She has three YA books published by Scholastic.

In the interview, she revealed she is a real pen fanatic. Her love of pens was probably triggered by winning a Crackerjack pen. Yes! Sue was on the television reciting a poem dressed in a home-made costume and won herself an amazing Crackerjack pen. I am totally envious. I would have loved a Crackerjack pen. What’s a Crackerjack pen, you say? Well I’m afraid you just missed out! Here is a picture of it for you instead:

But Sue’s favourite pen and she admits it may just be her favourite all-time possession, is an old Parker fountain pen which was her mum’s. It was a gift from her grandparents to her mum who used it for her O-level exams in the Fifties. Out of the blue, when Sue was a student, she gave it to her. The nib has never been changed – the way Sue and her Mum both hold it must be similar because the pen writes smoothly for both of them. Sue used this pen to sign her first book contract.

Sue also has a whole drawer full of Sharpies. Whatever colour you need, she has it. She loves the sound of the click when the lid snaps on. She also loves to share her passion for pens with her friends and family. At her book launches, she had pens printed with her book titles and web address as take-home presents.

Sue told me:

When it comes to notebooks, I have a new one for each project and I don’t like going bigger than A5 because then it’s awkward to carry around. I’m a fan of the Asda notebooks that look like Moleskines and cost £3. I go expensive occasionally: I have a little notebook from Liberty that’s faded to a lovely purple and has beautiful striped elastic.

To find out more information about Sue Wallman and her books check out her website: www.suewallman.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @SueWallman

This article is adapted from an original interview on the Papers Pens Poets blog. You can find out more about Sue and her stationery there. It was also previously published on the SCBWI British Isles online magazine Words and Pictures.

If you are a published author of any age range (0 – Adult) or genre, or an illustrator, or a book blogger, or a librarian and would like to be featured on the Papers Pens Poets blog, please get in touch.