2.24 Afternoon tea with Apsara Baldovino, Amanda Lieber and Claire Thompson

Apsara Baldovino spent most of her career in magazine publishing - working for marie claire, Girlfriend and David Jones magazines in advertising sales before taking the leap into the start-up world. By day, she is the Senior Brand Partnerships Manager for Australia’s newest gifting tech unicorn, and by night, Apsara writes stories for children who dream of owning a real unicorn!

Most of her writing career has been spent putting together very serious sales pitches for very serious clients, so when she was on maternity leave with her second child she reconnected with her inner child to begin her journey with writing picture books.  

Nature, the seasons, and the tiny wonders of our incredible world inspire her writing. Apsara’s passion is to dream up memorable characters, experiment with perspectives and create books that will be treasured for years to come.

Apsara lives with her family by the sea in Sydney and also calls Melbourne home.  The Lucky Shack is Apsara's debut picture book, published by HarperCollins.

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Amanda Lieber found a box stuffed with notebooks, scraps of paper, old menus, bits torn out of magazines and crumpled serviettes covered with her scribbles, observations, characters, plots and stories. That’s when she realised she was passionate about storytelling and needed to share her characters and their stories with the world.

So far being an actress has been Amanda’s favourite career, she hopes that writing stories for children will be her next new favourite career.

My Giant Sea Shell is available now, published by Little Pink Dog Books.

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Claire Thompson is an Australian children’s writer with a passion – and nose – for sniffing out true stories to empower and inspire.

Driven by her background in journalism, real people with extraordinary tales sit at the heart of Claire’s books.

Growing up in Beatrix Potter’s English countryside, Claire has always loved inspiring books of courage and adventure. Pitching her first book idea to a publisher at 12 years old, she proudly received a hand-typed response encouraging her to keep following her dreams.

Revisiting a love of children’s books in recent years, Claire completed The Australian Writers’ Centre picture book course.

Claire’s debut picture book Lily The Inventor is out with Redback Publishing in 2023. Lily The Inventor is the remarkable true story of Lily Born, who invents a cup to help her Grandpa.

Claire now lives in a coastal village, tucked away in northern Sydney. Over 20 years’ experience working in media and public relations has taught Claire the importance of marketing and networking.

She is an active voice on author socials and regularly attends courses, conferences and catch-ups in the Australian kid lit community.

Follow along!
Zanni's website
Zanni's instagram
The Sunshine House Writers and Creatives FB Group

This podcast episode is produced by Jen Pitch: @virtualcreatrix