While most of us are cursing the snow, Leigh is enjoying the perpetual summer that comes with living in Singapore.
Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia, is Leigh’s hometown and family memories and experiences — especially her grandparents’ hotel in Mirriwinni — are woven into her two award-winning books for young readers.
Leigh left Rockhampton in 1994 and after spending several years in Sydney and Melbourne (mostly for career purposes), she and her husband Steve moved to Singapore in 2004. In addition to being an author, Leigh is a lawyer in the fields of international trade and investment law. She has also earned an MBA in International Management, has a Masters of Commerce, and a diploma in project management.
With two award-winning children’s novels under her belt, Leigh is currently working on two novels for adults, both to be published this year. Please welcome award-winning author Leigh K. Cunningham …
MCA: Thanks for joining us in the Spotlight Leigh! If memory serves, you are the first international Spotlight to come from the East. So double welcome!!
Can you please tell us about what motivated you to write The Glass Table
Leigh: Thanks for the warm welcome! My husband, Steve and I were sailing in the Whitsundays in 2005, and lying awake in our bunk bed staring up at the stars. Steve told me about a dream he had just had of people swimming in a lake, who were then seated at a glass table. Since he did not mention that in the dream the swimmers were adults and the glass table was in a boardroom, I envisioned the glass table at the bottom of the lake with children and so the story emerged this way. By the next morning I had written an outline, but never expected the two seconds of a dream to end up as two books in a series with more to come.
MCA: Now that you have an award-winning product, what are your goals for the next year?
Leigh: A lot of the work I did in 2010 is only now starting to come to fruition, so it looks like a busy year ahead. I have a lot of public speaking events, and some of those came about after I won my MCA silver medals. Here are a few that are already lined up …
- Young Writers Seminar: Getting Published (panel, and moderator for another session)
- Publishers and Writers Network (presentation)
- Asian Festival of Children’s Content (joint presentation)
- 2011 Pre-school and Primary Teachers Congress (presentation and a workshop)
I also plan to continue the book sales strategy I used in 2010: donate a number of books equivalent to my sales. Last year I donated books to orphanages, homes for disadvantaged children, and middle schools in the United States. In 2011, I plan to donate books to Books for Africa, Project Night, and First Book Marketplace.
I am also gearing up to be part of the MCA exhibition at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in March. I’m excited to have both The Glass Table and Shards on display.
MCA: Please name three ways your Mom’s Choice Award® will help you attain your goals.
Leigh: Sure. They are credibility, opportunity, and motivation.
Credibility: a stamp of approval from the Mom’s Choice Awards® sums up everything a children’s author might like to say about their books with regard to content and positive messages for children. I feel more confident promoting my books now, with the MCA seal of approval.
Opportunity: being a recipient of an award from the Mom’s Choice Awards® opens doors that might not otherwise open, generating media, sales and public speaking opportunities. As mentioned above, I have a number of speaking engagements planned for the first five months of 2011, and my books have appeared in a number of magazines and newspapers since the award.
Motivation: marketing one’s books is a time-consuming process and motivation can wane, but an award from the Mom’s Choice Awards® brings new life to any campaign. Also, with an award like the MCA, one can pursue marketing strategies that might have otherwise seemed futile. A change in direction becomes possible.
MCA: Can you share with us what you learned about yourself as an artist/writer/entrepreneur in creating your award-winning product?
Leigh: It is not so much what I learned as a writer, but more what I hoped to achieve as a children’s author. I hope I successfully delivered a story with messages for children about key issues such as bullying, losing a sibling, single-parent families, and cultural differences … without lecturing or postulating. The feedback I have received from readers would suggest this goal was achieved.
The mantra for authors is write what you know, and that is reflected in my books. Many of the messages are based on personal experience. For example, I grew up in a single-parent family, so I know how that dynamic works. My husband and have lived in Singapore for seven years, which has broadened my understanding of life in a multicultural society.
In The Glass Table
As a child, when a sibling dies, there is no way to understand your parent’s grieving, but as an adult, one can see the experience with an entirely different perspective, and that is the purpose of this storyline in The Glass Table. It is based on my own experience of having lost an older brother in a tragic accident when I was 16.
MCA: Since launching your , what has been your most rewarding experience in promoting or sharing it with the public? Do you have a favorite memory?
Leigh: I left my hometown of Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia, in 1994, so having my local newspaper feature me, as a writer, twice, was very rewarding. Sharyn O’Neill did a piece for the Morning Bulletin in February 2010 that gives some background about the characters (named after my nieces and nephews) and other hometown links woven into the stories. Most recently in December 2010, Kathryn Greensill wrote an article about The Glass Table and Shards winning the Mom’s Choice Award®. Here’s that link.
I was also fortunate enough to be able to hold a book launch at The Arts House in Singapore. It was an enjoyable night and an excellent opportunity to celebrate with friends and family.
Winning silver medals from the Mom’s Choice Awards® though, has so far been the highlight.
MCA: As a new honoree, do you have any questions you’d like some of the “old hands” to answer for you?
Leigh: I don’t have specific questions however I do spend time on the Mom’s Choice Awards® Alumni Group on LinkedIn site where all of us can ‘meet’ to share their post-award initiatives.
MCA: Thanks for taking the time to join us today. We can’t wait to hear more about how your 2011 shapes up.
Mom’s Choice Awards® Honors
by Leigh K. Cunningham
Vivante Press
2010 – Silver
Children’s Books / Juvenile Level 2 (9 to 12)
Fiction subcategory
Shards, A Sequel to The Glass Table
by Leigh K. Cunningham
Vivante Press
2010 – Silver
Children’s Books / Juvenile Level 2 (9 to 12)
Fiction subcategory
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Contact, Connect, and Network with Leigh
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The Alumni Spotlight is a periodic feature on the official Mom’s Choice Awards® blog. It is part of our ongoing effort to “shine the spotlight” on you and your award-winning, family-friendly products, services, and media.