\u201cI moved to Japan immediately after graduating from biotechnology,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned that some Japanese myths and monsters played a huge role in shaping society through their messages and warnings, but others existed merely to explain strange phenomena, like the feeling that someone is touching the back of your neck but, when you look, there\u2019s no one there \u2013 that\u2019s actually an Ushirogami.\u201d<\/p>\n
Takeshita Demons<\/em> is a thrilling, fast-paced adventure series, which blends contemporary characters with powerful demons from Japanese folklore. With a wide appeal to children from the age of eight through to adults, the series won the Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award in 2009, and has since been published in five countries and three languages.<\/p>\n Following the success of the series, Burne has appeared as a guest at writers\u2019 festivals including the Asian Festival of Children’s Content, Perth Writer’s Festival, Singapore’s Words Go Round and most recently at the UAE\u2019s Sharjah Children\u2019s Reading Festival.<\/p>\n \u201cStories have always been a way for readers to experience things outside of their ordinary life,\u201d says Burne.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re an important way to learn empathy, to encourage imagination and innovation, and to find joy, hope and inspiration from others\u2019 stories \u2026 I think kids just need to find one or two books that speak to them and they\u2019ll catch the bug.\u201d<\/p>\n Writing a book for children, however, can be just as difficult as writing about atom smashing, or editing English translations of Japanese biotechnology patent applications \u2013 roles that Burne has taken up in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cChildren\u2019s books have fewer words, which leads to the misconception that they\u2019re easier to write, but the same is never said of poetry,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cPicture books, for example, must convey a compelling story \u2013 complete with character arcs, key plot points and a satisfying, emotional connection with adult and child readers \u2013 all in under 500 words, across 32 pages.\u201d<\/p>\n Now teaching Writing for Children to Curtin students, Burne is enjoying the experience and hopes her students will learn \u201ccreativity, determination, a thick skin and a life-long addiction to making stuff from words.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t get it right, get it written,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n And aside from teaching, she is always searching for ideas for her next children\u2019s book.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery experience, good or bad, embarrassing or hilarious, is fodder for a book. That\u2019s the best part about being a writer!\u201d she jokes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ghoulish demons inspire award-winning adventure series for Writing for Children lecturer Cristy Burne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4182,"featured_media":5660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-5659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"Creative Writing","qualification":"Bachelor of Arts (Humanities)","link":"http:\/\/courses.curtin.edu.au\/course_overview\/undergraduate\/creative-writing","description":"","faculty":"Humanities"}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Cristy-Burne-Grid-Cafe-black-hat1.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Zoe","last_name":"Taylor","display_name":"Zoe Taylor"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 18:25:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5659"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=5659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Book](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/filth_licker_cover-790x420.jpg\")