Alexandro Adornetto, the Melbourne author of The Shadow Thief, caused a bit of a sensation in Australian publishing circles a year or so back by signing a two-book deal with HarperCollins - it wasn't so much the deal itself, but that the author was only 14 at the time. The first book was out last year and now Adornetto is nearly finished the second. As that progresses she is interviewed by Alisa Gould-Simon on the "psychoPEDIA" website.
Do some people not take you seriously as a writer as a result of your age?The title of the second book is The Lampo Circus.Nowadays this isn't a problem anymore, because I have established a profile of sorts; but when I was trying to get published and contacting different people for advice it was a little frustrating. I have a mature sounding phone-voice so people thought I was eighteen to twenty. When I told them I was thirteen their tone changed very quickly! I got told on so many occasions how brutal the publishing industry is - I think they were trying to protect me from heartbreak! I am very grateful to the team at Harper Collins who did not see my age as a barrier but rather as a positive. They have always treated me like an adult.
