Most of Swallow Me, NOW! is set at the fictional Green Oaks Primary School, a school that would be in the fictional suburb of Green Oaks in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.
The front of the school was based on the school my kids were attending at the time I wrote the first draft, this has now been demolished to build a new school. The inside of the school is more generic, bits come from different schools my kids have attended since they started school as well as schools we visited before enrolling them.
My goal was to describe a school that was fairly generic, but also had features kids would recognise, such as corridors with school bags hanging in them.
In Swallow Me, NOW!, only small parts of the playground are described. Sam and the other girls hang out in a gazebo, there is also basketball courts at the front of the school. I’m sure readers can fill in other details of the playground as they imagine it.
Having a school in mind helped me with the descriptions as I could picture the school in my mind as I was writing.
Remember, you can pre-order your copy of Swallow Me, NOW! here.
