![\"\"](\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/CHRISTIE-NIEMAN-216x300.jpg\")
\u201cMy first novel was on the notables so to have this one go one better shows that I\u2019m moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a brilliant shortlist to be on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her novel, Where We Begin<\/em>, was inspired during a drive Central Victoria.<\/p>\n \u201cI was travelling cross the Moolort Plains between Newstead and Maryborough and plonked in the middle of it is this big two-storey blue stone Victorian mansion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt looks like it\u2019s been dropped from outer space.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI just imagined it at night with a light on their and the story popped into my head.\u201d<\/p>\n The novel follows a young girl from Sydney who leaves her world behind to see with her grandparents in the Victorian country, where she uncovers secrets about her family.<\/p>\n \u201cShe becomes enmeshed in the various history layered in the place of her family and that landscape of the generations of her family that came before,\u201d Nieman said.<\/p>\n Nannestad\u2019s book, We Are Wolves<\/em>, is set during World War II and follows a family of three siblings.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir lives are turned upside down when Germany invades East Prussia and their family is forced to flee with the rest of the population,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the chaos and violence that pursues the children are separated from their family and left all alone to survive in what\u2019s a really dangerous environment.<\/p>\n \u201cThey end up becoming like wild animals to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n Nannestad said the story is inspired by an article she read about the Wolfskinder of East Prussia; children that were separated from their families during the war.<\/p>\n \u201cThey survived by living wild, by living as street urchins by stealing and raiding farms and living wild in the forest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI try write the types of stories I wish I\u2019d been shown as a child.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Nannestad said she finds the process of learning something new and writing about it exciting.<\/p>\n \u201cI always learn something about the process and myself,\u201d she said. \u201cLearning something new about a stage in history is really fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe all should be lifelong learners.\u201d<\/p>\n The CBCA Book of the Year Awards are announced on Friday, 20 August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TWO Central Victorian authors have made the Children\u2019s Book Council of Australia 2021 shortlist. Katrina Nannestad is nominated in the younger readers category, while Christie Nieman received a nod in the older readers group. Nieman said she is thrilled for her work to be recognised. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty phenomenal,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the leading adjudicatory process […]<\/p>\n