Between teaching Year 8 English at Notre Dame College Shepparton and writing novels, Di Walker likes to keep herself busy.
She wakes up at the crack of dawn, preferring the quiet of the early hours to get her writing done.
She gets up at 5am every day and writes an entire chapter.
“I write in complete chapters,” she said.
“So I write 1000 words or so every morning and just keep going until it’s finished.”
Since 2018, Di has published three novels, Unpacking Harper Holt, released in 2018, Every Thing We Keep out in 2021 and her latest book, Saving Charli, which came out in July this year.
Teaching English in primary and high schools, she has always loved writing, but getting her work published wasn’t something she thought she could do.
“I was listening to a podcast of an Australian writer, Liane Moriarty,” she said.
“She was talking about how she tried planning in detail but just couldn’t get it to work and then decided to just start writing.
“I had always thought I would have to plan a whole story, so this was news to me.”
Only a few weeks after this, she got her first novel idea in her mind.
“I had the name Harper in my mind,” she said.
“I woke up one morning at five o’clock with the line ‘Harper likes to pack and unpack’, and I just went straight to my computer and started writing, and several weeks later, I had my first novel written.”
Unpacking Harper Holt, her first novel, only took her six weeks to write.
She shared it with her family and friends, who praised her work and encouraged her to try to get it published.
“I had just finished the first manuscript, and I had a few people read it, and they said it was really good,” Di said.
“I just thought I’d send it out and see.”
Walker Books picked up her first novel through their program Walker Wednesday, where aspiring authors can submit their manuscripts for a chance to have their story published.
“By the time the first book came out, I’d already written the second book, which Scholastics picked it up, and they’ve picked up the third one, too,” she said.
All three of her novels are aimed at younger, middle school-aged readers and are each aligned in a similar theme.
“They are all about a young girl, usually around the age of 13, who is facing some sort of life-changing event,” Di said.
“So Harper has an unexpected death in the family, Every Thing We Keep focuses on the impact of hoarding on a young person and Saving Charli is about Charli dealing with the loss of her twin.”
Notre Dame College has been very supportive of her journey as an author, with the school library displaying all three of the books she has written.
“They’ve been fabulous,” she said.
“The students read them, and when Saving Charli came out in June, the school did a library display for it.
“There’s been a few times where I’ve walked into a class, and I’ve seen somebody reading my books which it just — it doesn’t register.”
Collins bookstore in Shepparton has also been a massive help to Di, with all of her books signed and on display,
“It actually doesn’t feel quite real,” she said.
“Even when I look at them now, I just think ‘I wrote those?’ it’s odd.”
All three of her books have received lots of praise.
“I’ve had some beautiful reviews written from each one of them, and I also get contacted by different young people who read them,” Di said.
“Only just a couple of weeks ago, I had a young reader from, I think, South Australia who had made a video about Saving Charli, and she put quotes in it and music and the cover, and she sent it to me, which was quite amazing.
“I’ve had lots of people say things to me about how the different stories are actually relating to their own life, which is quite impactful as well.”
You can purchase Di Walker’s books at Collins Bookstore in Shepparton, and a full list of sellers can be found at her website at diwalkerbooks.com/books
This story originally appeared in Betty. You can find the full publication at tinyurl.com/BETTY-Oct2023