Ms Quay visited Lightning Ridge as part of her speaking tour around the region, including visits to Walgett and Coonamble.

She spoke to the children about the process of illustrating a book, from receiving the manuscript to the final product.

"I show them the art I did when I was younger. I want to show them I didn't just end up being good at illustrating, I had to work at it... it's good for them to know that someone who is supposed to be an expert doesn't always get it right the first time."

Ms Quay said although illustrating children's books could be hard work, with an average book taking around 400 hours to finish, the reaction from the children made it worth the effort.

"It's very rewarding to be able to come out and see children's responses to the books, and to get letters from kids... that makes it all worthwhile."

Ms Quay has published eight books and two more are expected to be published next year.

Her books include Bear and Chook, written by Lisa Shanahan, which was short-listed for a Children's Book of the Year award last year.

She has also written and illustrated her own book called Reggie and Lu, and hopes to write and illustrate more of her own books in the future.

Ms Quay has a distinctive style of drawing and prefers drawing animal characters rather than people.

"I like my books to be entertaining and about children's lives so they can relate to them, and I often use animals instead of people in books because if you draw a specific child, you know exactly what they look like... where if you use an animal it can be universal and any child of any age, any race, any size can relate to it and take away what they want."