Masterclass at the Sydney Writer's Festival

I been a little blog absent of late. I've just been so busy - writing to an approaching deadline and doing a number of day trips into educational literacy. One of those excursions involved holding a Masterclass for primary school students at the State Library as part of the Sydney Writer's Festival.

For a number of years I've poured over the Festival program wishing I could make it to an event or two... or three... or ten. But I never expected to see my own name on the program. Was it exciting? Yes. And that's a huge understatement.

It's enormously thrilling for an author to find themself in a room full of kids who just want to write. I was inspired. But what happened next was even better. MAGIC. And none of it was coming from my pen. How's this for an example? We were doing a building block exercise about descriptive writing - back to basics with metaphors, similes, alliteration and adjectives - giving familiar phrases a bit of a twist. Like a rainbow of lorikeets, one student wrote. The sky was filled with a city of stars, wrote another. Descriptions to die for!

We imagined, we pretended, we giggled, we banged a gong (all in the name of onomatopoeias), helped Snoopy finish off that troubling first line (It was a dark and stormy night never had so many possibilities applied to it) and even played a little "Australia's Got... First Lines" (It goes without saying Australia's got Talent, young literary talent, by the roomful!)

I wish I had a photo but I was enjoying myself so much I forgot to take the camera out of my bag. Still, I have heaps of memories and even received a little writerly advice when it comes to first lines. One of my suggestions was given an overwhelming majority of thumbs down.

I had a wonderful day and at the end of it the kids gave me a card saying they thought it was wonderful too.

Week 17, 2010

It's taken me a year and a half to work it out - but then I am a slow learner - finally I have realised what I should be blogging about. It was right under my nose all the time. 'This blog is about my personal experience in the (stories are) light' my blog header promised. Except I never did that. I tried to be all the things I wasn't. Now I am going to concentrate on what I am. I am a puddler. I write short bursts in between long stretches of thinking. I am a cyber-flit hopping from blog to blog, giggling and learning. I spend half my life inside my head and I like it in there. I think with my heart and my gut. I am an obsessive wordsmith.

So from now in this blog is about all the little bits and pieces of this writerly journey. Starting with last week.

WHAT I READ
I reread Margo Lanagan's TENDER MORSELS. First time round I had mixed feeling. Parts I loved. Parts I cried to have written. Some bits I didn't like and others I just didn't get. But I kept the book. It was confronting and it made me think a lot. I was still thinking about it when I picked it up again this week. And I loved it. This is a book that grows with the reader. I am richer for reading it. Now I am reading TALLOW by Karen Brooks

WHAT I WROTE
I completed the first complete draft of Samurai Kids 6, tentatively titled Golden Bat and rumoured to be 'the blue one'. While I am sorry to see the end of this book (lots more to come in the series though) I am super keen to get started on my new project. It's unlike anything I've written before and it keeps invading my head space.

WHAT I DID

On Tuesday I had my first shakuhachi flute lesson with Dr Riley Lee who I initially interviewed as part of my research for White Crane. You can read the interview here. I can now produce a consistent note - and it wasn't an easy journey to get that far! Next I have to be able to hold it for 30 secs and I am only managing 13 secs. But I am determined. Maybe I will post a sound file soon.

On Saturday I spent 2 hours in a writing workshop with 16 keen kids. Two of them had driven for 2 hours to get there! If the kids had half as much fun as I did the afternoon was a huge success. Some very impressive pieces were read out and that night a mum emailed me to say her son was in his room writing. The workshop was part of Wollongong City Gallery's Just Imagine program 'which encourages children’s creative writing skills by the exploration of real and imagined worlds experienced through close engagement with art'.

WHAT TWITTER TOLD ME
Did you know you can knit a Dalek? Thanks to Alice Bell I found a pattern here: http://www.entropyhouse.com/penwiper/who/extermaknit.html (I am not much of a knitter these days but still a huge Dr Who fan). And here are some great book recommendations thanks to Fiction Focus who pointed me to Why the Wierd Books Matter. I've added GOING BOVINE by Libby Bray, PUNKZILLA by Adam Rapp and THE WHITE DARKNESS by Geraldine Mccaughrean to my must read list

WHICH BLOGS I ENJOYED MOST
WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON had popped up on my radar before but this is the blog post at FairfieldBooks on Station that made me go out and buy it. The Book Chook provided me with some great on-line history resources.

WHICH BOOK TRAILER I ENJOYED MOST
Frane Lessac and mark Greenwood's Ned Kelly and the Green sash. Enough said. Have a look.


OTHER GOOD STUFF
This week I got a Gold Certificate from Engadine High School for 'attending the Year 5,6 &7 Literacy Linkages Program and for being a fabulous, inspirational and interesting speaker'. Do I feel proud? Yes I do. More about the day here

REVIEWS I RECEIVED
Jaguar Warrior: Set 500 years ago in Aztec Mexico, this gripping and gory adventure will have you on the edge of your seat - DMAG, May Issue

Jaguar Warrior: This is a fast moving, intriguing book, where not everything is at it seems and the true motives for some character’s actions aren’t immediately obvious. - ABC Book reviews by Deb Abela

Jaguar Warrior: This is a great adventure, which will appeal to those who enjoy sport and love to run – as the front cover says ‘nothing will stop him’ - Virginia Lowe, Create a Kids Book

White Crane: I thought this was the best book ever! It is good because you can't tell what will happen next and there are some facts about samurai life. ... I give it 5 out of 5 - James, Year 6 who read it for the VIC Premiers Reading Challenge The Age Education resource Centre