A New Beginning

Today I am saying goodbye to blogging at Stories Are Light and setting up in my new blog home at www.sandyfussell.com/blog . I hope you'll join me there.

A Togethery and Remembery Christmas Wish

I've been inspired by Christmassy crafting particularly the advent calendars on Tanya McCartney's blog and Children's Books Daily.

Next year I will start earlier and make Advent calendars. I've filed the instructions away in Evernote. For this year I decided to start with something less ambitious.

My immediate problem was Christmas Cards. I couldn't find anything I liked so I decided to make my own. Pinning down my family for photos proved to be impossible. No way, Mum!

I'm not very visually talented. I prefer to paint with words but I do like to cut and paste. I figured the trick was to keep it simple, basic Christmas colours and traditional motifs.

The best part was the fun I had making them. I found the perfect book quote to go inside each one:

"Christmas is a togethery sort of holiday," said Pooh.
"That’s my favourite kind," said Piglet, "Togethery and Remembery." – A. A. Milne

For 2014, I wish everyone a togethery and remembery Christmas.

I found something shiny in my email

Image by Vicky Brock via Flickr

I found something shiny in my email.

Email is not one of my favourite tasks. It’s a never-ending pile and it’s always in danger of collapsing on me. I’ve tried many strategies to manage it but nothing is working so far.

There are four sorts of email I do like – emails from friends, emails from people who love to read or write, emails from my editor and emails from kids whose school I’ve visited.

I always encourage kids to email me. I love to hear they enjoyed my session or that they like to read and sometimes, not very often, I get an email from a kid who likes to write.

Two days ago an email arrived headed: Can you help me with my story? from a girl at a school I had visited last month. I responded to say I would love to but I was drowning in work for the next two days and I would get back to her then.

This afternoon I opened the email attachment. It wasn’t a lot – a beginning and an end. Her problem was finding what went in the middle.

The writing was wonderful and beautifully crafted. I sat there stunned.

Sure, it needed a little polishing. It was obviously the work of a young person and I would have chosen different words from my own wider adult vocabulary but I know she’ll find those herself if she keeps writing. She doesn’t need me to pre-empt that.

I don’t know how old she is, I would guess maybe Year 5, probably Year 6. What she had was laid out with headings – beginning, complication and ending – the things she had learned in class. I do know that I’d be pleased with myself if I had written that beginning and end - the immediately engaging character, the perfectly timed humour, the visual action scene - and in the end, a killer last line.

I edited a little, explaining why – pruning an unnecessary sentence, removing a piece of “telling” and correcting the speech attribution punctuation. I wasn’t game to touch anything else. And it didn’t need me to.  Finally, I made a list of suggestions for how to find the story for the missing middle. I hoped she might share the next installment with me.

I polished lightly because it was already shining. The shiniest thing I’ve ever found in my email.

Snap! It's a Magical Blog Tour

You know how when you visit friends, some are super organised and have the coffee and cake ready but others, although just as welcoming, are still trying to find where they put the coffee and whether there are any biscuits left in the cupboard that will do instead of cake? Today, as a blog tour host, I’m the latter.

But being a little behind in my preparation helped me uncover something I didn’t know about Angela Sunde. When I visited Kids Book Review, the first stop on her Snap Magic blog tour, I discovered Angela is also an illustrator and she did the illustrations for the title page and front cover.

Snap Magic is the sequel to Aussie Chomp Pond Magic and continues the magic-plagued adventures of twelve-year-old Lily Padd.

I wondered whether Angela imagined herself as a future author or illustrator when she was Lily Padd’s age. So I asked her:

I liked to write poetry and song lyrics at 12 and desperately wanted to be an artist/illustrator. I tried writing a novel at 12, but set it in the USA, because I didn't think anyone would want to know about a NZ kid. So I failed that one, as I knew nothing about the US.

A Review: Snap Magic by Angela Sunde

Lily Padd has problems and they’re much bigger than her embarrassing name. First there’s the hair on her chin and the others that soon follow.

She’s on the run from Rick, the bra-strap snapper, but it’s not the painful flick that bothers her. It’s anyone discovering that she doesn’t even wear a bra yet.

Her beautiful dress for the Halloween Dance is ruined by her terrible twin 6-year-old sisters. Mrs Swan, the witch next door, offers a solution. Lily’s had trouble with magic before but she’s willing to take another chance.

It gets worse. When Mum becomes a seller for Snap ‘n’ Pack, Lily has to dodge mean-girl Ellie Middleton at school and in the Middleton home, when Mum drags her there to help with a party demonstration.  

Still the hair keeps growing. Other people around her are looking a little hairy too.

Lily knows it’s magic. Ellen has worked it out too and she’s going to tell Lily’s secret at the Halloween Dance and destroy her chances with the new boy.

That’s the biggest problem of all.

Told in easy to read short chapters, Snap Magic is perfect for tween girls. Lily is a feisty character who refuses to be defeated by the troubles and challenges thrown at her. Even magical ones. With the help of her best friend, Maureen, she faces them all.

While Snap Magic deals with mature themes such as bullying, trust, friend and parent relationships, developing adolescence, and preoccupation with physical appearance, it does this with gentle and sensitive age-appropriate humour. This book could be a starting point for first mother-daughter discussions.

Check out the other blogstop on the Snap Magic Blog Tour

Monday 13 Oct  Kids Book Review 

Tuesday 14 Oct   Sheryl Gwyther 

Wednesday 15 Oct   Robyn Opie 

Wednesday 15 Oct   KarenTyrrell 

Thursday 16 Oct   Alison Reynolds 

Friday 17^th Oct   Chris Bell – From Hook to Book  

Saturday 18 Oct   Boomerang Books Blog 

Saturday 18 Oct  DimityPowell 

Sunday 19 Oct   Sandy Fussell - Stories Are Light  

Sunday 19 Oct    The reading Stack

Monday 20 Oct    Aussiereviews 

Tuesday 21 Oct   Dee White 

Wednesday 22   Angela Sunde’s Blog Tour Wrap Up 

Internet Roadtrip #1: From The Plot Whisperer to Kathleen Duey

Every day I spend up to an hour hitch-hiking from website to website. It’s good for my soul and it keeps my brain buzzing. My starting point might be a link that turns up in my morning Feedly. Or it might be a link someone posts on Twitter or Facebook. Or an article in my StumbleUpon feed.

One blog post or website always leads to another. Sometimes I jump via a link within the post, sometimes via a popular post in the sidebar or a category, even from a tweet displayed in the site Twitter steam. It reminds me of the two weeks the Love of my Life and I spent motorhoming around Canada. Before we could recover from one sign-posted Scenic Viewing Spot, another signpost appear. There's always somewhere interesting to go on the net.

I thought I’d share some of my journeys and the things I find on the way.

Image credit: libertyandvigilance

Today I was looking at picture book courses. My first picture book, Sad The Dog, will be published by Walker Books Australia next year and I feel rather spoilt. It’s a format that’s alien to me. The idea came to me reasonably fully-formed and with some pushing and poking by my excellent editor, it easily fell into shape. I was lucky.

But I need more than luck to write a second one and to learn more about the craft of picture writing is on my To Do List.

This afternoon, I opened the Saved For Later folder in my Feedly. I follow the Plot Whisperer blog and its host, Martha Alderson, has a “Write and Sell a Picture Book” series of vimeos with Jill Corcoran.[Viewing Spot 1:The Plot Whisperer]. I heard Jill speak at the Australia New Zealand SCBWI Conference and she gave me more good advice at a subsequent manuscript assessment session. That was for a YA but I was impressed with her considered feedback. I was keen to have the advice of both Jill Martha on writing and selling picture books.

Off I went to the website. [Viewing Spot 2: How to Write and Sell a Picture Book ] Unfortunately I missed the half price weekend by a few days and the full price of $125, although excellent value, is a stretch for my budget at the moment. So that’s still on the To Do List. I’ll be hinting in the appropriate direction for a Christmas present.

I headed to Jill’s website [Viewing Spot 3: Jill Corcoran Books] and under How to Sell a Picture Book found  a number of recommendations including one from my author friend, Dee White. That reminded to detour and call in to her blog and see what was happening [Viewing Spot 4: DeeScribe Writing Blog].

Back on Jill's website now, I was still gathering information [Viewing Spot 5: What makes a book sell?], I found this excellent analogy:

 Let me quote my friend and 80+book author Kathleen Duey: Almost no one expects musicians to get good on an instrument without years of lessons, books, years of practice. There is a similar learning curve for writing. (read full post here)

So I read the full post on Kathleen Duey's blog [Viewing Spot 6: Publishing Old, New, Self, Indie]. But even more interesting was the current post I found on Kathleen’s blog. The post was titled Limori: Book 3 post #17. [Viewing Spot 7: Limori: Book 3 post #17] It was 418 words that hooked me right in.

Limori: People are hiding. The City is changing hands again. The old families, the boys in the cliffs, the people in South End and all the Eridians …all of them are in danger now. I am afraid for all of them.

I had this wonderful sense of place, history and exoticism. I might be wrong but I’m going to find out. I tracked back through Kathleen’s books to find the series I was looking for: The Resurrection of Magic. Book 1 is Skin Hunger and book 2, Sacred Scars.

One title was familiar. I almost read Skin Hunger, seven years ago. In 2007 it came into The Reading Stack where I review books. It landed in my In Tray but another reviewer was seduced by the cover and asked if she could take it. I handed it over without even reading the Press Release.

And now, the internet has brought me back to that place. 

I suffer from puijilittatuq

You know that feeling when your brain is buzzing, the lights are flashing and the world is greener than ever and you can't sleep because you just have to write it all down....

And often you can't because there are too many ideas and smells and images and nowhere near enough words? So you just sit there and dream.

There's a word for that feeling and I found it today. I have spent most of the afternoon learning to spell it.

It's an Inuit word which translates to:  “He does not know which way to turn because of the many seals he has seen come to the ice surface.”

As a writer I suffer from chronic puijilittatuq. I would be so much more prolific and probably a much better writer if I could only get this problem under control. Not a hope though. I've been like this all my life.

I'd like to know how to pronounce it. Does anyone have any ideas? Even Google failed me. All it had to offer was it's not a valid Scrabble word and there are no images to match it on Flickr. I could have guessed that!

Book Week, Hat-flipping and the Reason Why

 Book week has an osmotic way of seeping into the weeks around it, whether its preparation or pre and post book Week school visits. It’s an exhausting time. Most of my commitments are in Sydney so it’s a four hour round trip on the train each day. But I love it. The kids are the best reward ever.

I never intended to visit schools. I was comfortable and experienced speaking in front of a hall full of adults but a library full of children terrified me. How could I possibly be entertaining? They would laugh (I have since discovered this is the pinnacle of success – when you can get a roomful of kids to laugh!).

But the year my first book was released, the Primary School English Teachers Association (PETA) decided to run a course to encourage debut authors to present in schools and I was invited to attend.

The message in Val Noake’s opening speech spoke directly to me. She said  you can write in your office and go nowhere and kids will still love your work or go into schools and use your persona as an author to encourage children to read and write. How could I ever even think of foregoing that?

Over two days I learned from the experts. I remember sessions by Sue Whiting, Deb Abela and Jeni Mawter. Then I was paired with a “mentor” who helped me prepare for my first school visit. If I wasn’t already on convinced, working with Deb Abela (enthusiastic, talented and all-round lovely person) would have persuaded me.

To my surprise, I found I loved school visits. Even the “hat-flipper” couldn’t faze me. There’s usually one in a session – the pre-bored child who doesn’t want to be there and fiddles with his/her hat or shoe-laces or pen or whatever they just found in their pocket.  They became my motivation. If I could get them engaged, the presentation was a win!

Just this week, yet another instance confirmed why I love working with kids and literature. After a large Year 3 – 6 session, a group of kids crowded around to ask one more question or share their current WIP. One small boy, probably Year 3, waited until everyone else had left. Then he blurted: ”I’m going to try hard. I’m going read all your books. I’m going to try really, really hard.” I guessed that my books would be a struggle for him and we had a talk about reading in general and how much fun it might be to read alternate paragraphs with mum or dad.

After he left the librarian said: “I never thought I would ever hear him say that.” I asked if he would be able to read my books and she shook her head. “He’s not at his reading year level yet.” So my work was not done. I hadn’t put the right book in his hand. I had inspired but once the book was opened, he would probably give up.

I often show kids the first book I wrote, Ratbags, part of an Aussie Schoolbooks leveled reading set for Year 3. I figured it would be just right, especially with its wonderful quirky illustrations by Peter Viska. So I gave it to the librarian and asked her to tell my newest fan that I had donated it to his library because I was so impressed with his determination to get reading and I had specifically asked for him to be given the first chance to borrow it.

I hope he did. 

WiP Sneak Peek

Five Parts Dead

When Tim Pegler (whose 2010 novel Five Parts Dead remains a favourite of mine) tagged me to share 7 lines from page 7 or 77 of my current WiP, I was keen to see what snippet I would find. Little did I know it was really a challenge – a dare to see if I was brave enough.

I should have known it wasn’t going to be as easy as it first sounded. Especially after I read Tim’s post about how when he counted  out the lines, he had to wrestle with writerly scruples because he wasn’t happy with what he found there.

The power of the force urging an edit is strong in this one too. But then I decided that although editing never ends - same thing, fifty times over, fifty times better - it’s got to start somewhere. 

So I bit the bullet and am baring the lines, as is, bleached bones and all. I am working on two manuscripts.

Here is the YA (page 77):

The mist dissolved and the shadow grew thin ephemeral arms, legs and wings. It perched on the sea wall like a pale goblin.

Rebekah could see it was not a ghost. Ollie was right about that but it wasn’t an illusion either. It was something old and dark, dangerous and uncertain.

“I have to go."

“Will you come back?” it asked.

She knew she shouldn't.

And here is the Middle Grade (page 7)

He sat on his rock as the sun rose and watched the sugar ants counting.  Burroc liked to listen to them work. Numbers flew in all directions.  The short chubby one was counting children, three others were counting food and one was counting the counters. 

“How many?” Burroc asked.

“Shhh,” chorused the ants. 

“I lost count,” a little one wailed. 

And so to share  - I tag the following fabulous writerous types - Richard Newsome (The Billionaire series), Aleesah Darlison (Ash Rover series, Unicorn Riders series) , Alison Reynolds (A Year with Marmalade, A New Friend for Marmalade)  and Jackie Hosking (The Croc and the Platypus). I’m looking forward to peeking into their WiPs.

Ash Rover series

The Billionaire series

A New Friend for Marmalade

The Croc and The Platypus

The Croc and the Platypus Blog Tour

Every writer I’ve met (and that’s heaps) secretly wants to write a picture book (including me). I think it’s something to do with the magic of distilling a story into a small number of perfect words and then having an illustrator perform even more magic on them.

Recently at SCBWI ANZ Conference 2014 I attended an In Conversation session about the creative process for a new Walker Books Australia picture book, TheCroc and the Platypus. The session featured Jackie Hosking (author), Marjorie Crosby-Fairall (illustrator) and Sue Whiting (editor). After the session was over, I wanted to know more. So I am particularly pleased to be a stop on the Croc and Platypus blog tour and to have the chance to ask Jackie and Marjorie some questions of my own.

Jackie, we hear all the time that rhyming picture books are incredibly difficult to write although you obviously have a talent for it.

Was there a portion of text that you had to work extra hard at?

The difficult thing about writing in rhyme is refusing to compromise on the right word to suit the rhyme or the meter.

 In the first line of the second verse – there are three verses in all, I compromised, and while the whole story was accepted by Walker Books, that line wasn’t. What was interesting is that I didn’t like that line either. Here’s how the original line looked…

Platy said with a smile, to the cool Crocodile

“I have an idea to present….

No one calls a platypus, Platy, it sounds forced. One suggestion was to change the animal from a Platypus to something else. This was not acceptable to me; it had to be a platypus as it represented the soft pussy-cat character from The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.  I didn’t voice my concern at the time because I knew with some effort, I could fix it. And I did. The line now reads…

The platypus smiled, saying after a while,

“I have an idea to present…

The perfectionist in me struggled a bit with the fact the ‘smiled’ and ‘while’ are not perfect rhymes but I had to let that go because that was a very small sacrifice to make and it allowed me to keep the platypus in the story.

Was there a portion that just fell into place? Why do you think this happened?

The first verse is pretty much unchanged from the original though I did modify one line. This changed from…

And packed it all up in the boot

to

And bundled it up in the boot

‘Bundled’ is a stronger verb, more descriptive and it allowed me to get rid of the word ‘all’ and as an added bonus it complimented the word ‘trundled’ which is found at the beginning of the poem.

I’m not sure why it fell into place so easily. I think having The Owl and the Pussy-Cat as a template forced my hand into choosing particular words. I really wanted to emulate Lear’s rhyme and meter with no compromise, easier said than done! At the most basic level, for instance, the animals had to have names consisting of one and three syllables respectively. And the three syllable name had to have the stress fall on the first syllable. An echidna, for example would not fit the meter as the stress falls on the middle syllable which would not do at all.

How long did you spend working on this book from first word to submission?

I wrote the first draft in early 2011 and sent it to Walker in May of that year. In 2012 I was awarded a Maurice Saxby Mentorship where I was able to utilise the wisdom of many experienced professional. During that time I worked on The Croc and the Platypus and as a result improved it. I sent the improved version to Walker in May 2012 so in a way I have two submission dates.

What research did you need to do for this book?

Well I obviously needed to know The Owl and the Pussy-Cat inside out and I also wanted to include as many Australian icons as I could, given the brevity of the poem.

As I’ve used Uluru as the camping spot I was interested to know its meaning. This is included in the glossary at the back of the book along with a description of the other Australian icons mentioned in the story, things that non-Australians may not be familiar with.

Marjorie, Was there a portion of text that immediately visually appealed to you? 

Well, Sue Whiting from Walker Books asked me to present a rough sketch for one spread to make sure we were all “on the same page” before I launched into creating the storyboard roughs for the entire book. She suggested the text:

They barbecued fish, their favourite dish,
Then gobbled some lamingtons too.

This text was immediately appealing and ideas sprang to mind very easily. I could readily imagine two fat and happy friends lounging around by a campfire as the sun was setting. In fact, the rough didn’t change much from my very first scribbles—the only change was the addition of the fleece tent. I originally had the fleece still rolled up as they had received it from the shearers.

At the time same time I sent Walker the rough for the following spread:

And under the gloss of the bright Southern Cross
They danced beside Uluru…luru,
They danced beside Uluru.

This was another idea which popped into my head fully formed and didn’t change at all from the first rough. I remember I was cooking dinner when I had the idea of how the Croc and the Platypus would dance, I ran into my studio and jotted it down in my notebook, and ran back out before dinner burned!

Do you do the illustrations in story order?

I’m pretty systematic when I work. I chip away until I have thumbnail sketches for the layouts of all the spreads. When I move on to the next stage—storyboard roughs—I DO often get the easier spreads out of the way first. By the time the final roughs are finished, I usually have a pretty good idea of where I’m going with the illustrations so I can illustrate out of order.

With The Croc and the Platypus, the first finished artwork was the spread where the shearer meets the Croc and the Platypus. Donna Rawlins, the art director at Walker Books, had asked me fairly early on to send her one colour spread so she could see what I had in mind for the final style. I chose this spread because it had the main characters, a human figure, and very importantly it was a good sample for showing the colour palette. The story occurs throughout one day, so the lighting and colours need to change to reflect that change in time. This spread is midway thorough the day so the colours are a sort of “base point”—the earlier colours are a bit “cooler” and lighter and the later colours a bit “hotter” and darker. But, hey, maybe I’m the only one who notices that!

Was there a portion of text that you found more challenging to illustrate?

Initially, the more difficult spreads were anything to do with the Ute! I’m not exactly a “car person” so I didn’t have an intuitive response . However, once I found a Holden Ute I liked, it almost became another character with a personality so I found it much easier to draw.

What research did you need to do for this book?

There was actually a lot of research required. I had to find out about Holden Utes, Crocs and Platypus, Sheep, Outback landscape colours and vegetation and many other things. Of course I’m not trying to represent any of these things realistically, but it all goes into the stew and informs the final work.

Thanks for dropping by, Jackie and Marjorie. I wasn't surprised to hear how much work goes into a picture book. I know from experience how hard those few words are. Much harder if they have to rhyme. But I was surprised at the research involved. As author of historical fiction, research is a familiar part of my writing process. I had no appreciation of how much research, by both the author and illustrator, can go into a picture book.

Aug 11 - Aussie Reviews Aug 12 - DeeScribewriting Blog Aug 13 - Write and Read with Dale Aug 14 - Children's Books Daily Aug 15 - Stories are light Aug 16 - Kids' book Book Review Aug 17 - Pass it on

Marjorie Crosby Fairall on Facebook | TheCrocAndThePlatypus.com | Jackie Hosking on Facebook

Love Your Publisher - and related wonderfulness

One of the sessions I attended at the Australia-NZ 2014 SCBWI Conference gave the advice “love your publisher”. It was definitely a love-fest at this month’s inaugural Walker Books Australia (WBA) Author-Illustrator Conference. And what was not to love?

It was a time for catching up with old friends - too many to name – and meeting new people like debut author Tonya Alexander whose book Nymph (the first book in the Love Oracle series) was in my reading stack. It was on my to-buy list until I won it as a door prize at the South Coast Illawarra CBCA Annual Dinner.

It was also an introduction to the people who form the Publishing, Marketing and Sales sections of WBA. So brilliant to able to put a face to a name or Twitter handle. Each section overviewed what they did and the ways they could help their authors and illustrators. How terrific is that? I’ve always hesitated to bother anyone but they're happy to be bothered!

Paul McDonald from The Children’s Bookshop was inspiring, charming and knowledgeable (as always) and presented a session on how creators could interact with bookstores. The room buzzed afterwards as ideas and experiences were exchanged. A number of authors decided they needed to move house closer to The Children’s Bookshop.

Ruth Ellis, Children’s Book Buyer at Dymocks spoke about how Dymocks selects it children’s and YA list and the strategies and programs they use to reach their customers.

At lunch everyone played a networking “game” where two of each author/illustrator’s books were provided to be given to a fellow Walker Books creator, to encourage working together and co-promoting. That’s easy for me to do. Just at look at the awesome author and illustrator talent!

My “prize” in this game was Sally Murphy’s beautiful new verse novel Roses are Blue. I read it that night. Having cried in Pearl Verses the World and Toppling, I set myself a challenge with Roses are Blue. I failed.

The first Conference was all very wonderful - the people, the product, the creators. It was a thrill to be a small part of the wonderfulness.

My 7 Personal #SCBWI AusNZ 2014 Highlights

Catching up with distant friends (so many wonderful writers and illustrators hail from Perth) and making new ones. The 2014 Australian-New ZealandSCBWI Conference might just be the most inclusive place on earth.

The Illustrators Showcase. It was spectacular. I still have a severe case of artistic talent envy.


Professor Ernest Bond’s Session Going to the Common Core USA. I was impressed with how a list of ten conceptual points became concrete understandable points when paired with an analysis of an appropriate picture book. I even discovered one I have to have – Last Laughs Animal Epitaphs ( J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolande)  

Tania McCartney and Kathryn Otoshi’s session Getting into the Marketplace. Informative and heart-warming. Tanya is a one-woman dynamo whose unerring vision of herself as a writer/illustrator and dedication to achieving that dream was inspiring. Kathryn’s beautiful picture books and the wonderful success they have had in schools as anti-bullying resources was inspiring too. So that was the message for this session. Be inspired.

The Pitch Sessions. Where two good friends nailed it and each attracted an editor’s attention.

Performance Poetry by Stephen Whiteside. Stephen read a laugh-out-loud poem from his new book The Billy that Died with its Boots On

Book Launches. For the first year in my six years as an author I haven’t had a book to launch (family health issues) but I really enjoyed being part of someone else’s launch. I bought two books:

Crocand Platypus (Jackie Hosking and Marjorie Crosby-Fairall). This a rollicky read-along rhyme to the meter of The Owl and The Pussycat. It was a rollicky launch too! I’m going to give this signed book as a thank you gift to Balgownie Public School library when I visit later this month. Not only were they gracious when I cancelled three!! times due to family ill-health, but they re-booked me as soon as I resumed school visits. I appreciate the support.

Woodlands Whiskers: A New Pet (Gabriel Evans). This beautiful lift-the flap board book is the perfect gift for newest beautiful person in my family – Annabel Louise. I think it might just be her very first book. I’m sure when she’s a bit older she’ll love the mouse Gabriel Evans drew on the back.

The Writing Process Blog Hop

One of the best things about the writing process is the writerly friends I have made along the way, so I am especially pleased to be tagged by Rebecca Newman, writer for children and editor of the wonderful Alphabet Soup blog where you can find book reviews and stories by young readers and writers.

On my one and only visit to Perth (I’m always secretly hoping someone will invite me to another festival there) we caught up for dinner, as Facebook friends always do when their paths eventually cross, and talked kid lit until very, very late.

Rebecca writes picture books and children's poetry. Her poem, Odd Socks, was recently published in The School Magazine. Check out her Writing Process Blog Hop post.

 

Rebecca Newman

So to the business of the day…

What am I working on?

My WIP is a magical realism young adult novel. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever written and I’ve been  working on it for four years. I wrote it in bits and pieces around the final three books in the Samurai Kids series and the severe illness of my youngest son and my own cancer treatment. It has not been an easy writing process.

And it has a protagonist with cancer. The playing field was different when I began to write it. Four years ago there were very few cancer novels and a year ago cancer certainly wasn’t on my personal horizon. This manuscript has truly tested me. I questioned whether there is still a place for it, given the recent spate of YA characters with cancer and I answered I think so. Magical realism makes it different. When I was diagnosed and things were grim there for a while, I questioned whether I could even write about cancer and again I answered I think so. I found that it helped me through some tough spots.

 

A main character: Source:unknown

How does my work differ from others in my genre? 

I am not sure my work has a genre. I write anything and everything – if words are involved, I want to be part of it. The majority of my work to date is middle grade historical fiction. Next year my first picture book will be released and my almost complete WIP is Young Adult. My next project is middle grade fantasy. I think I link ideas together differently, like writing historical fiction set in samurai Japan where the characters each have a disability.

Why do I write what I write?

Oh good, an easy question. I write what the characters tell me to write. If I don’t listen, and I tried it once, they plague me and prod me until I can’t sleep at night and am forced to get up at 2 am to write down their story.

How does my writing process work?

I believe writing is a habit and I write at least 500 words every day. Often they are rubbish and die a horrible death the next morning but usually the manuscript progresses. I write and edit as I go. I am always going back to start at the beginning again. I feel that keeps me in the zone as I move forward and incrementally improves what I’ve already written. I often write the last chapter after the first chapter because I am not a plotter, so I need to know the direction I am going in. It doesn’t usually change a great deal when I get there. I have to work very hard at the 67% mark because by then I know what happens all the way through to the end and I am eager to start something new and different.

I knew I was a writer when I finished my first manuscript. Before that I was forever starting grand projects and never finishing. I am also a believer in a shower as the magical solution to plot problems and the source of story ideas. Recently, I discovered Scrivener, so my writing process has become more organised. The only thing more fun than reading and writing is reading and writing technology.

      

Here are my tags. I have accidentally cheated a little – for someone who claims to love maths and find mathematical patterns in her writing, I've failed basic adding up. I have four tagees instead of three.

 

Jeffery Doherty

I met Jeffery Doherty at the Kids and YA festival at the NSW Writer’s Centre. Jeff is a talented writer and illustrator. When I created some interactive teacher resources to support my novel Polar Boy,  Jeff took one look at my artistic efforts and insisted on painted the pictures for my igloo building quiz. You can see his work here. I was privileged to be an early reader of Jeff’s 2014 debut novel “Paper Magic”, the empowering story of Marina, a girl in a wheelchair who finds strength and friends through magic origami paper. You can find Jeff and his blog here.

 

Michelle Morgan

Michelle Morgan is a former librarian, author and playwright who lives in my local area, although we only met recently at the Illawarra CBCA dinner. Michele’s first book, Racing the Moon, set in Sydney during the Depression, was published in 2014. It's on my desk to read. I've got some catching up as she recently completed the sequel. You can find Michelle’s blog here.

 

Peter Macinnis

I first met Peter Macinnis, although he didn’t meet me, when I reviewed one of his award-winning non-fiction books, The Backyard Naturalist. Peter writes science and history and often the two overlap. I have since acquired a personal collection of Peter’s books because he has a knack for making science accessible for young readers and me (who never paid any attention to science at school). I follow him around on Facebook because I find his posts interesting and often funny. There’s an inspiring amount of writerly detail on his website, so I recommend a visit there and to his blog.

 

Helen Armstrong

Helen Armstrong is another writer who lives not too far from me. I met Helen when were both presenters at the Sutherland Shire Writers Unleashed Festival. Helen is a lady of many talented hats (and a lot of energy!) – president of the Sutherland Fellowship of Australian Writers, scientist, writer of short stories ‘and the occasional outbreak of poetry’, and a lover of mythology, fantasy and satire. Helen will post on her blog hop on her Facebook page.

Long Weekend Reminiscing - Henry Lawson Festival of the Arts 2008

Tuesday morning and I'm sitting down to work after the long weekend. I have a quick check of Facebook first and discover last weekend Penelope Davie mentioned  that she had been to Henry Lawson Festival of the Arts at Grenfell and in the main street was a plaque  with my name on it. What a wonderful memory to start the week with. Thanks Penelope. I searched out the original blog post I did about how that came to be and enjoyed reminiscing so much I decided to repost it.

I've only ever reposted once before (special circumstances)  but recently I've been enjoying a series of reposts by Michael Gerard Bauer.  I missed them first time round so perhaps similarly someone else will enjoy my revisit here. You'll have to scroll down Michael's blog to find the reposts as they have inspired a spate of new new blog posts. I hope this repost works like that for me!!

Here goes:
Being a children’s author can be quite confronting. Embarrassing even. The questions some primary students ask range from jaw-dropping to ego shattering. And on other occasions they can make you feel like Master of the (Writing) Universe. I thought I’d blog about one of my MOTWU moments. I don’t want to mention the others!!!

Back in June 2008 I was guest of honour at the Henry Lawson Festival of the Arts in Grenfell. Grenfell is a tiny rural town in the central west of NSW, population 2200, the birthplace of Henry Lawson. The weekend long Festival is very prestigious. It’s the longest running arts festival in Australia and past guests of honour have included Patrick White, Di Morrissey and Thomas Keneally!

So how did I get this gig? Well, I’m not proud. I’m willing to admit I was the Guest of Honour to Be Named Later. Last Minute actually. TV actor Simon Westaway was the original choice and when he had to cancel, the rush was on to find someone arts-related who would come to no-airport Grenfell at extremely short notice. My sister, who lives on a small farm in the area, happened to mention me. Even if she wasn’t the best sister in the world this would have immediately earned her the dedication in Shaolin Tiger!‘My sister is an author,” she said. “And she visits here all the time.”

So there I was, pretending to be a famous person of literary note. Crowning the beauty queens. Cutting the ribbon. Keynote speaker at the dinner. Presenting trophies and medallions. Conducting TV interviews. Chatting with the writers from Underbelly who were accepting a scriptwriting award. Grenfell opened its heart to welcome me. I think the townspeople were sort of proud that I had a local connection. I might not have been the ilk of the previous guests yet I was an honorary ‘one of their own.”

But my really big moment was absolutely huge. It’s one of the highlights of my writing career. I was sitting on the official dais (trying to look official and literary!) watching the street parade. Around the corner came a local primary school all dressed up as my Samurai Kids. Banging gongs and waving swords and banners. They marched down the main street and when they reached the dais their teacher yelled “Stop”. “Yes Sensei,” they responded.Then they turned to face me and bowed, Japanese style.

I stood and bowed too. And I bawled my eyes out. To be honest, I bawled my eyes out again writing this. It’s still such a vivid and emotional memory.There are many times when I am asked why I don’t write proper books. Books for adults or older readers. Well one day I might write those too but in writing for kids, I am totally fulfilled. I do write proper books. The people who ask that question don’t understand the craft of writing for children. And they certainly don’t understand how wonderful young readers can make their authors feel. It’s real magic.