Author Visits

I just got hold of some photos from my latest school visit. It was a couple of weeks ago, and involved classes from preprimary to year eight at Corrigin District High School, my local school. I had an absolute ball, and think the kids enjoyed seeing another side of me - they usually know me as their music teacher. Let's just say that as a music teacher I make a great author :)

Anyway, I can't post any photos with identifying photos of kids in, so these shots are all of moi.

Here I am reading from Doggy Duo to a group of year eight students.

Here I am reading the author bio from the back of Bugged to the year four and fives. They liked hearing about my history with chocolate topping.

And, finally, reading from The Floatingest Frog to year one and two students.

Tomorrow I am off to do another school visit - this time at Hyden Primary School. I love getting out and talking to lots of different kids. I love sharing my stories and always come home feeling inspired and energised.

Postie's Present

My postie had a present for me this morning - my author copies of Frogs: Awesome Amphibians.

It doesn't matter how many books I have published, the thrill of holding the first copy of a new 'baby' doesn't diminish. I was home alone, so jumped into the car and raced around to work (the local school) where it was recess time, so I could share my news. Lots of enthusiastic responses, which is nice. The best bit was actually walking across the playground from the carpark, where I was surrounded by some year three and four students wanting to know if I was carrying my new book (I'd told them about it last week). Their excitement made my own all the sweeter.

So, the book. I'm really happy with the finished product. It's A4 soft-cover format, which make sit easy to read, with good sized text and loads of beautiful colour photos and illustrations. And, of course, my name on the cover, which is always a thrill.

Hoppy day!

A Frog Blog

Am so excited about Frogs: Awesome Amphibians that I have set up a new blog - a frog blog, dedicated to my two frog books: this one and, of course, Floatingest. I'll include bits and pieces about the two books, but will also talk about and link to anything frog-related. So, if you are into frogs, check it out.

Awesome!

Just checking some links and discovered that my new nonfiction book, Frogs: Awesome Amphibians, is now available. Take a look at the cover.


Great, isn't it?

I'm a hoppy author tonight, though look forward to actually holding my author copies, which I'm still waiting for.

Been Busy

Blogging has taken a back seat these past few weeks, but now I’m back at my desk and ready to talk about what I’ve been doing.

Firstly, I spent a week in Melbourne where I caught up with some long-lost rellies, caught trams and, most significantly, attended the CBCA National Conference.

What a wonderful event this was. This is the fourth time I’ve attended the CBCA conference, and while each conference is different, it is always a worthwhile experience. Anyone serious about writing or illustrating for children in Australia should make the effort to attend – it is expensive (my credit card is testament to that) but worth every cent and then some.

Speakers included Neil Gaiman, Shaun Tan, Emily Rodda and more – many more. So many wonderful and inspirational creators speaking about their work, the wonders of children’s literature and more. And panel sessions where authors, publishers, academics and the like discussed and debated specific aspects of children’s publishing. Then there were book launches, dinners and breakfasts. And the trade fair. A visit round the stalls to see what publishers are publishing is essential and always enlightening.

But for me the real highpoint of the conference was the people. As well as catching up with my two special writer buddies, I also spent time with many other writer and illustrator friends, and made some new ones. I spent time talking to publishers, critics, librarians (including a large contingent of fellow West Aussies which was great), teachers, booksellers – you get the picture. Being surrounded by people who are passionate about children’s books and talking about anything and everything with these like-minded people is a magic potion which you can’t bottle. I’ve come home energised, enthused, refreshed (in an exhausted kind of way having used so much adrenalin at the conference) and ready to work and prove myself to be part of this wonderful, wonderful industry.

So now I’m saving for the next conference – in Brisbane in 2010. If you are a children’s book creator, start saving, too. It’s worth it.

By the way, if you have never heard Neil Gaiman speak, you can hear and see him at youtube, here.

More in the coming days about what I’ve been up to.

More On ANZAC Day

Have been up since 5 o’clock this morning, having struggled out of bed to attend the ANZAC day dawn service on the hill behind my house. Worth the struggle, to spend the time reflecting on what the brave soldiers from our past (and present) have done.

Back at home, my beloved cooked me bacon and eggs and we spent a lazy couple of hours before it was my turn to cook and I whipped up a batch of ANZAC biscuits, one of my favourite treats on any day of the year.

After lunch we watched the broadcast of the service from Villers-Bretonneux and were rewarded with a glimpse of Murphlet 3 laying a wreath. Tonight we saw him again in news footage. He seemed suddenly grown up, especially when he was being interviewed by the reporter from GWN.

Proud mum moments aside, I also did a little work today. I finished adding a stack of new reviews to Aussiereviews, including reviews of two picture books especially relevant to the day – Simpson and His Donkey, by West Aussies Mark Greenwood & Frane Lesac, and Lofty’s Mission, by Krista Bell & David Miller.

And, quite unplanned in my list of things to do today, I wrote the first draft of a new picture book which has been niggling at me the past few days. The idea had been there, but as I tried to get to sleep last night the words started to come, and I knew I had to give it priority. Only a first draft, but I’m pleased with where it’s going.

Quite a day.

ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day is coming up this Friday, April 25. This is the day that Australia pauses to remember both the first ANZAC Day, when Australian and New Zealand forces landed in Gallipoli, and all of Australia’s military involvement in international conflict.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about two new books coming out in time for ANZAC Day, but wanted to write about it again because this particular ANZAC Day is a special one for my family. Murphlet 3, you see, is overseas at present, on the Western Australian Premier’s ANZAC Student Tour. Along with eleven other high school students and their supervisors, he is touring the battle fields of France and Belgium, attending services and generally being steeped in this important part of Australian history. On the day itself he’ll be attending a big dawn service at Villiers-Bretoneaux along with about six thousand others, and laying a wreath alongside the Western Australian Premier.

So, yes, it’s an exciting time for Murphlet 3, and an experience he’ll never forget. To win a place on the trip, he had to firstly research the involvement of Western Australians in the creation of the ANZAC legend and present his findings as a six minute speech. This wasn’t an easy task, but it was a really rewarding one both for him and for the whole family. Both my beloved and myself knew something about our respective families being involved in both of the World Wars, but it was as Murphlet 3 went through this process that we began digging and discussing this history. We are now, as a family, much more aware of the role our forebears played – from both sides of the family, Murphlet 3 had one Great-Great Grandfather, three Great Grandfathers and several great uncles serve during one or both of the World Wars. Some of the sites he’ll be visiting are the very places those relatives fought.

The lesson for me in all this is an awareness of how important it is to ask questions of living relatives about family history, so that that history is not lost. As a writer, I should have already been aware of the importance of asking and recording some of this history, but with much of it not discussed, had lived in ignorance. I know now, and this ANZAC Day as I climb the hill behind my home to attend the local dawn service, I’ll be just that little more aware of the day’s significance.