Riding the Wave

Riding the wave. That's what I feel like I'm doing at the moment. Sometimes that wave seems about to crash on top of me and other times I feel like I'm going to catch it all the way into the shore.

I won't know if I make it the shore for a few months yet, though. With three books coming out in 4 months, my marketing activities are in over-drive. There seems to be so much to do! Not only that, I'm a member of several writer's groups, networks and other initiatives that take up a lot of time and energy to maintain. On top of that, I have to care for 3 young children and manage a household. It's a constant juggle - but I love it. I can't deny that I do. I love every moment of it even if it is flashing by at a rapid pace.

People ask me, 'How do you keep going?', 'How do you keep the energy and excitement for projects alive?' For me, some of it comes naturally. I'm a born organiser and I worked in marketing for ten years, so I'm comfortable with a lot of things I'm doing. I like organising events. I like designing flyers and creating posters and so on.

And while I'm not spending a lot of time writing creatively per se, I am writing a lot about myself for articles and recording childhood stories and experiences that have made me who I am and which can be used for my presentations - I'm storytelling in different ways to add depth and pizazz to my 'road to publication' story. That part of the process I enjoy, too.

Once, those childhood stories would have been embarrassing to tell or I would have thought they had little value. Now I'm drawing on them to show people who I am and where I come from. I've realised that I've grown as a person and gone past the awkwardness of my childhood experiences. As my dream to become a published author slowly materialises, I feel validated as a person. I feel I'm getting closer to becoming who I've always wanted to be. All that makes it easier to deal with the past.

This realisation also gives me the energy and drive to keep going. I know I'm still in that early stage of my career where everything is bright and shiny and new. I know I have so much more to learn - but that excites me. I'm having so much fun riding this wave that whether it does crash on me or not, I will remember this ride as one of the best times in my life.

Totally Twins Taking Off!

These are the brand new covers for my Totally Twins series - renamed from The Fabulous Diary of Persephone Pinchgut. I hope you like them.

This morning, I met with Sophia Whitfield, publisher at New Frontier. I'm setting up a blog spot for the series, which will be 'written by' Persephone, the main character in the books.

Sophia and I had lots to talk about and we also discussed the second book in the series, Model Behaviour, to be released quite quickly after the first book, Musical Mayhem, which comes out in September 2010.

I also saw the illustrations Serena Geddes has done for the second book and they look awesome. Loads of new characters, gorgeous animals and quirky elements - all the things I love about Serena's work. Musical Mayhem goes off to the printers in the next few weeks. Very exciting!

It's a great feeling to be at this stage in my writing career, on the cusp of real-life author-dom and publication of my first few children's books. Sure, I've got a busy few months ahead, but I figure it's all part of getting my name out there and establishing myself.

Yesterday, I spent half the day presenting at Literature Live! practise session at Balgowlah Heights Public School, along with other children's book creators: Susanne Gervay, Sue Walker, Nina Rycroft, Laurine Croasdale, Jeni Mawter and Serena Geddes.

The fun part for me came when I was talking about the characters in my Totally Twins series, and discoverd that I had two real-life identical twins in the audience. Georgia and Lucy were lovely girls and although they looked as identical as Perse and Portia from Totally Twins, they were also very different. Glad to know I got something right!

Short Stories & Articles

Do you recognise this stately gentleman? He's the Big Merino at Goulbourn, just north of Canberra. He's absolutely massive, as one of my sons said with a great deal of admiration, 'He's bigger than a mammoth!'.

I spent the weekend in Canberra with my family on a quick getaway for my birthday. Despite the wet weather, we had a wonderful time sightseeing and visiting Parliament House, the Old Bus Depot Markets, Cockington Green and the War Memorial. I highly recommend a trip to Canberra, though navigating your way through London Circuit can be interesting at times!

And yes, never mind this month-long wet weather we've had in Sydney, there's nothing we can do about it and at least it's good for keeping us inside and writing. Speaking of which, I've been working on an article for the ACT Writers' Centre magazine, due out in July. The topic of my article is, 'Who Wants To Publish Your Picture Book?'. I'll be talking about my long and winding road to publication and will be including some advice and tips on getting published. Keep an eye out for it!

Another positive, I received an email tonight stating that the two short stories I entered in the 2010 Common Thread Longer Short Story Competition had been shortlisted. Maggie & Jack and The Tender Barbs Of Sacrifice, are in the running for a prize. Who would have thought? Fingers crossed at least one of them comes through. There's nothing quite like receiving an email (or letter) that says one of your stories has been written well - well enough to make it to the top of the pile in a competition.

Looking forward to the Writers' Network meeting at the Hughendon tomorrow morning. Hope to see some friendly faces and share some good news.

Signing off,

A.

Literature Live! And Other Literary Firsts

Nina Rycroft, illustrious, industrious and totally ingenious illustrator, via Video conference from Blaxland Public School (above).

Susanne Gervay, Jeni Mawter and Laurine Croasdale (above) reviewing our VC practise session.

Literature Live!, that's the name of the video conferencing festival that several authors/illustrators and myself are putting together with e-lit.

We had our first training session today, connecting Blaxland Public School and Balgowlah Heights Public School. I'm happy to say all the technology worked, the children were absolutely brilliant and all went well. Our next training session will be on 7 June. We should be polished professionals by the time we're ready to go live to schools across NSW on Thursday 22 July for our Literature Live! Video Conference Festival. We're all thoroughly enjoying the process and the opportunity to connect with classes that we wouldn't otherwise be able to 'visit'.

Lots of ideas flowed throughout the day. The whole experience was fun and exciting. And, if that wasn't enough, it was also my first 'public performance'.

In other news this week, there are several other firsts:

My first author interview appeared in Focus Magazine, which goes to all residents in the Manning Valley and Great Lakes areas. You can view the interview by clicking on this link: http://focusmag.com/fb/mgl/pdf/7.pdf

Susanne Gervay, Director of the Kids & YA Festival on 3 July at the NSW Writers' Centre, sent through a copy of the program - and I'm on it! That's my first listing in a festival program, another milestone crossed off.

Alphabet Soup magazine has accepted a short story of mine, titled, The Summer Swoop. My first story to be accepted by them. It will appear in the November 2010 issue.

And, although it's not a first, it's still a great delight to see my work published in The School Magazine. My story, Magali of Istanbul, appeared in the June issue of Touchdown. Noela Young illustrated the story, which I was absolutely thrilled about. Her illustrations are so clever, complimenting the story perfectly and bringing the street scape and architecture of Istanbul, in Turkey, beautifully to life.

Well, I think that's enough for one day, signing off now...

The Week In Review

This week has flown by! As usual, it's been busy and exciting and I hardly know where to start.

On Wednesday night, I attended the SCBWI quarterly meeting at the Hughendon. Hosted by Susanne Gervay and Chris Cheng, the SCBWI meetings are always ultra-informative and loads of fun. Jacinta di Mase, my literary agent, was in Sydney for the Writers' Festival, so dropped by. There were about 12 of us on the night, a slightly smaller group than usual, but wonderfully intimate.

Serena Geddes, the illustrator of my twins series, now titled Totally Twins, brought along her rough drawings for the second book in the series, 'Model Behaviour'. Things are shaping up nicely and it was wonderful to see the work in motion. Serena is a talented artist, to be sure, to be sure.

On Thursday, I received a surprise in the mail. The June issue of Touchdown - The School Magazine arrived and in it my story, 'Magali of Istanbul' was published. The illustrations were by the wonderful, the amazing, Noela Young. The story has a twist at the end, but Noela sews the seeds of clues in her pictures which perfectly compliment my story. Thanks, Noela!

For the rest of the week, I've been working on the program for our video conferencing training program, which is being run through e-lit. Several well-known authors and illustrators are involved in the program, including Susanne Gervay, Jeni Mawter, Sue Walker, Laurine Croasdale and Nina Rycroft. I'm very lucky to have the opportunity to work with such wonderful professionals. At the end of June we hope to bring a video conference called 'Literature Live' to a large number of schools across NSW. But, for now, we're still learning to conquer the technology.

Tomorrow is our first training session, where we will be linking up Balgowlah Heights Public School and Blaxland Public School. Wish us luck and I'll keep you posted on our progress!

TTFN.

Dreaming About Bats... And A Tiger In Between

Last week I received the roughs for my next picture book, Warambi. It's a story about a Little Bentwing bat who loses her home. Andrew Plant is the illustrator for the project and after seeing his roughs, I've been so excited all I've been dreaming about for days is bats!

I'm such an animal lover, I can't help writing about them. Maybe it's something that comes from growing up in the country, maybe it's just something that's born inside me, but I can't help myself. I'm constantly amazed at the beauty of animals and how special they are. And I constantly feel the need to share the knowledge of this beauty with others, by writing about them.

Today, I took my two year old daughter to Taronga Zoo. Although the zoo is a huge construction site, with so many enclosures shut down and under renovation, there's still a lot to see. One special exhibit is the elephants, with two babies on display. Very special. And when I saw the tiger up and about and sitting right near the front of his enclosure, I just had to take a photo.

This shot is so close up! I was actually only a metre away from this beautiful, giant cat. Luckily, a thick sheet of glass was separating us, not that you can really tell from the photo.

As for my other writing projects, I'm currently completing a submission for the Manly Arts Festival. I'm coordinating a storytime session for preschoolers on Saturday 11 September and workshop sessions for Sunday 12 September. It's going to be lots of fun, but right now, it's also a lot of hard work. Deadline is looming tomorrow.

I'm also finishing off a manuscript, which I'm being mentored on by Kate Forsyth, as part of the ASA Mentorship prize, which I won in 2009. Polishing, polishing... and I'd better get back to it, so TTFN.

Kate Forsyth & Belinda Murrell Book Launch

Well, this one is going to be a hard act to follow! I have never seen so many people in a bookstore before, but then, we are talking about Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell, two wonderful fantasy writers, two lovely people, and of course, two sisters.

Friday night at Berkelouw Books, Balgowlah was buzzing! I'm guessing there were well over a hundred people in the store, sipping champagne and beer, browsing books and chatting. We were all there to help Kate and Belinda launch their two newest creations, 'The Wildkin's Curse' by Kate and 'The Ruby Talisman' by Belinda into the big, wide world.

The evening kicked off with an introduction of both books by Kate and Belinda's brother, Nick, a short welcome and thank you speech by Belinda and Kate and a reading from their books. Then followed some more chatting and champagne sipping. And lots and lots of books being signed by these two very talented sisters.

I had the pleasure of chatting to other authors like Susanne Gervay, Karen Robertson, Sue Murray, Felicity Pulman and Laurine Croasdale. I also met Cassandra Golds for the first time.

My launch for Puggle's Problem, my picture book to be released in July 2010, will also be held at Berkelouw Books at Balgowlah and I only hope it does half as well as Kate and Belinda's! Well-deserved, girls, and congratulations! I know you will have a busy month ahead but I'm sure it will be fun, too.