Charmaine Clancy, Brisbane author and fellow Write Links member, launched her book Undead Kev at Black Cat Books, Paddington last Saturday, 7 June. Undead Kev is the second book in her series, following the success of her first book, My Zombie Dog. The concept for the series began when Charmaine, a teacher wanted to inspire boys in her Year 7 class to read. What did they want to read? You guessed it, zombies and they became the beta readers for her book. The premise for My Zombie Dog emerged from Charmaine’s somewhat possessed little pet dog who used to bite everyone and pick fights with big dogs. One day she found him dead in her yard, she covered with him a sheet and when she returned, he disappeared. It turns out he was fantastic at playing dead for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Spooky! Her dog has moved on to greener pastures, now living with Charmaine’s mum. After reading, My Zombie Dog, Charmaine’s readers wanted more of Kev. Undead Kev features zombies, invisible stealth monkeys and delves into what friends need to do to save their relationship.
Charmaine dangled a carrot for her fans, revealing the third book in the series will be titled The Invisible Kid. Her method of writing is to meticulously plan her story on index cards and plot these from beginning to end. Once Charmaine starts writing in Scrivener she then goes rogue, ignoring her own planning and letting her characters take the story on a wild adventure. Charmaine has found a way to combine both her love of teaching and writing. She conducts writing workshops for children for Juniors, 9-13 years and Young Adults, 13-17 years once a month at Black Cat Books, Paddington. She also has an upcoming holiday workshop for children on Friday, 11 July. Find out more at www.iteenwrite.com/brisbaneworkshops/. Don’t worry adult writers, you haven’t been forgotten. Charmaine organises the Rainforest Writing Retreat. 2014 has been and gone, but the next one is organised for 2015. For more fun snaps from the book launch, check out Charmaine’s website charmaineclancy.com.
3 Comments
Alison Stegert, a writer of Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction put me on to this blog tour. Check out Alison’s blog and her writing process. I have come to know Alison over the last year through my writing group, called Write Links Children’s Writers Group in Brisbane. 1. What am I working on? My greatest love is writing picture books. I have quite a few on the go and I go back to writing or editing these. I start many new ones too. I have a massive ideas file of ones waiting to be developed. I have also started to write short stories and enjoy submitting these in competitions. I have been fortunate to win a commended certificate and have one published on Kids’ Book Review. I have also started writing two junior fiction chapter books. These are in the very early stages. 2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? My perspective with picture books is I try to find a balance between humour and heartfelt. I want to leave a lasting impression on a young child to read a book again and again and I hope my work encourages them to pick up another book. 3. Why do I write what I do? I write for children because I love how absorbed they can get in a book they are really interested in. I struggled to learn to read and I want children to connect with books from an early age. Reading opens so many doors and I want children to love what they read. 4. How does your writing process work?
I keep a lot of ideas filed away. I work on what takes my interest at the time. When there are deadlines for competitions or assessments, I focus on editing those manuscripts first. I will often come back to manuscripts that have been tucked away for months when I feel ready to look at it again and have some fresh ideas. Once I’ve gotten to an impasse with my manuscript I will send it to one of my critique groups for comments. These critiques help me to edit and rewrite manuscripts. I often go through at least two rounds of critique on each manuscript, sometimes months apart to ensure the manuscript is ready for submission. It is reassuring to get validation from other writing friends who believe when your manuscript is ready and have seen it transform over time. I trust their opinion because they would tell me if it wasn’t. You need to find honest, constructive, but encouraging critique partners who can be your sounding board and you can be the same for them. On Monday night I sat amongst a sea of teenage girl fans of Young Adult (YA Fiction) at the State Library of Queensland organised by Penguin Teen Australia. I felt a little like a fish out of water. I met the ultimate grown-up teen girl in Penguin’s very own, Felicity Vallence. Who doesn’t like getting a free copy of the book, Popular on your way in? Great way to win over your audience. But I was still a little reserved. What was I doing here? Was I really like these teen girls? Then it all flooded back to me. The highs, the lows, the gossip, the friends, the boys, the drama of it all. I loved and absorbed every moment. I rode the wave. I felt the squeals and screams of the girl’s excitement at the announcement of books and authors, the swoons and sighs over dreamy male characters and major clapping for the chemistry between different characters. All this for John Green, Vampire Academy’s Richelle Mead, Melina Marchetta and many more. The constant interaction between, all-things-teen-knowing-Felicity and the audience was amazing. The crowd fed off each other. The teen girls knew and reacted to each book that flashed on the screen and spoke with such intelligence and connection. These fans live and breathe all that is YA and even blog about it. Did this amount of amazing teen fiction exist when I was a teenager? I’m not sure. A late bloomer to reading, I only really discovered my love of books when I was at university and I was dying to read anything other than a textbook. I struggled to learn to read. The great thing about reading, is it doesn’t matter at what age you connect. Audience transcends genre and recommended age group. My writing friends and I are proof of this. We love children’s literature. During the break I think we all talked like a group of teen girls, catching up on each other’s latest news. We commiserated, we laughed and we encouraged each other. I no longer felt like I was out of my depths, but I was delving back into my inner teen and loving every minute. I loved that Felicity not only plugged Penguin books, she also spoke about other YA and New Adult books from other publishers that she loved. Here are her top picks:
Our Top 5 Side Effects May Vary, Julie Murphy On the Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta Anna and the French Kiss, Stephanie Perkins The Fault in Our Stars, John Green Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead Other Publishers Books We Love: If I Stay, Gayle Forman Where She Went, Gayle Forman Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell The Impossible Memory of Knife, Laurie Halse Anderson Going Too Far, Jennifer Echols These Broken Stars, Amie Kaufman & Megan Spooner Pushing the Limits series, Katie McGarry Other Books We Want to Read: Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi Miss Peregrine’s Home for the Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake The Geography of You and Me, Jennifer E. Smith The Diviners, Libba Bray The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Michelle Hodkin Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas Slammed, Colleen Hoover Under the Never Sky, Veronica Rossi Obsidian, Jennifer L. Armentrout The Underrated: My Life Next Door, Huntley Fitzpatrick The Legend Series, Marie Lu Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Marissa Meyer The Enemy series Charlie Higson 2014 The Fault in Our Stars, John Green Winning the Player, Leesa Bow –ebook only Popular, Maya Van Wagenen Breakable, Tammara Webber – also Easy Dangerous Creatures, Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – series spin off of Beautiful Creatures series The Immortal Crown, Richelle Mead – Bk 2 in The Age of X series, Bk 1 Gameboard of the Gods Masquerade, Kylie Fornasier Silver Shadows, Richelle Mead – Bk 5 in The Bloodlines series, Bk 1 Bloodlines, Bk 2 The Golden Lily, Bk 3 The Indigo Spell, Bk 4 The Fiery Heart The Rapunzel Dilemma, Jen Kloester – Bk 2, Bk 1 The Cinderella Moment The Revenge of Seven, Pittacus Lore – Bk 5 in the Lorien Legacies series, Bk 1 I Am Number Four, Bk 2 The Power of Six, Bk 3 The Rise of Nine, Bk 4 The Fall of Five Shatter, by Erin McCarthy – Bk 4 in True Believers series, Bk 1 True, Bk 2 Sweet *ebook only, Bk 3 Believe *ebook only The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey – Bk 2, Bk 1 The 5th Wave Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld Blood of Olympus: Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan – Bk 5 in Heroes of Olympus series Bk 1 The Lost Heroes Bk 2 The Son of Neptune Bk 3 The Mark of Athena Bk 4 The House of Hades Gathering Darkness by Morgan Rhodes – Bk 3 in the Falling Kingdoms series Bk 1 Falling Kingdoms Bk 2 Rebel Spring 5 Side Effects May Vary, Julie Murphy On the Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta Anna and the French Kiss, Stephanie Perkins The Fault in Our Stars, John Green Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead Other Publishers Books they love If I Stay, Gayle Forman Where She Went, Gayle Forman Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell The Impossible Memory of Knife, Laurie Halse Anderson Going Too Far, Jennifer Echols These Broken Stars, Amie Kaufman & Megan Spooner Pushing the Limits series, Katie McGarry Other Books They want to Read Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi Miss Peregrine’s Home for the Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake The Geography of You and Me, Jennifer E. Smith The Diviners, Libba Bray The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Michelle Hodkin Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas Slammed, Colleen Hoover Under the Never Sky, Veronica Rossi Obsidian, Jennifer L. Armentrout The Underrated My Life Next Door, Huntley Fitzpatrick The Legend Series, Marie Lu Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Marissa Meyer The Enemy series Charlie Higson 2014 The Fault in Our Stars, John Green Winning the Player, Leesa Bow –ebook only Popular, Maya Van Wagenen Breakable, Tammara Webber – also Easy Dangerous Creatures, Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – series spin off of Beautiful Creatures series The Immortal Crown, Richelle Mead – Bk 2 in The Age of X series, Bk 1 Gameboard of the Gods Masquerade, Kylie Fornasier Silver Shadows, Richelle Mead – Bk 5 in The Bloodlines series, Bk 1 Bloodlines, Bk 2 The Golden Lily, Bk 3 The Indigo Spell, Bk 4 The Fiery Heart The Rapunzel Dilemma, Jen Kloester – Bk 2, Bk 1 The Cinderella Moment The Revenge of Seven, Pittacus Lore – Bk 5 in the Lorien Legacies series, Bk 1 I Am Number Four, Bk 2 The Power of Six, Bk 3 The Rise of Nine, Bk 4 The Fall of Five Shatter, by Erin McCarthy – Bk 4 in True Believers series, Bk 1 True, Bk 2 Sweet *ebook only, Bk 3 Believe *ebook only The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey – Bk 2, Bk 1 The 5th Wave Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld Blood of Olympus: Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan – Bk 5 in Heroes of Olympus series Bk 1 The Lost Heroes Bk 2 The Son of Neptune Bk 3 The Mark of Athena Bk 4 The House of Hades Gathering Darkness by Morgan Rhodes – Bk 3 in the Falling Kingdoms series Bk 1 Falling Kingdoms Bk 2 Rebel Spring Top 5 Side Effects May Vary, Julie Murphy On the Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta Anna and the French Kiss, Stephanie Perkins The Fault in Our Stars, John Green Vampire Academy, Richelle Mea Other Publishers Books they love If I Stay, Gayle Forman Where She Went, Gayle Forman Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell The Impossible Memory of Knife, Laurie Halse Anderson Going Too Far, Jennifer Echols These Broken Stars, Amie Kaufman & Megan Spooner Pushing the Limits series, Katie McGarry Other Books They want to Read Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi Miss Peregrine’s Home for the Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake The Geography of You and Me, Jennifer E. Smith The Diviners, Libba Bray The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Michelle Hodkin Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas Slammed, Colleen Hoover Under the Never Sky, Veronica Rossi Obsidian, Jennifer L. Armentrout The Underrated My Life Next Door, Huntley Fitzpatrick The Legend Series, Marie Lu Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Marissa Meyer The Enemy series Charlie Higson 2014 The Fault in Our Stars, John Green Winning the Player, Leesa Bow –ebook only Popular, Maya Van Wagenen Breakable, Tammara Webber – also Easy Dangerous Creatures, Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – series spin off of Beautiful Creatures series The Immortal Crown, Richelle Mead – Bk 2 in The Age of X series, Bk 1 Gameboard of the Gods Masquerade, Kylie Fornasier Silver Shadows, Richelle Mead – Bk 5 in The Bloodlines series, Bk 1 Bloodlines, Bk 2 The Golden Lily, Bk 3 The Indigo Spell, Bk 4 The Fiery Heart The Rapunzel Dilemma, Jen Kloester – Bk 2, Bk 1 The Cinderella Moment The Revenge of Seven, Pittacus Lore – Bk 5 in the Lorien Legacies series, Bk 1 I Am Number Four, Bk 2 The Power of Six, Bk 3 The Rise of Nine, Bk 4 The Fall of Five Shatter, by Erin McCarthy – Bk 4 in True Believers series, Bk 1 True, Bk 2 Sweet *ebook only, Bk 3 Believe *ebook only The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey – Bk 2, Bk 1 The 5th Wave Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld Blood of Olympus: Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan – Bk 5 in Heroes of Olympus series Bk 1 The Lost Heroes Bk 2 The Son of Neptune Bk 3 The Mark of Athena Bk 4 The House of Hades Gathering Darkness by Morgan Rhodes – Bk 3 in the Falling Kingdoms series Bk 1 Falling Kingdoms Bk 2 Rebel Spr Top 5 Side Effects May Vary, Julie Murphy On the Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta Anna and the French Kiss, Stephanie Perkins The Fault in Our Stars, John Green Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead Other Publishers Books they love If I Stay, Gayle Forman Where She Went, Gayle Forman Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell The Impossible Memory of Knife, Laurie Halse Anderson Going Too Far, Jennifer Echols These Broken Stars, Amie Kaufman & Megan Spooner Pushing the Limits series, Katie McGarry Other Books They want to Read Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi Miss Peregrine’s Home for the Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake The Geography of You and Me, Jennifer E. Smith The Diviners, Libba Bray The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Michelle Hodkin Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas Slammed, Colleen Hoover Under the Never Sky, Veronica Rossi Obsidian, Jennifer L. Armentrout The Underrated My Life Next Door, Huntley Fitzpatrick The Legend Series, Marie Lu Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Marissa Meyer The Enemy series Charlie Higson 2014 The Fault in Our Stars, John Green Winning the Player, Leesa Bow –ebook only Popular, Maya Van Wagenen Breakable, Tammara Webber – also Easy Dangerous Creatures, Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – series spin off of Beautiful Creatures series The Immortal Crown, Richelle Mead – Bk 2 in The Age of X series, Bk 1 Gameboard of the Gods Masquerade, Kylie Fornasier Silver Shadows, Richelle Mead – Bk 5 in The Bloodlines series, Bk 1 Bloodlines, Bk 2 The Golden Lily, Bk 3 The Indigo Spell, Bk 4 The Fiery Heart The Rapunzel Dilemma, Jen Kloester – Bk 2, Bk 1 The Cinderella Moment The Revenge of Seven, Pittacus Lore – Bk 5 in the Lorien Legacies series, Bk 1 I Am Number Four, Bk 2 The Power of Six, Bk 3 The Rise of Nine, Bk 4 The Fall of Five Shatter, by Erin McCarthy – Bk 4 in True Believers series, Bk 1 True, Bk 2 Sweet *ebook only, Bk 3 Believe *ebook only The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey – Bk 2, Bk 1 The 5th Wave Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld Blood of Olympus: Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan – Bk 5 in Heroes of Olympus series Bk 1 The Lost Heroes Bk 2 The Son of Neptune Bk 3 The Mark of Athena Bk 4 The House of Hades Gathering Darkness by Morgan Rhodes – Bk 3 in the Falling Kingdoms series Bk 1 Falling Kingdoms Bk 2 Rebel Spring Top 5 Side Effects May Vary, Julie Murphy On the Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta Anna and the French Kiss, Stephanie Perkins The Fault in Our Stars, John Green Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead Other Publishers Books they love If I Stay, Gayle Forman Where She Went, Gayle Forman Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell The Impossible Memory of Knife, Laurie Halse Anderson Going Too Far, Jennifer Echols These Broken Stars, Amie Kaufman & Megan Spooner Pushing the Limits series, Katie McGarry Other Books They want to Read Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi Miss Peregrine’s Home for the Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake The Geography of You and Me, Jennifer E. Smith The Diviners, Libba Bray The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Michelle Hodkin Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas Slammed, Colleen Hoover Under the Never Sky, Veronica Rossi Obsidian, Jennifer L. Armentrout The Underrated My Life Next Door, Huntley Fitzpatrick The Legend Series, Marie Lu Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Marissa Meyer The Enemy series Charlie Higson 2014 The Fault in Our Stars, John Green Winning the Player, Leesa Bow –ebook only Popular, Maya Van Wagenen Breakable, Tammara Webber – also Easy Dangerous Creatures, Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – series spin off of Beautiful Creatures series The Immortal Crown, Richelle Mead – Bk 2 in The Age of X series, Bk 1 Gameboard of the Gods Masquerade, Kylie Fornasier Silver Shadows, Richelle Mead – Bk 5 in The Bloodlines series, Bk 1 Bloodlines, Bk 2 The Golden Lily, Bk 3 The Indigo Spell, Bk 4 The Fiery Heart The Rapunzel Dilemma, Jen Kloester – Bk 2, Bk 1 The Cinderella Moment The Revenge of Seven, Pittacus Lore – Bk 5 in the Lorien Legacies series, Bk 1 I Am Number Four, Bk 2 The Power of Six, Bk 3 The Rise of Nine, Bk 4 The Fall of Five Shatter, by Erin McCarthy – Bk 4 in True Believers series, Bk 1 True, Bk 2 Sweet *ebook only, Bk 3 Believe *ebook only The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey – Bk 2, Bk 1 The 5th Wave Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld Blood of Olympus: Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan – Bk 5 in Heroes of Olympus series Bk 1 The Lost Heroes Bk 2 The Son of Neptune Bk 3 The Mark of Athena Bk 4 The House of Hades Gathering Darkness by Morgan Rhodes – Bk 3 in the Falling Kingdoms series Bk 1 Falling Kingdoms Bk 2 Rebel Spring A little like a teen groupie, I hung around at the end and had to meet the vivacious Felicity. My writing friend Melanie, came with me, like your teen friends do. Felicity gave me hope and let me know Melina Marchetta had once been a teacher turned writer. We bonded over Channel Seven’s top shows as a teenager, namely the 10.30pm weekday timeslots devoted to Buffy, Angel and Felicity. She even recognised my name when I’d RSVP to the event. If anyone can make you love dystopian YA fiction, look no further than Felicity and you can interact with her on the live Twitter chats. Felicity is the ultimate YA ambassador and proud of it. Best of all you can hear more of Felicity and the Penguin team at Penguin Teen Live Australia TV. Squeal some more teen girls! All you ever want to know about YA books in their fortnightly episodes. I love the dialogue that a publisher has with their audience. It makes me want to engage with kids more, and understand them so I can write better. Penguin is lucky to have Felicity and it makes me excited that one day I will work with someone who loves children’s literature, lives and breathes it as much as I do. Thanks for a great night. I attended the first launch of Rosie Borella’s first book The One and Only Jack Chant at Black Cat Books on Sunday 23 February. I met Rosie and Isobelle Carmody at the Romancing the Stars event and instantly wanted to hear more about Rosie’s published book. I have been a huge fan of Isobelle’s work, particularly after reading Little Fur: The Legend of Little Fur. Isobelle Carmody interviewed Rosie about the book and her writing journey. They bantered back and forth and you can tell their deep friendship and respect for each other hails back to their university days, journalism careers and both becoming published authors. The premise for The One and Only Jack Chant came to Rosie one evening when working night-shift as a nurse in a nursing home. A black blob appeared on the CCTV footage and other female staff members were convinced a young man wearing a black hoodie snuck into a vacant room in the nursing home. The nursing home night-shift became the setting and the black blob became one of the main characters in her book. Amber a kind, young girl takes a gap year after finishing high school to figure out her future. She becomes a carer in a nursing home in order to save up for her first car. After her friends leave to go to university, Amber feels lonely until she meets a mysterious young man named Jack Chant who lives at the nursing home in an unoccupied room. Amber befriends Jack and discovers he is missing large parts of his memory, which she helps him to remember. The book delves into the question that nursing homes are difficult places both old and young people don’t really want to go to. Older people feeling like they are being shelved away. The One and Only Jack Chant challenges this notion and provides a solution to fix nursing homes. You’ll have to read it to find out! Both Rosie and Isobelle spoke passionately about nursing homes needing to be more open and friendlier places for all people to live and visit. This sounds more like what I would want too. Some helpful advice both Rosie and Isobelle gave to writers: * Write what you know. Rosie drew on her experience as a nurse and people she knew in real life became inspiration for characters in the book. * Don’t give up. The One and Only Jack Chant is her second book, but the first to be published. Her first book Whisper Land is unpublished. * Develop friendships and support networks with other writers. * Go to writing festivals and events. * Journalism gives you a discipline for research and deadlines. * You must write because you love it, not because you want to be published. Other works by Rosie Borella: A short story featured in The Wilful Eye, a compilation of fractured fairy tales by six different authors, including Isobelle Carmody. Romancing The Stars is an annual event organised by BookLinks Qld where a group of children’s literature enthusiasts gather to hear from 20 Brisbane children’s authors and illustrators. It is such a fun night hearing from local success stories. One day, many of the attendees hope to be sitting on the other side of the circle sharing their own books, including me. The catch, authors only have 3 minutes to share about their latest work and projects to the enthusiasts who are ready to pepper them with questions. It is pretty much literature speed dating. Several new books were launched on the night. At the end, we were quizzed on the information authors presented. Delighted attendees raised their hands in an effort to win books written by the authors. And an event is never complete without dessert afterwards.
Thank you to all the volunteers on the night for making it such a fantastic event. It was wonderful to catch up with my writing and author friends. I can’t wait for next year. Presenters included: Katherine Battersby Michael Gerard Bauer Jesse Blackadder Chris Bongers Rosie Borella Isobelle Carmody Peter Carnavas Emily Craven Amanda Francey Rebecca Johnson Andrew King Kate Knapp Nicholas Lochel and Alison Lochel James Moloney Josie Montano Narelle Oliver Pamela Rushby Samantha Wheeler Richard Yaxley Find a video of highlights from previous years here. I recently spent two weeks travelling around the stunning island of Tasmania. If you haven’t been you must! Highlights for me are definitely the seaside town of Stanley, the fruit farm cafes, the lavender farm outside Launceston, Cradle Mountain, Bruny Island, Hobart and let’s just say the whole place really. One of the things on my to do list other than canyoning and ziplining (I love adrenaline), I couldn’t wait to see the wildlife. I saw echidnas cross highways, pademelons bound out of bushes, wombats and their babies feeding in the open. As I live in suburban, south east Queensland this is not a usual sight for me. It was great to see Aussie animals in the open and wild just roaming around. I spotted seals and dolphins at Bruny Island and watched fairy penguins return from the ocean to their burrows at night time in Bicheno. But I had to go to Platypus House to see this elusive animal. High on my list though was seeing the Tasmanian Devil. Why? Well, other than it having Tasmania in its name, the devil is a main character in a children’s book manuscript I’ve been working on. I’ve done a lot of research online and wanted to see it in person. I visited Devils@Cradle to learn about this mysterious creature for a night-time feeding session. Getting there at twilight, I was able to watch the devils run around. They made tracks around their pen, similar to dog paths in your backyard. I also heard their piercing devil cry. I saw two devils tackle each other, which made me jump with fright. When it became dark, I heard about the plight of the devils as an endangered species. The main issue is devils are dying from Devil Facial Tumour Disease, an aggressive cancer that has spread rapidly throughout the population and drastically killed off many of them. As devils are now only found in Tasmania, the animals all have a close genetic pool and don’t have a strong resistance or immune system to fight the disease. To combat this, sanctuaries like Devils@Cradle are sending devils to other sanctuaries for breeding to expand the genetic pool of the species. I watched the devils devour and crunch through bone and meat of a carcass. I even got to see the remains of some Tassie Devil faeces (poo!), which had animal fur in it. Interestingly, Tasmanian Devils are solitary creatures in the wild, however in captivity they don’t mind sharing a pen with each other. Also, devils will not hurt humans. I think they’ve been feared for too long because of its piercing scream, which is how it got its name. Listen to a recording of a devil scream. It really does sound like that! They prefer to scavenge their food. Devils are fast movers. One that was tracked had travelled one-third of Tasmania in a couple of weeks. What I learned? We need to protect this Australian species and save it from the same ill fate as the once feared Tasmanian Tiger, which was hunted to extinction by early settlers. Australian literature can play its part in spreading the word literally for the plight of this precious animal and teach our children about how to save the Tasmanian Devil. Here are some great children’s books featuring Tasmanian Devils. Even if you can’t find these, there are ample fiction and non-fiction books about this creature that you can buy at a bookstore or borrow from your local library. Fiction A Devilish Tale, by Alice Hansen features Nevil the devil as he searches for his family in the Tasmanian wilderness. Sales from the book raise money for the Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease fund. Little Devils, story by Rebecca Johnson and photographs by Steve Parish. Steve Parish books are favourites with both children and adults. Taz, the Looney Tunes character. Non-Fiction Tasmanian Devils: Life Cycles of Australian Animals by Greg Pyers. I have used these books in my classroom to help children learn about Australian animals. Honey Bee Books also recommends these titles featuring Tasmanian Devils.
Last year I sat front row when Mem Fox presented at Black Cat Books, Brisbane. It is my favourite bookstore in Brisbane because of its large collection of Australian children’s literature, events, coffee shop and gorgeous deck, garden and rotunda out back. Black Cat Books + Mem Fox = I was there. Sitting beside two of my writing buddies, Caylie and Sam, we soaked in all the magic that is Mem Fox. Everyone loves listening to Mem Fox. Besides she exemplifies magic, think The Magic Hat and of course, Possum Magic. You can even hear Mem read aloud on her website. What a character. She oozes wit, intelligence, passion for quality children’s writing and reading, warmth and she takes her audience on an emotional rollercoaster as she reads her books. She held the entire room captive for a few hours, a room full of adults and she even reduced my friend Caylie to tears from a reading of Koala Lou. Read Caylie’s account of meeting The Divine Ms Mem. Mem shared the behind the scenes stories of writing her books. It’s no wonder she is children’s writing royalty in Australia and worldwide. Even my grade 3 class last year still loved hearing me read Where is the Green Sheep? and gush over meeting Mem Fox. They knew who she was straight away and were equally impressed by my signed copy. They’ve heard Mem Fox for years and still joined in on, “But where is the green sheep?” One true gem Mem shared was how her books are now primarily aimed at the early year's picture book market and when I thought about this it made sense. Her classic picture books like Possum Magic and Koala Lou fit in the older picture book segment, while her newer works like Where is the Green Sheep? and her latest Baby Bedtime are aimed at the 0-4 age group. So around the same time as this event in November 2013, I lay on my bed one afternoon and a wash of words drifted into my head, brought on the afternoon summer breeze. Maybe it was a sprinkling of the Mem Fox magic still hanging around. Luckily I had a notebook nearby and I wrote down a jumble of words all to do with the wind. (Excellent writer tip: Always carry a notebook with you so you don't forget those magic words that appear in your head.) These words became the basis for my first early year’s picture book. All my efforts until now had mainly sat in the older picture book market. Mem spoke of how the words for Baby Bedtime poured forth from her when sitting beside her grandson Theo’s crib in the neo-natal hospital ward. He was born 8 weeks premature and in loving this beautiful little boy the first verse for Baby Bedtime came to her. Not long after this, Mem had crafted the entire poem. Four years on the book has been published by Penguin and the illustrations are wonderfully captured by Emma Quay with a mother and baby elephant. So with a little more of the Mem Fox magic still in the air I took these notebook scribbles, toyed with the words and turned it into the first draft. After showing it to my writing group and getting some more critiques, I have continued to play with the words of the text.
Mem revealed that the text for Where is the Green Sheep? took her 7 months to write. She painstakingly laboured over the right words, all one syllable mind you, except for two in the whole text. Most of these books sound simple and many think are easy to write. It is the opposite. With so few words, each one counts and must be exact. At moments, on my holiday in the last two weeks, I wrote down which words would fit best in my manuscript and asked my mum, my travel buddy for input too. So many sw, tw, wh words swirled in my head. I tried different words, combination of words, I changed the order and I read my work aloud until I was happy with my final version. After toiling over my many manuscript drafts and query letter, I have sent it off to a publisher. Hopefully with some virtual Mem Fox magic! Fingers crossed. At Christmas I caught up with one of my best friends from high school who was visiting from Adelaide. She asked how my writing was going. I mentioned I’d seen Mem Fox recently. She excitedly told me that she knows the area where Mem Fox lives in Adelaide. Next time I visit my friend in Adelaide, she suggested we take a stroll on the beach near Mem's house. Maybe a little more Mem Fox magic will come my way. Don't worry, I won’t be knocking on your door Mem. But, you may see me at another event you’re at. (Just a huge fan!) Mem, I hope you continue to delight everyone with your writing magic for many years to come. Never stop! Mem Fox website http://memfox.com/ Caylie Jefferies website http://www.cayliejeffery.com.au/ Sam Sochaka website http://samsochacka.com/ Operation Candy CaneMy short story Operation Candy Cane was chosen to be featured on the Kids' Book Review website as part of the short story competition. The theme for December was 'Christmas'. This the first piece I have written to be published. I can't tell you how excited I was to receive an email of congratulations from renowned Australian author, Tania McCartney and founder of Kids' Book Review. I hope you enjoy it and this will be the start of my continued publishing success. Cheers, Rebecca. The True Book of Gnomes Launch with Tracey Lennon Here is my first blog entry and I can’t think of writing on something more exciting. Tracey Lennon from my writing group, called Write Links and Book Links member had her very own book launch for the The True Book of Gnomes. It was held this week at Avid Reader, West End on Tuesday 3 December 2013. I couldn’t think of a better location to hold the book launch. Avid Reader has a great café and deck out back where all the guests mingled for drinks and nibbles. The deck was decorated with an incredible array of gnomes and mushrooms, which are actually gnomes. Read the book to find out more. Author Annie O’Dowd launched the book for Tracey and she did a wonderful job of capturing the essence of the book and giving an overall fun picture of the life of gnomes. I love hearing the story of how books came to be and they often require a lot of love, nurturing, imagination and inspiration to bring them to life. Tracey’s gnome journey began all the way back when her son was in Grade 7 and he is now in his first year of university when the book was launched. After speaking with a mum whose son has dyslexia, which is someone who struggles with learning to read, spell and write, Tracey was inspired to create a book with a low reading age. Find out more information about dyslexia from The Australian Dyslexia Association Inc. The True Book of Gnomes is a compendium, which is a short but comprehensive body of work all about gnomes. Her book ingeniously is structured like a non-fiction book with a Table of Contents, allowing readers to choose what sections of the book to read and in what order. This is absolute freedom for a child or adult who can read small sections at a time and easily locate where they want to go in the book. It also has a Glossary for all those non-fiction lovers. The book also contains many text types, such as narrative, newspapers, quizzes, plays, procedures, riddles, interviews, poems, music and much more. This appeals to a broad range of readers and enables people to access forms of writing they wouldn’t normally read. The True Book of Gnomes is a visual narrative, which creatively uses a collage style of photos, illustrations, text boxes, speech bubbles and more to communicate the text to the reader. This helps to keep the reader’s attention by drawing their eye to different features in the illustrations. Tracey has demonstrated her fantastic skills as a graphic designer and illustrator in putting this book together. Another feature to hook children in is the QR Code app, which will play the song Gnome Pome to the reader after being scanned by a phone. I love the idea of having a traditional published book with technology features. What a fantastic way to combine both mediums. As a teacher, I can see myself using this book in my classroom to engage my students with all the components. It will be a wonderful tool for teachers to use with its many different features providing a wide range of learning experiences.
In her writing journey, Tracey wasn’t afraid to get readers input and got together a group of the hardest critics—10 children. Tracey came up with a great critiquing system for the children G = Good, B = Boring and DU = Don’t Understand. Some of these children attended the launch. Her motivation for the writing the book is joy and to try and get kids to read. In all her efforts, Tracey has achieved this and produced a delightful and comprehensive book on gnomes sure to be enjoyed by readers of all ages. Who doesn’t like a little fantasy in their own life? While it’s been a long writing, illustrating and designing road for Tracey, it has definitely been worthwhile. Tracey Lennon website |