Author Archives: Meg McKinlay

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About Meg McKinlay

Children's Writer & Poet

New Year, New Title, New Cover

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As we launch into 2015, I’m delighted to be able to announce that the book formerly known as Set in Stone is done and dusted. After the usual last-minute doubts and shenanigans, I’ve somehow managed to let go and send it out into the world and off to the printer.

Sentences uttered by me during the seemingly endless rounds of last-minute proofreading include, but are not limited to:

I don’t think I’m wedded to this comma 

I will fight to the death for this semi-colon

I need a three-beat word that means “tenacious” and has a falling cadence. Oh, wait … 

Who cares about widows and orphans anyway?

In the course of said shenanigans, the book has a new title and will shortly be winging its way into catalogues, bookstores and review pages (we can only hope) all over the country, as …  

A Single Stone

It’s a perfect fit for the book and I’m quietly thrilled with it.

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Not Set in Stone

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Back in May, I mentioned that I was diving into revisions on a new book. Back then, my working title was “Set In Stone”, but that has since been set aside in favour of something more fabulous, about which more later. I probably should have known better than to tempt fate with such a dogmatic title in the first place. My next WIP is going to be entitled, “Don’t Change a Word”.

The last few months have seen me dipping in and out of that manuscript as needed, in the midst of various other bits and pieces including Book Week and its many joys.

Just yesterday, I moved the latest draft off my desk and back onto my editor’s. There is more work to be done, but with each round, the scale diminishes. Eventually the spiral of revisions will narrow to the finest of points before finally disappearing, and the book will move into the hands of others.

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New Book News

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You may have noticed that my 2014 goals did not include blogging. However, I break radio silence to report some report-worthy news:

I have a contract for a new book.

It’s a book I’ve mentioned here and there over the last couple of years, including, most recently, here.

When I was writing it, I thought it was YA, but when I finished it, I realised it’s junior fiction – in a similar sort of pocket to my 2011 release, Surface Tension (Below in the US). I’m not sure how that works, but it does.

I worked extremely hard drafting and re-drafting this manuscript before finally submitting it. This means I only have approximately another 27 drafts to do before it approaches a publishable state. For me, this is an excellent result.

I’ve just learned that the book is tentatively scheduled for an April 2015 release, which means that all 27 drafts must be completed by October-ish this year. It’s totally doable. I just have a gazillion tons of backstory and world-building to stuff into the seams of the action.

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WAYRBA 2014

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The nominations for the 2014 West Australian Young Reader’s Book Awards have been announced and I’m delighted to learn that Duck for a Day appears on the Younger Readers list.

WAYRBA is a readers’ choice award, organised on a statewide basis for young readers, with students nominating their favourites. There are eighteen nominations in the Younger Readers category this year, mostly from Australia but with a couple of international titles in the mix. To the best of my knowledge, Duck for a Day is the only book in this category by a West Australian author. I haven’t had a book on the WAYRBA lists since my first novel, Annabel, Again, was nominated back in 2008, so I’m thrilled.

Once school goes back (tomorrow!), readers all over the state will start their engines and get down to the business of reading and voting for their favourites.

It’s great to see my little duck still quacking along; here’s hoping Max makes some new friends before voting closes at the end of September.

It Was the Best of Covers; It Was the Worst of Covers …

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In case anyone needed more evidence that responses to art are subjective, Below recently featured on two unexpected – and surprisingly juxtaposed – 2013 wrap-up lists.

List the First: “Best Book Covers of 2013”

List the Second: “Best Book Hidden Under the Worst Cover”

While I’m genuinely surprised by the second one, I do sort of love that it fits with the notion of things being hidden below the surface, which is central to the story in Below.

In Which I "Fast Draft" a Book in a Mere Two Years

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Two years ago, in December 2011, someone on a discussion board I sometimes frequent asked if anyone was up for some ‘fast-drafting’. The goal was to complete the first draft of a novel over their winter (our summer). I’m a slow writer but three months seemed on the doable side. It would be good for me! Optimistically, I raised my hand. A thread was opened and we duly began to post our progress.

Two weeks ago, in December 2013, I submitted the draft to my editor, having long abandoned the thread out of sheer embarrassment. My ‘progress updates’ to that point had mostly consisted of explanations as to why I was making none.

At one point, shortly before I fled, I commented:

I swear that when this book is done I’m going to go through this thread, collate the many reasons I have offered for my lack of progress, run them through Wordle, and generate a giant cloud of excuse-o-rama. If nothing else, it might show me where my problems lie.

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Paperback Bears

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… are here, or not here, or something, depending on how silly you want to get with the whole bears/no bears thing.

The point is that No Bears is out in paperback, just in time for the ridiculously extended Christmas season, which the shops tell me reaches all the way back into October and beyond.

If you are looking for a bear-free gift for a small person in your life, this might be just the ticket. To sweeten the (honey) pot, Walker Books have created a door hanger which comes free with purchase. I have one on my study door and so far it has been wonderfully effective in keeping bears of all kinds at bay. Highly recommended.

In a small burst of writerly glee, I observe that the books have been printed with the CBC Shortlist sticker logo. This is a first for me and rather gratifying. I may have run my hands over it once or twice.

Lessons From an Audio Book

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Back in April, I wrote about having received a copy of the audio book version of Below. I flippantly said that when I got a spare 4 hours and 10 minutes I was going to listen to the whole thing.

A few weeks ago, realising that I was unlikely to get a spare 4 hours and 10 minutes, I cued up the first of the CDs in the car, and began listening in small increments – 15 minutes on the way to school, another 20 on the way to work, the occasional extra 5 sitting in the driveway because I simply had to hear how a particular chapter ended (I wrote this book quite a long time ago!).

While I was listening, a few things occurred to me:

1. I have no idea how voice actors do it.

All the characters in Below are voiced by one person – Tara Sands. That’s Cassie, Liam, Mum, Dad, Elijah, Hannah, Mayor Finkle, and one or two other bit parts. And the story really is acted, rather than simply being read; it’s brilliantly done, and it was a real treat for me to hear my characters coming to life like this.

Here’s an interesting article I read recently about voice acting; I had no idea it was such a burgeoning field but it makes perfect sense when you think about the rise of e-books.

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Reviews, Readers, and a Return to Writing

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With Below having been out in the US for a couple of months now, reviews have been coming in, and it’s made me realise something.

I was nervous about this book.

That is perhaps a little odd as it’s been out for two years in Australia already. It’s had plenty of reviews and feedback from readers over here. I’m not sure why I felt nervous about the US release; it just somehow felt like I was diving into a different sort of pond. Even though Candlewick had already published my picture book No Bears and chapter book Duck for a Day, there was something different about this, perhaps more of myself in this work somehow.

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