It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

4 Replies

At least that’s what the shops seem to think. Personally, I wish they would hold off just a little longer, or possibly entirely.

But this year I can hardly complain because I seem to have become part of it in some small sense. Because despite having only just recovered from the launch and associated promotional madness of “matt new book” (aka Ten Tiny Things), I am here to announce the publication of my latest shiny new book, which is decidedly and inescapably Christmassy.

It’s called Wreck the Halls, and it’s my latest contribution to Walker Books’ Lightning Strikes series. It seems I have accidentally written a trilogy of sorts, as this is the third book to feature the adventures of the hapless Nathan, Ronnie, and Weasel, who readers came to know and roll their eyes at in Going for Broke and The Big Dig.

Continue reading →

In The Mid-Week Mail …

1 Reply

There was this, which I knew was coming but was a thrill to see all the same. It’s the Davitt Award I blogged about last week. It is on the large side and I have no idea where to put it, but perhaps I can clear a space for it on the Bookshelf of Narcissism. I’m sure the duck won’t mind shoving over a little.

Then there was this, which I had no idea was coming, and was therefore a different kind of thrill. It’s a letter from Simon Crean, congratulating me on Surface Tension having been judged a ‘highly commended work’ in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. What a lovely note to receive out of the clear blue sky. I had no idea such a category even existed.

 

In excellent news, this letter is quite small and foldable, making it relatively easy to slip in between volumes on the Bookshelf of Narcissism. The duck is bound to be pleased.

In Which I (Accidentally) Become An Award-Winning Crime Writer …

3 Replies

Back in July, I was surprised to find my novel Surface Tension on the longlist for the Children’s/Young Adult Fiction category of the Davitt Awards, which are presented annually for crimewriting by Australian women.

The reason I was surprised is simply that across the many, many drafts I did of that book, I never once realised that what I was writing would fit into that genre. I was really just exploring an image, and shaping the sort of narrative that seemed to flow naturally from that process. When the longlist came out, I said, Huh? Really? Cool. And then I called my mother, because she is possibly Australia’s most avid reader of crime fiction, and I knew she’d get a kick out of it.
It was a long longlist, full of great books, and I never imagined I’d get any further. Then in August, the shortlist was announced, and it was somewhat shorter. Three books. And mine was one of them.

I had to call my mother again.

Continue reading →

Ten Terrific Things

Leave a reply

… about the Ten Tiny Things launch.

1. It was held in the State Library, at “The Place”, to which all visitors are greeted by a welcoming book-themed cow.

2. It featured many foods of the tiny variety – sushi, tiny teddies, and other teeny delicacies. In keeping with the theme, we understand they were gone in the tiniest blink of an eye.

3. Award-winning illustrator and known rabble rouser Frané Lessac launched the book with a DIY rocket launcher, propelling it unwittingly into the arms of Meg’s daughter, the original inspiration for the book.

Continue reading →

Ten Tiny Things About Ten Tiny Things

Leave a reply
It’s a book!

Usually at this point, I would say ‘shiny new book’, but this book isn’t actually shiny, at least outside my mind. Perhaps I might call it a ‘matt new book’, in a nod to the illustration style and the paper stock, which are very distinctive.8213a-9781921888946_tentinythings_rgb

In any case, it’s a new picture book, publishing August 1st and launching very soon. And in the spirit of things, here are Ten Tiny Things about it:

1. The Blurb
It was a red thing. It was a sparkly thing.
It was a tiny, tiny thing

Tessa and Zachary have a machine that is swift and splendiferous. Every day it carries them from here to there and back again in cool calm comfort. But one morning, the machine breaks down. Tessa and Zachary are forced to venture into the world beyond its metal walls – a place of secret somethings and hidden happenings. Getting from here to there may never be the same …

Continue reading →

This Is The Part …

Leave a reply

… where I tell you I’ve been busy.

And where I use the cunning technique of splitting the first sentence in order to form a pointlessly catchy title for the post. A title that tells you nothing much at all. A title that if it tells you anything, tells you that this is going to be one of those shapeless, formless catch-up posts that people who are fond of articles with titles like “Ten Top Tips For Terrific Blogging” are so appalled by.

So I’ve been busy – busy being hard on myself for not having finished the novel I began so-called ‘fast-drafting’ at the beginning of the year. Apparently for me, fast drafting means an average of about 12.6 words a day. Which are then thrown out the next day, to be replaced by 12.6 possibly better ones.

But then I’ve been busy remembering that I have three books coming out in the US this year (No Bears, Duck for a Day, and Surface Tension, now known as Below, about which I shall write a vastly more terrific post at a later date), and two in Australia (Ten Tiny Things, Wreck the Halls, about which, terrific-ness, also later). And that I have in fact been occupied rewriting and copy-editing and proofreading and visiting schools and libraries and conferences and answering interview questions and doing promotional stuff here and there and everywhere and the many, many other bits and pieces associated with what it means to have five books coming out in the same year.

Continue reading →

Nothing New Under The Sun

5 Replies

If you are a regular reader of this not-at-all regular blog, you will know that I’ve written before about my fascination with ‘creative coincidences’, the way in which writers will sometimes alight upon the same idea at the same time for no apparent reason, or a rash of books with similar themes or settings will appear within a short space of time.

Those original posts were prompted by my then-recent discovery that a book covering ground similar to my junior novel Surface Tension had just come out in the US. As is the way of these things, I’ve more recently discovered that another book with the same setting – of a town ‘drowned’ to make way for a reservoir – came out late last year in Canada. I became aware of this while idly Googling the phrase “The Town That Drowned”, which was high on my list of possible titles for the US publication of Surface Tension, scheduled for later this year. Yes, that sound you hear is the gnashing of teeth. Yes, the title of the Canadian book, which looks absolutely gorgeous and has been shortlisted for a slew of awards, is The Town That Drowned. On a blog I read while surfing around gnashing my teeth, someone even commented that the ‘drowned town’ idea is ‘becoming something of a theme in Canadian literature’.

My friends, you cannot escape the zeitgeist.

Continue reading →

There’s a Bear in There

1 Reply

Two bears, actually. On the CBCA Book of the Year Shortlist.

I was out when the announcements were made, and I’m not a smartphone kind of girl. So I found out via text message and slightly garbled phone calls (Frané Lessac, I’m looking at you!). First, someone told me that both Surface Tension and No Bears had made it onto the Notables list. I was thrilled by this.

Later, other texts started coming in. No Bears had made the Shortlist too. Wonderful. Amazing.

In two categories. Early Childhood and Picture Book. What?

Continue reading →

Poetry Week

3 Replies

Here beginneth the second in what appears to be a biennial series. It’s my own personal poetry week, very much like the one I held back in February 2010. It’s being held for exactly the same reason: I’ve been invited to guest at Perth Poetry Club and really need some new material to read.

But more than that, I really need to work on the hundreds of fragments that have been accumulating in notebooks and files for years, the many beginnings of poems that sit quietly, waiting for my attention.

In my quest to have some of them ready for this Saturday, when I’ll be reading, I’ve identified a handful that look promising. I’m going to throw the (current) opening lines down here in order to hold myself accountable in a semi-public way. And also because I’m narcissistic like that. I did this last time, and it worked. And I’m all for whatever works, narcissism and all.

Continue reading →

Ducks On My Doorstep

2 Replies

I’ve posted before about how ducks seem to show up in my life at odd moments. When I finished the revisions for Duck for a Day, I woke up to discover a duck on my doorstep. And when I sent the manuscript of a follow-up to my editor, I had a visit from a mother and ducklings.

More recently, I’ve had a bevy of ducks arriving on my doorstep. Ducks of different kinds, but very welcome all the same.
I am delighted now to present to you Duck the First, being the Candlewick version of Duck for a Day, which has just been published in the US, and which kicked off its life over there by somehow managing to get itself reviewed in The Wall Street Journal. The jacket is slightly different to the Australian release but apart from that there are only minor changes to the text, something which might perhaps be the topic of a future post.

The main thing is that it’s out, and people seem to be liking it, and that happily QUACK! appears to be an exclamation that knows no borders.

Continue reading →