Christmas, bushfires and Cooper Jones

Happy holidays everyone!

We had our family Christmas at my place this year, which of course meant lots of preparation, including a mid-summer spring clean and the peeling of many vegetables.

It also meant that some of the family stayed over for a Christmas sleepover. This is not one of our usual family Christmas traditions. In fact, it is only the second time it has happened. The last time was in 2001, when around 3 pm on Christmas afternoon, just as we finished our Christmas lunch, raging bushfires swept over the escarpment and our little village was surrounded, cut off and our house filled with stranded friends and family, many of whom stayed not just for Christmas night but for several days.

We had no power. Very little food. No communication with the outside world. When not hosing down friends' houses or rescuing their pets or keeping watch on advancing fronts, we sat out in the street with neighbours and shared a drink or two.

It was a strange time. A surreal time. A time that came to be known as Black Christmas. And a time that eventually inspired my mid-grade novel Get a Grip, Cooper Jones, which was published eight years later in 2010.

No houses were lost in my village, but many were lost in surrounding villages and in various parts of Sydney. Miraculously and thankfully no lives were lost. And now in 2014, with fires tearing through the Adelaide Hills and rural Victoria, I am once again reminded of that time. My thoughts are with you all! Stay safe.

What next?

With my YA manuscript complete and with my publisher awaiting verdict, I have had a small and much needed break from writing, but now I know it is time to get on to the next novel.

And here lies my dilemma. I have been promising myself (and some of my readers) that the next novel I write will be a sequel to Get a Grip, Cooper Jones (You're an Idiot, Cooper Jones). I have worked out the structure of the novel (which I am excited about), know the basic plot and themes, have several pages of notes and ideas and a strong opening scene. I love writing from Cooper's perspective and am keen to delve back into his world at Wangaroo Bay. I am poised to go. But ...

Another idea has come to me. It is still rather nebulous, but tantalising nonetheless. All I really have is a title: The Awful Truth. A couple of opening lines, and the beginnings of a playlist that seems to capture the mood of the idea that is keeping me awake at night.

What should I do? Which book should I write?

Here is the first song on the playlist. Fix You, Coldplay.

Will the real Cooper Jones please stand up

August and September have flown by in a blur of school and library visits, Book Week events, festivals and conferences. It has been an absolute blast, and although at times I have been on the brink of exhaustion, I would do it all again.

There were so many highlights - too many to mention - but one that I do want to share is when a great young lad by the name of COOPER JONES introduced me at one of my Brisbane Writers Festival sessions. He did a great job with his speech; he was funny and clever and I couldn't help but get a photo of the two of us afterwards.

Coincidentally, this Cooper Jones goes to my niece and nephews' school and his family won a pack of my books (including Get a Grip, Cooper Jones) at a school fundraiser earlier in the year, so it was extra special that Payne Road School was asked to do the introductions and that Cooper was chosen.

Thanks, Coops. (By the way, he assured me that he isn't quite the idiot that the Cooper in the book is and that his life, thankfully, isn't spinning out of control.)

Word Play - Brisbane Writers Festival

So excited to be part of Word Play at Brisbane Writers Festival. I will be joining many fab children's authors including Wendy Orr, Susanne Gervay and James Roy.

I will be doing two writing workshops, two general sessions and for the first time ever an online session - that's a little scary.

I also have the luxury of having a whole session devoted to the writing of Get a Grip Cooper Jones. Can't wait. Hope to see some of you up there.

Notable Australian Children's Books 2011

Earlier in the year I was thrilled to learn that Get a Grip, Cooper Jones was named as a CBCA Notable Book in the Younger Readers category. Today, I received in the mail the CBCA publication, Notable Australian Children's Books 2011, One World, Many Stories that comprises of an annotated list of all the notable and short-listed books.

I have to admit to being really chuffed that my little story was included in the notable list and in this publication. Coops is in such esteemed company, among so many wonderful books written by so many talented authors!

Here is Cooper's annotation. (Page 20)

"Laced with wit and humour, with strong descriptive passages, this very Australian beach and bushfire story, told in the authentic voice of early adolescent Cooper, will have appeal for both male and female younger adolescent readers, dealing as it does with themes of trust, identity, increasing self-awareness and growing independence. Coops is a likeable and reliable narrator, allowing the reader to fully appreciate his struggles and conflicts in coming to terms with himself, his parents and the insecurities and responsibilities of approaching independence."


It left me grinning. Widely.

A promise

This year I resolved I was going to focus on two things. One: do what I can to continue to promote Get a Grip, Cooper Jones. And two: work on the craft of writing and write as often as possible, hopefully completing the reworking of a chapter book, long overdue, and also my YA novel that has been gathering dust for longer than I care to admit.

Well, it is almost March and while I have lots of festivals and school visits coming up to promote Cooper, YAY!, I have fallen very short on the developing my craft side of my resolve and have only reworked two lousy chapters of my chapter book and done nothing with my YA or my "craft" so to speak.

But this is about to change! Today. Really.

Trailer Making

I've had lots of people ask about the making of the Get a Grip, Cooper Jones trailer. I had always intended to make a trailer for Cooper, and planned to have it ready prior to the book's release in August. I was lucky enough to be able to attend a trailer making workshop organised by Chris Cheng and SCBWI in 2009. So once the book's publication date was locked in, I used my newfound knowledge to work out a bit of a script and concept, and then asked my son, Brad, who enjoys fiddling with film and photography, if he'd help me.

Well, two things happened. Firstly, life intervened for both Brad and me: work commitments, uni, exams, overseas trips etc. and the trailer making kept on being pushed aside. Then when we finally had a window to get it started, Brad confessed that the idea of making a trailer with images overlaid with text and music didn't really inspire him creatively. (In other words, he thought my concept sucked!)

But don't worry, he said, I have an idea.

I'm his mother; I worried!

But I shouldn't have.

The idea was using the technique of stop motion animation - a technique Brad was interested in experimenting with. He showed me a couple of YouTube clips, explained his concept and I was immediately excited. This was going to be a whole lot of fun!

Basically, the technique involves taking a sequence of photos of an action in progress and then stitching them together - in much the same way an animator does with drawn images for cartoons. It took Brad about a week to film the clip and he estimates that he took about 1500 photographs. Another week or so to put it together and another week for a friend of his to add the music and sound effects. Then voila! We had our trailer.

And I think it is pretty cool.

Get a Grip, Cooper Jones - Stop Motion Animation - Book Trailer

Yay! At last, my trailer for Get a Grip Cooper Jones has been completed and uploaded on to youtube.
My son, Brad, created it for me, using stop motion animation. He is an engineering student with a passion for photography and a pretty strong creative streak. 

The clip plays on the notion that stories / books take you on a journey. I think it is a lot of fun. Let me know what you think.

Get a Grip, Cooper Jones is Launched

I donned my party frock and party shoes. We sipped champagne and told jokes. We had a couple of speeches, a competition and lots of laughs, and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate the launch of Get a Grip, Cooper Jones.

Thanks so much to author, friend and SCBWI leader, Susanne Gervay for giving such a warm, generous and funny launch speech. You can read about it here.

Thanks also to Chris Cheng, SCBWI, the Hughenden Hotel, Claire Saxby, all who attended and shared the journey and joined in with the festivities. I had a blast. (And sold lots of books too! Yay!)

It was such a buzz  – I was grinning for days afterwards.

A review and a launch for Cooper

Here's a lovely review for Get a Grip, Cooper Jones at Chris Cheng's review blog. Thanks, Chris!

Now, drum roll please ...

Get a Grip, Cooper Jones is going to be officially launched by Susanne Gervay next Sunday (September 19) at the SCBWI conference, The Hughenden Hotel, 14 Queen St Woollahra NSW, 12.30 - 1.00 pm. Let me know if you would like to drop by and join the celebration.

Teacher's notes for Get a Grip Cooper Jones

Walker Books has created  a great set of comprehensive teachers' notes for Get a Grip, Cooper Jones. They can be downloaded from the Walker Books website. Thanks, Walker!

A great start to Book Week at St Paul's Camden + wonderful review at Kids' Book Capers

Just spent the day with the wonderful kids of St Paul's Primary at Camden (Kindi - grade 3).

We created a crazy monster called Hornhead, put out several raging fires at Lulu's Ice-Creamery, got freaked out over large and very hairy spiders, twirled to Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and toiled over bubbling pots of sugary syrup! No wonder I'm exhausted. Hope you had as much fun as I did, kids!

I also had another interesting question that required some research back at home to find the answer. The question: "How many different illustrators have illustrated my books?" Great question - and I had no idea. But after a bit of a stock take at home, I think the answer is 35. (Even I was surprised.)

Four sessions down, fifteen more to go.

For those interested, check out this great review for Get a Grip, Cooper Jones at Kids Book Capers, Boomerang Blog. This one had me grinning all weekend.

An Interesting Question and Abbotsleigh Literary Festival

Last Monday I had the pleasure of speaking at the Abbotsleigh Literary Festival. I was a little nervous prior to the event as I was going to present Get a Grip, Cooper Jones for the first time and wasn't sure how Cooper would be received. I felt like the mother of a kindi student about to send her precious child off for his first day at school. Will the other kids be kind? Will he make any friends? Will the kids like him as much as I do?

As is often the case, I need not have worried. Cooper held his own and I had numerous students milling around me after my sessions asking the question author's love to hear: "Where can I buy the book?"

It was a wonderful event, the students were fantastic and I had a great time.

During one session, I had a question from a student (Miriam) that I couldn't think of an answer for at the time and I promised to think about it and get back to her. The question was: "If you could be a character from any book, who would you be?"

I have been mulling over this ever since and I haven't yet been able to come up with a female character that I sincerely would want to be. This troubles me slightly.

If I look to my own books, I think I would want to be Sasha from A Strange Little Monster because she has a kind heart, but is also strong and courageous and true to herself. If I look elsewhere in Children's Literature, I guess I am partial to Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series - for similar reasons, and also because of her intelligence.

When I look to adult literature, I really can't get past Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. I love Atticus because of his honesty and integrity.

I'm sure there are plenty of wonderful characters out there that I have overlooked. Any ideas? (Thanks for the great question, Miriam.)

Tomorrow is the first day of Book Week, and to mark the week, I have set myself the task of writing a blog post about each school/library I visit. Book Week is exhausting at best, so I'm not sure if I will be up for the challenge, but I will give it my best shot.

Congrats to all the winners in the CBCA Book of the Year Awards - especially the wonderfully talented bunch from Walker Books : Glenda Millard, Rebecca Cool, Sally Murphy and Heather Potter. You rock, gals!

Happy Book Week everyone!

Get a Grip, Cooper Jones - Release Day

I may be on the other side of the world (Vancouver at the moment) but I couldn't let the release day of Get a Grip, Cooper Jones slip by without at least raising a glass of cyber-bubbles and saying "Good luck, Cooper!" with my cyber buddies.



I will be returning in a week or so - after a kayak and camping trip out of Vancouver Island - just in time for Book Week and a full program of school and library visits to help celebrate Cooper's release "for real".

Until then, cyber-celebrations will have to suffice.
So ... here's cheers!