Book Week Fun

Here are some pics from BOOK WEEK. Courtesy of the wonderful Jean Saxby, T/L at Galston Public. Thanks, Jean!

Firefighting fun!

My volunteer firefighters are pretty tired after putting out the fire at Lulu's Ice-creamery.

Teacher / Librarian, Jean Saxby and moi.
Look at the great FREAKY poster on the window.

All worth it

To avoid having to drive two hours each way two days in a row, I shouted myself to a night in a hotel in Pennant Hills last night. It was a good move. I had noble intentions of using the solitude of my lonely room to write long into the night. Instead, I flaked. The bed was the hardest bed I have ever slept in, but it didn't seem to matter - I slept like a baby.

So this morning, I was ready and rearing to go, especially as Galston School was now only about twenty minutes away. Yay!

The kids at Galston love their stories and I had a ball sharing mine with them. Freaky again starred and so did my "Adventure Story". Question time was a blast with hands shooting in the air and kids almost begging to be picked - many having to save their questions until lunchtime.

I always hope that just a tiny bit of my enthusiasm for writing will rub off when I am doing these visits, so I was thrilled when one kindi teacher told me how inspired and excited the kids were to write after my session. One student in particular responded really well and wrote not only with increased confidence and enthusiasm - she also wrote far, far more than she usually does. Ahhh ... stories like this make it all worthwhile.

Bankstown Library tomorrow.

Freaky - the star of the show

Another day, another school. This time Sacred Heart, Pymble, where I was greeted with much enthusiasm and excitement. (They even had a parking spot reserved for me!) And, oh, what a gorgeous library - I started tingling the moment I walked through the door!

Book Week and school visits are such a great opportunity to see what works, and what doesn't - to really get an understanding of what makes your readership tick. And I am always amazed at how different every school you visit is - how different the reactions are. One school might fall about laughing over a story or anecdote, where the next school may barely crack a smile over the same material. What interests one group enormously, may seemingly wash over the next.

I find this intriguing and such a useful exercise in discovering what elements of my books appeal most widely. This year, the "star" book - the one that has had the most kids talking at the most schools - is Freaky. There seems to be a lot of excitement surrounding the possibility of a story containing giant spiders. The kids at Sacred Heart certainly followed this trend and seemed to really enjoy meeting my very hairy pet spider, Charlie!

Thanks, Sacred Heart - I had so much fun sharing my stories with you all.

Tomorrow - Galston.

Freaky Interview

Interested in a Freaky interview? I have been interviewed by Sally Murphy - author and reviewer - about the writing of Freaky and also about writing for series in general. Thanks, Sally!

Catch the interview at: http://sallymurphy.blogspot.com/ and also http://aussiereviews.blogspot.com/

It's a gloriously wet Sunday afternoon here, perfect for curling up in bed with my laptop and working on WIP. So back to it.

Ciao
PS: Watch out for Sally's new book out next month - Pearl Verses the World. It is gorgeous.

First Freaky Reviews

I received a lovely surprise last Friday. On my doorstep was a plastic sleeve with a letter and "reviews" of Freaky from the Year 6 at my local primary school. The teacher, who has been a wonderful supporter of my books, read Freaky to her class in a couple of days. She wrote that: "the children forced me to read the last five chapters before Dictation this morning! I agreed though 'cause I couldn't put it down!"

There is no better validation than responses like these - it truly is what keeps you writing and believing in yourself, especially in those dark - and often too frequent - times when you start doubting yourself and wondering what the heck you are doing! So thanks, Year 6 and Mrs B! You have helped charge my enthusiasm and resolve and helped me add 2,000+ words to me latest novel this week. Yay!

Here is a sample of some of the kids' comments: (Sorry I couldn't post them all Year 6! They were all so great.)

"... Best book ever!" Mitchell
"... The story was great and chilling to the bone. It seemed so real. Please write more." Aidan
"... I loved this story. It is really FREAKY!" Emily
"I loved this novel because of how Jayden isn't used to the country ... It was an excellent book." Ella
"The novel Freaky was fantastic. It had everything a kid wants in a book: thorns, skateboards, computer games, spiders, fire and lots more! I recommend this book to anyone from the ages of 8 - 15." Thilo
"I loved Freaky because it's so funny and exciting ..." Sophie
"I hate spiders and it gave me the chills when the spiders came out ... I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to reading more of Sue Whiting's books!" Nadine.
"My favourite part was when Jayden fell off his board and landed on a cactus. It made me have goose bumps ... I'd recommend it to anyone." Zoe

New blogger. New book.

HI.

I have resisted the world of blogging for a very long time - being fearful that blogging would eat up my already limited and precious writing time.(Translation: Give me something else to waste time on while procrastinating about my writing!)

But the time has come. I can resist no longer. So here I am.

And here is my new book: Freaky (Walker Books - Lightning Strikes Series).

The reason I have chosen today to enter the blogosphere.

However, I am already very frustrated as the book cover is YELLOW and no matter what I do, it keeps uploading as BLUE? HELP! What have I done wrong?
Sue the hapless new blogger