CBCA NSW State Conference

What an amazing couple of days. Terrific organisation. Wonderfully inspiring and entertaining speakers. Great company. Great fun. Congrats and thanks to all who were involved! I loved it, loved it, loved it!

The Three Ps of Publishing - Part 2

This week my Aussie Nibble, A Strange Little Monster, illustrated by Stephen Michael King, will be released. YAY! And this release provides me with my second example of the three Ps of Publishing at work.

This story started with a first line that just popped into my head:

"In all of Grotty Hollow, there was no stranger little monster than Sasha."

I had no idea where the line came from, but it immediately intrigued me and I wanted to know more about this strange little monster. What made her strange? How did she cope with her strangeness?

A Strange Little Monster started out as a picture book manuscript and I honestly felt that this was the "one" - the one that publishers were going to be falling over themselves to publish. I was sadly mistaken. I sent the manuscript to eight publishers, and eight publishers rejected it. (This was in 2002/2003.)

But I was not deterred! (Cue: PERSEVERANCE.) I reworked the manuscript as a chapter book, a short story, a reader ... I sent it back out into the world and again it was rejected. (And I was sorely dejected, I have to say.) So I put the manuscript in my bottom drawer where all lonely homeless manuscripts go, and got on with other projects.

Five years later (cue: PATIENCE), I stumbled across it quite by accident and had another read. Hey, I think this could work as an Aussie Nibble, I thought. I pulled out my previous chapter book version, and with clear eyes and five years further writing experience behind me, I could see its flaws - and there were many! I could also see just what it needed to work in this format. So I set to work, and as they say, the rest is history!

When I was a primary school teacher, come September/October of each school year, I often found myself worrying that my students weren't making enough progress. At this point, I would always go back and look at examples of their work from the beginning of the year, and nine times out of ten, I would discover that they had indeed made loads of progress.

I often feel this way with my writing. Am I progressing? Is my writing getting stronger? Am I doing enough to improve my craft? It is so hard to know and often I find that writing seems to be getting harder for me rather than easier. (I suspect this might be because I am being increasingly harder on myself.)

Fortunately, the rewriting of A Strange Little Monster really brought home to me that yes, my writing has benefited from the years of PRACTICE. All that writing and reading and thinking and workshopping and analysing and critiquing has paid off. Like my primary school students, I have, thankfully, progressed. When I looked at my original manuscript, five years on, I could see why it was rejected. It simply wasn't strong enough. It started off relatively strongly, but wobbled into a meandering middle and fell splat into a limp ending. And it was a wonderful experience for me to rework it to a point that it was accepted rather than rejected!

So the lesson for me with this book is to never give up and to continue to practise my craft: to read and read and read; and write and write and write. It is, I believe, the only path that leads to PUBLICATION.

Oh, and by the way, that opening line that I loved and adored - I gave it the chop! It didn't work for the Aussie Nibble chapter book genre.

The Three Ps of Publishing

From time to time I give workshops for aspiring authors. During these workshops, I often speak about the three Ps of publishing: Practice, Patience and Perseverance. Over the next few months I have three new books coming out - all that demonstrate the three Ps beautifully.

The first is my picture book You Wish Jellyfish. You Wish Jellyfish, illustrated by Lee Krutop, hits the bookshop shelves this week. This picture book has been a long time in the making - six years to be exact. Six years of PRACTICE, PATIENCE AND PESEVERANCE.

I started writing the story in mid 2004.

I first submitted it in February 2005.

It received its first rejection six weeks later.

Over the next twelve+ months I reworked the manuscript numerous times. I workshopped it with my writing buddies and reworked it some more. I submitted it to twelve publishers. Almost all replied with very positive comment and feedback, but no banana.

In November 2006 it was finally accepted by Koala Books. YAY! I almost didn't send it to Koala , because for some unknown reason, I thought the publisher, who had already published a couple of my books, wouldn't like it! Shows how little I know.

Next of course the manuscript was edited and reworked again and then began the search for an illustrator. Working in children's publishing, I know firsthand how long and difficult the task of finding the right illustrator can be and for You Wish, Jellyfish it wasn't until about May 2008 that I saw the first sample illustration from Lee Krutop.

It is now May 2010 and the book with Lee's beautifully bright illustrations is finally a reality.

I have seen it in a bookshop.

It has been sold to a Korean publisher.

And it has even received its first review in Junior Bookseller and Publisher Magazine.

Here is an excerpt: "... The wording is playful yet evocative, particularly when Jellyfish decribes to Mussel how 'sometimes the current took him where the sea washed warm and milky green over a garden of twisty coral,' and works best when read aloud, with the refrain of 'You wish, Jellyfish' sure to be a hit with the little ones. This is a gorgeous underwater road trip for ages two and up about accepting who you are and looking at life from a different perspective." Clare Hingston, Bookseller Younger Sun Bookshop, Yarraville.

And, heck, what a classic example of the three Ps of publishing! Time to crack open the bubbly. Cheers!

The Firefighters - Paperback and Big Book

The Firefighters, illustrated by the wonderful Donna Rawlins is now out in paperback and big book. The big book is particularly gorgeous - wonderful to see Donna's art gloriously larger than life. Saw a lovely display of the paperback today at Better Read than Dead (Newtown) with a recommendation and a cheeky note about how Donna and I can often be found hanging outside the local fire station! Made me laugh. (How did they know?)

Classroom ideas have been updated to include big book activities and can be found by clicking on this link. (And also at the Walker Books Australia website.) Click here for a Firefighters' colouring in sheet.

How gorgeous is this?

This is the cover for my Aussie Nibble, A Strange Little Monster, out in June 2010. Pretty gorgeous, isn't it? Stephen Michael King is a bit of a genius, don't you think?

I have only seen his roughs for the internal illustrations so far - but they made me laugh out loud! He has created some pretty zany monsters for Grotty Hollow. Nothing like the monsters I imagined - but, oh, so much better!

Can't wait to share this one with kids.

Clocking up the Hours

For the past week or so, I have been on holidays from my "day job" and have been busy working on some major revisions to my middle grade novel To the Feral Tree. I have to say, that I have been thoroughly enjoying the process and have been really proud of myself, especially with the amount of energy and focus I have been able to maintain each and every day.

I'm not sure whether it is the change in routine, or whether it is because I have a deadline and a limited amount of "writerly" time to make that deadline, but I have been hammering away at the keyboard for between 8 - 14 hours each day for the past nine days (plus a few similar random days over the Christmas / New Year period). I have to tell you, this is some kind of record for me. I am the one who usually manages an hour or three, then suddenly remembers that she must mop that floor, or ring her sister, or get some groceries ...

I think it was Edison that said "success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration". If this is the case, then I have certainly put in the perspiration for this project, here's hoping the inspiration doesn't let the team down.

Nevertheless, it is back to the "day job" and I will be hopping onto the 7.10 train tomorrow, secure in the knowledge that the revised manuscript is already in my editor's inbox. Yay!

And the best part is, I am all fired up and itching to get on to my next project. Double yay!

Confessions of a Scaredy-cat

Okay, so last post sounded like I was at the confessional! Sorry! But thanks for the comments / emails of support and understanding.

Writing is a scary business. For all of us. With each word we put on the page for others to read, we reveal a little of ourselves. With each book that hits the bookshop shelves, we put ourselves and our work out there to be judged. Scary, indeed.

I still haven't written a word for the WIP. But it's been more because of an extremely hectic schedule rather than because of fear. But I did have time to reflect on what exactly I was scared of.

Summary of Fears:

• That I wasn't up to it. That the story I was trying to tell was more than I can handle.
• That my writing lacked elegance.
• That my writing was flat and dull.
• That my characters were two dimensional and boring.
• That my story was boring.
• That the story that had excited me months ago when I started writing wasn't nearly as exciting or unique or interesting as I had hoped/dreamed/envisioned.
• That with my current work commitments, I didn't have the time or the energy to become immersed enough in my characters' heads to do the story justice.

And there's more. But none of these fears are new to me. I go through periods of self-doubt with every book I write. And I'm sure these types of doubts and fears are pretty typical for many writers. It is all part of the territory. And as writers we have to suck up all that negativity and get on with the job. (It helps to have wonderful writing buddies to help you out of the abyss though.)

So Suzie, go listen to your own advice, and get cracking!