17 Aug 2011 No Comments
I write novels for children, that’s what I write. Why? Because I love using my imagination! And how? Well … my first two books were published by commercial publishers (one here in Australia, the other in the UK). I self-published books 3 and 4 because my publisher went out of business, and books 5 and 6 [...]
11 Aug 2011 No Comments
I have just finished the first draft of the first book in my new children’s mystery series. It’s entitled Murder at Snotty Point: A Milo Harvey Mystery and I’ve written 22,000 words. But this is just the start. I always find that the first draft is the backbone of the story, where I decide on my characters, my settings [...]
06 Aug 2011 No Comments
And yes, I can hear the currawongs ‘tweeting’ outside my window, but that’s not what this is about … You know that old saying that ’things happen in threes’? Well, today is one of those days. Today I have accomplished three things and I want to share them with you. 1. Today I attended our local [...]
30 Jul 2011 No Comments
I’ve just started writing a new children’s novel, well actually it was going to be an adult novel but somehow it just became younger. And since they’re so much more fun to write anyway, why not? I can’t tell you what it is about yet as I’ve only just written the first 600 words. But [...]
22 Jul 2011 No Comments
A good friend of mine has recently blogged her 50 all time favourite Australian children’s and young adult books and what an amazing list it is! So I’ve decided to list my favourite children’s books as I wade through my library at home. Here are the first 15 in no particular order (well, except for the first one) [...]
17 Jul 2011 2 Comments
I guess a lot of people would assume that writers of children’s books have read every good children’s book ever written. But not me. You see I grew up in a musical family who read lots of sheet music but didn’t read much in the way of fiction. So I still read children’s books at [...]
10 Jul 2011 3 Comments
Today I finished the final draft of my children’s fantasy – 45,400 words! Along the way I’ve had input from some very special people, not the least of all my partner who doesn’t read a lot but loves to read mine. And now the hard work begins. Do I submit the manuscript to agents? To [...]
02 Jul 2011 No Comments
This morning I attended our monthly children’s writers’ meeting, another inspirational time of lively discussion, sharing of information and support. Each month we set ourselves tasks or goals to be completed by the following meeting. Most of the time we don’t do what we actually set out to do, but we always do something! With [...]
01 Jul 2011 No Comments
I have just spent a fantastically creative morning with a friend, helping her to design the layout and cover for her new children’s early reader book. We had a lot of fun spacing out the text on the pages and inserting the illustrations in various sizes and orientations. Then we worked on the cover and [...]
28 Jun 2011 1 Comment
Yesterday I achieved another milestone – I finished yet another draft of my children’s fantasy novel. At 45,000 words that is quite an accomplishment (if I say so myself). But this time,for the first time in my writing career, editing has been an absolute joy. I’ve never had so much fun writing and I have looked [...]