 On the eve of Library Lover’s Day (14 February), I thought it was a good time to reflect on the process of making my latest picture book, Yay! It’s Library Day. Yay! It’s Library Day is the second book that has come out of the Wombat Books Illustration Challenge. The competition was the brainchild of Wombat owner and publisher, Rochelle Manners. I still remember the phone call I received from Rochelle in 2014 when she asked me to be involved in the program. I was driving through busy, inner city Melbourne on author tour, trying to navigate my way to my next storytime visit at a preschool. When Rochelle rang, I pulled the car over and sat talking to her for some time about the concept she’d developed. Across the road from me was an apartment building covered top-to-toe in greenery – a vertical garden. Rochelle’s idea was to create a competition for children to enter their illustrations in and which would result in their work being published in a real, hard copy picture book. This would not only engage the community in Wombat Books and my work but would also provide a tangible achievement for budding your artists. Rochelle has always been interested in unearthing new talents and the challenge was the perfect vehicle for her to foster children’s illustration work. I was tasked with developing a picture book story that could be illustrated by multiple children. I thought long and hard about the story that I would create, realising that it would have to provide a wide variety in scenes because each illustrator’s page or spread would be very different to the one before it. The story couldn’t necessarily focus on one character because each child would draw that character differently. It was clearly going to be more effective to have different scenes within the book that young illustrators could draw. The idea of setting the story in a zoo came to me. I love animals as most people would know from the books that I write, children love and are familiar with zoos, and they hold a wide variety of animal characters that could be drawn by the challenge entrants. Quite quickly after developing my setting, the concept of a boy called Ned chasing his ball through the zo followed. A rhyme about Ned taking his ball to the zoo and losing it, with all the animals joining in to play with the ball formed. I worked on the text and polished it ready to send to Wombat. That story, Zoo Ball, became the basis for the first Illustration Challenge. We received several hundred entries from children across Australia and once the book was released I conducted a tour of several cities launching the books at schools where the winning illustrators attended.  Launching Zoo Ball with winning cover artist, Alyssa Teoh Due to the success of the first challenge, Rochelle asked me to create a second story. It was back to the drawing board to consider what would work for a variety of scenes once more. This time, I lighted upon the idea of children visiting a library and enjoying the many, treasured books that would be held there. The story would focus on books, literacy, libraries and, of course, children’s imaginations as they interpret the stories that are being read to them. I’m not usually an author who writes in rhyme, but again this one flowed out as a rhyming text. Considering that it was the second book in the ‘series’ that wasn’t such a bad thing. It all fit nicely. The rhyme also provided a jaunty rhythm for the story. Again, once the manuscript was polished and ready, Wombat opened the competition up to entrants. This time, we received over six hundred entries, a huge testament to the growth in the competition and the success of the first challenge. Between the team at Wombat any myself, we spent many long hours choosing the winning entrants. It was incredibly difficult to pick from the deep pool of talent and I really wish we could have included every child who had entered. It’s not only the talent that strikes you with these children’s entries, it’s the effort they go to and the passion they have for their artwork. Yay! It’s Library Day was released on 1 February. It’s a beautifully produced book and it’s already receiving great reviews – including those from teacher-librarians, which is especially gratifying. The book has a lot to offer, obviously with its focus on literacy and the imagination, but also on the importance and value we should be placing on libraries. In a world where libraries and bookstores are shutting down or being reduced or restricted in their resources, where visit/borrowing statistics are dropping, and where teacher-librarians at schools are losing their jobs, it’s time that we take a good, hard, long look at what libraries can offer us and the generations to come. We need to focus on and fight for what’s good in the world. We need to hold onto our books, read them to children and use all of the wonderful resources (including story time sessions and cosy reading nooks!) that libraries can offer us. If you’ve not checked out Yay! It’s Library Day or Zoo Ball before, you can find them at www.wombatbooks.com.au. Every page in each of the books offers something new as we see different illustrators featured throughout and, of course, that wide variety in scenes. There are so many details and a myriad of hidden treasures on each page for young readers to discover. Yay! It’s Library Day is a celebration of all libraries and it’s also the celebration of the achievements of young Australians. Every illustrator featured in the book can be proud of themselves. Because libraries are undergoing such straightened circumstances, a coalition of Australian school library associations has formed to advocate nationally for the reinvigoration of school libraries. You can read their informative letter below. I urge you to get involved in the campaign in March called School Libraries Matter! if you can. Happy Library Lovers Day – please celebrate it and support it. TTFN Aleesah  Internal artwork for Yay! It's Library Day Dear Aleesah,
You may not be aware that across Australia, many school libraries are being stripped of their resources and qualified library staff. At the same time, some other schools are investing heavily in their library staffing and resourcing. Most parents have no idea that this is happening. They assume that there is a qualified teacher librarian supporting their child’s reading and research skills. In the face of Australia’s falling ranking in educational outcomes among OECD countries and rapidly changing expectations for the future workforce, a coalition of Australian school library associations has formed to advocate nationally for the reinvigoration of school libraries. We believe that all children need excellent school library services delivered by qualified staff to get the digital and information literacy skills required to succeed in the 21st century. Please join our (fast-growing) list of supporters working to provide opportunities and protect the well-being of our children:
We plan to launch a national campaign in March 2018 called School Libraries Matter! The campaign will target parents with the goal of informing them about school libraries and sparking them into action to advocate at their child’s school. We are focussing our message strongly on the detriment to research skills and digital literacy caused by resources being stripped from school libraries because these are of high concern to parents, and they are part of teacher librarians’ specialist skills. Things like:
Qualified library staff also assist with:
How you can help:
Take a look at pp. 14-15 of this document for links to research supporting our claims: https://www.education.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/916301/School-Libraries-21st-Century.pdf Please let me know how you would like to be involved. We would be absolutely delighted to have your support in this campaign! In hopeful anticipation and with kind regards from, Hajnalka Molloy (on behalf of) Holly Godfree www.schoollibrariesmatter.org.au (Website currently being built) Member of the School Library Coalition
Teacher Librarian and AEUACT member Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays Lake Tuggeranong College 123 Cowlishaw Street Tuggeranong ACT 2900 Phone: (02) 6207 5713 or 6207 6856 holly.godfree@ed.act.edu.au
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My teenage boys love to play with words, to dissect them and subvert them. They seem to create a litany of corrupted words and phrases at an alarming rate that they alone know the meaning of. Often, the words or word variations will spring from the pop culture that they consume avidly: from YouTube videos, movies, memes, video games and clips. At other times, they’re inspired by funny or silly things that happen at school or at home. Tongue-tied, blurting, stuttering, embarrassing, or frustrating situations that have caused someone to accidentally say a word that never was – and this is the ‘new’ word they hang on to for months and months as they play with it and repeat it like a mantra until it evolves into something with meaning and portent that goes far beyond the original intent. My father, God love him, with four kids to discipline got so frustrated with one of my sisters one day that he couldn’t say her name properly What resulted was a twisted version of several of our names put together that sounded like, ‘Mah-blur’. We never let him live that one down and repeated that for years afterwards. When I was a teenager, one of our slang words was ‘blood’. Okay, this is a normal word, it’s in the dictionary, and we all know what it is and what it means. But as teenagers we subverted and changed the meaning. Blood = Good/Great/Awesome in our books. So, if someone had created a beautiful artwork, we’d say, ‘That’s blood’, which meant that it was fantastic. It was one of the highest compliments you could give anyone. If you’d just won a race at the athletics carnival and beaten your PB and someone said to you, ‘Well done, that’s blood’ you would have known that they were impressed. ‘Blood good’ was almost like a clarifier and it meant that something was very, very good. This confused teachers and adults no-end and only inspired us to use it more. The meaning could be changed slightly, too. ‘I’m blood going swimming’ meant that you were definitely going swimming. Weird, yes, but we thought we were so clever. We were forming our own language that adults weren’t a part of. And there’s nothing better as a teenager than excluding adults from the Club of Youth. You’ve heard stories of babies, and often twins, developing their own language. I think the need and desire to develop our own language extends beyond babyhood. Words are regularly being added to the dictionary, especially those that relate to the technology field. My eldest, Blake, loves to make new words and to play with words and phrases. He loves sounds and tones. He seems obsessed with word play and uses much of his word subversions to create humour. I only wish he’d use this cleverness with words more often in his writing assignments! Blake can recite the LEGO Ninjago and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme songs (and others) at a rapid rate in an incredibly funny voice. Our youngest, three-year-old Finn, watches these shows ad nauseum and even though Blake doesn’t sit in the room watching or listening to the shows with Finn, the theme songs have clearly gone into his brain somehow … only to come out in a rapid-fire repeat at multiple times throughout the day. One of the many, many slang words the kids have come up with in the last few months is ‘Yeet’. I think that’s how it’s spelt. I have no dictionary entry or definition to help me as I can’t find it anywhere. Have you heard your children use it? Please let me know if you’re aware of other usages, definitions or spellings! In essence, yeet means to throw or hurl something, usually with great force and in quite a humorous way. The boys have used it so much within their own peer circles that everyone now knows what it means and on occasion my husband will use the word too. It’s entered popular vernacular, at least in our household.  Teenage boys are a delight, a challenge and an inspiration. The other slang/subverted usage of a word we've seen enter the house lately is 'potato'. This term can apply to anyone who is uncoordinated or a little ungainly, or to the action of being uncoordinated or ungainly. Such as 'that was a potato throw'. So, next time you trip over or throw an off curve-ball, you'll be able to tell yourself that you're a potato.
Interestingly, the other usage of 'potato' is a little more obscure and relates to film-making. If someone shoots an iPhone or iPad video that's shaky, moving around a lot and generally of poor quality, it's referred to as 'potato quality filming'. This is not a compliment! Go figure. I'm laughing as I write this by the way, because the entire concept is quite ridiculous and of course only makes sense to the young. And typing that makes me feel so old! If nothing else, my boys do make me laugh... The question is, to get the YA voice right, do we use popular vernacular, colloquialisms and slang? It’s tempting, isn’t it? It feels right to do this at times, too. We’re trying to nail the modern teenager’s voice in our novel, why wouldn’t we use the actual words that they’re likely to use? Popular (and publisher) opinion usually tells us to steer clear of using slang, however. Words like ‘cool’ have been around for years and authors sometimes do include these. They’re a little bit more classic and have longevity, although, at times they sound and feel dated, too. Not many teenagers say ‘cool’ these days, but adults writing YA books still like to slip them in now and then. The problem with slang is that it can be very localised (although with the advent of YouTube and social media platforms for young children, I have also slang words spread like wildfire across Australia) and they don’t stick around for long. They become replaced, dated and forgotten quickly as children move onto the next entertainingly subversive word. Children and teenagers are nothing if not fickle! As it takes a long time to write, edit, submit then get your manuscript accepted, printed and on the shelves, by the time that book’s out one or two years after the inclusion of your little slang gem, it’s likely that word has been long forgotten and is now so dated that it’s become – sadly – ‘uncool’ to use it any longer. The shame! So, for the longevity and widespread popularity of your book, best to avoid most slang words. Cling onto a few pearls if you feel you must, or if they truly add to your story or characterisation, or if you’re writing a novel or screenplay where one of the character invents their own language (aka Nell by Jodie Foster). For the most part, though, if you want your readers to understand the true meaning of your words and to think that you’re a cool, hip, blood good author, then you’ll stick to the standard, regular, everyday words that we all know. Happy writing Aleesah  I set myself some New Year’s goals. Hey, I know. Plenty of people do. And I read an article that said most people don’t stick to their New Year’s goals. Way to go on motivational techniques there! But forget what everyone says. It’s not too late to set your own New Year’s goals. You don’t even have to call them New Year’s goals. Call them any type of goals you’d like to. Call them year-long goals, monthly goals, weekly goals. Break them down into small bites so you can manage and achieve them. Whatever helps you follow your success path. Every day is a new day that provides a new way to start fresh. My favourite all-time motivational quote is: If you have made mistakes …. there is always another chance for you … you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down. Mary Pickford (1893 – 1979), American actress That quote is pinned up near my desk. Has been for years. And I truly believe in it. We all have a new chance every day of our lives. So, what were my New Year’s goals? Okay, I’m going to be honest. I wanted to quit alcohol, quit sugar and start moving more. I spend a lot of time at my desk. Hours and hours each day when I’m not on author tour. Sitting at my desk writing and creating is the thing I love doing most in the world. But it’s not great for my health. You’ve heard it before, I’m sure, that sitting is the new smoking. Combine all day sitting with a penchant for a glass of wine and some Lindt chocolate at night … and, well, I wasn’t doing myself any favours. I’m not one to talk about personal, private goal setting much. I don’t like telling people that I’m on a diet to lose weight or on a mission to get fit. Who wants to know that stuff? And what if I fail? Agh! The dreaded ‘fail’ word. But, I want to be honest with you and hopefully it will help motivate you to achieve a special goal of your own. It’s now been twenty-nine days and I’m still working hard to reset patterns of behaviour in terms of diet and exercise. I still want to take the easy way out and not get up at the crack of dawn to go for a walk or a swim or that difficult yoga class that makes every muscle ache. With a mummy-obsessed three-year-old who won’t let me out of his sight during his waking hours (and three other bigger kids to run around after) the early mornings suit my family. That's simply the only time I can do this 'moving' that I need to do. If I haven’t pulled an all-nighter writing at my desk, that is... Anyhoo! I am determined and I will commit to this new way of eating and exercising for the next year and beyond. I want to be a new me! I’m already feeling better about myself. I’m also feeling stronger. And I’m looking better. I’ll keep checking in and letting you know how I’m going throughout the year. I’m in this for the long haul and I’m loving it! Aside from the personal goals, I do have plenty of writing/career goals too and I’m working hard on those, with a focus on novel writing. I have a middle grade manuscript with an agent who is currently trying to secure a publisher for it. I’ve submitted a Series Proposal and the first instalment in that series to a publisher. I’m editing a middle grade historical fiction novel with the intention of completing it ready for submission by June. I’ve been asked to write the fourth book in my Little Witch Series by the publisher, Big Sky. Exciting – now back to the planning board! And I’ve started planning a new YA novel, with ideas that are slowly crystalizing in my head and on paper. So, there, I said it. I wrote it. There’s no running away from it now. Those are my big writing and personal plans for the year. Let’s hope I make it! And if you’d like to follow my lead and set some personal and career goals for yourself, go ahead. Write them down. Plan your week/month/year to work out how you’re going to achieve them, then go for it. Happy writing Aleesah   I’m a chronic insomniac. I have a problem that seems to have no solution. My youngest, a three-year-old, has co-slept with my husband and me for many years now. Three in the bed isn’t always conducive to a great night’s rest. Top that off with hot, humid Queensland nights, an inbuilt mechanism for light sleeping and a brain that clicks ON (BING!) at the slightest awakening and can’t seem to switch off for hours afterwards … and you have a recipe for disaster for when it comes to getting a sound sleep. It seems to be my curse! Luckily, I’m able to use my insomnia and the burning of that good old midnight oil to excellent use. Writing while the house is quiet and dark is a favourite and regular past time of mine. Many of my stories and books have been planned and written in the wee small hours. In a quiet house and without interruption, it’s easy to let those creatives juices flow. Ash Rover: Keeper of the Phoenix, one of my favourite novels that I’ve written came to me in the middle of the night in a hotel room in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney. I was spending a long weekend there with my husband and my first two children (Blake and Riley) when they were very young, about 3 years old and 18 months old respectively. We were all sleeping in the same room and I woke about 12am with an idea for a new story running through my mind. The idea wouldn’t leave me alone, so I went to the ensuite bathroom, taking my A4 notebook with me. For the next four hours, I sat, wrapped in a blanket, in that stark, tiled bathroom scrawling down the plan to that story. Characters, their names, the setting, the plot, the villains – everything – every little chapter detail came to me. All I could do was try to keep writing as fast as I could to get it all down before it was lost in the ether. I ended up with pages and pages of material and the story itself, including action scenes and dialogue, even started forming. As soon as I got home from that mini holiday, I began typing up the notes and getting the bones of the story down. It took several months to write, edit and polish the story, but because I’d planned it so thoroughly, the book seemed to flow out of me. To this day, I don’t know where it all came from, except that it was a product of my imagination. Maybe instead of dreaming the story up in my sleep, I’d been having a wakeful dream to create it. The book (and main character) wasn’t originally called Ash Rover, by the way. My hero was Squiggly Greenmeadow. The image of him popped into my head as a boy with curly blond hair, hence the ‘Squiggly’ name (curly hair = squiggly to my mind). The publisher suggested I change that part of the story, but everything else held. My young readers have always loved that book and I still receive lots of fan mail about it. I guess sometimes it’s good to be an insomniac. When my three-year-old or my worries keep me up at night, I try to distract my mind from its incessant ticking by thinking about my next book. Sometimes I’ll plan it out in my head, writing the lines to a chapter over and over, perfecting and polishing them until they flow beautifully. Sometimes, I plot the key points in a new book I’m working on. Sometimes I scrawl notes in the semi-darkness on a notebook by my bed. And other times, I just have to jump up, go to my office and start typing on my computer until the early hours of the morning. Right now, it’s 2:18am and yes, I can’t sleep so I’m sitting here writing. Sharing. Good thing for it, too, because a few moments ago I received an email from a US agent who I’d queried, asking me to send them the first ten pages of a new MG fantasy novel I’ve written. Most likely it won’t lead to anything, or maybe it’s a sign. I don’t know yet. We’ll see. At the very least it means I can reply to the agent while they’re still at their desk too. Wherever my insomnia and my waking dreams take me, I go. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Happy writing Aleesah   There's nothing that gives me greater pleasure than seeing fledgling authors making their dreams come true. I remember well the feelings I experienced when I received my first picture book acceptance with an Australian publisher. It was a dance-around-the-house moment and whenever I hear of a new author scoring their own publication deal, I can completely understand the feelings of joy and elation that they must be experiencing. That's why I'm absolutely thrilled to share with you the story of Karen Hendriks, an emerging author based in NSW who has used our mentoring services and has now scored herself a picture book deal with Empowering Resources. Over the past twelve months, Karen has taken her career by the horns and committed on so many levels to making her dreams come through. Karen's passion and commitment are two huge keys to her success to date and I'm sure they will carry her through the exciting years to come. I hope you'll find Karen's interview both inspiring and encouraging for your own journey. Whether you're published or not, I think we can all take a page out of Karen's book and learn from her tenacity and desire to succeed. Enjoy!  Hi, Karen, thanks for joining us today. Can you please tell our readers how long you've been writing for? I finally committed to writing picture stories a year ago. It’s something that I have always wanted to do but until recently I gave into the fear factor and a feeling of vulnerability. I’ve never really had the time to write but, now that I’ve committed myself, there’s no turning back. I feel a need to write and it won’t leave me alone. When I was at university a very long time ago, a lecturer told me that I should write and it sort of stuck in the back of my mind. Why did you choose to write picture books? I’ve been a kindy teacher and my go-to tools were always picture books. My expertise was teaching reading. I’m a Reading Recovery trained teacher. My students and I fell in love with stories and magic and all sorts of wonderful ideas. Through picture books, we explored so many things beyond the world that my students knew. I wanted to become a creator of this picture book magic too. When you talk to an adult about picture books and they share their favourite story with you, their face transforms and you can still see the child within. The child inside us all is still there peeping out. One picture book can really change a life. I have gifted a book to a child who really had no possessions and the power of that one book was so intense. It’s a matter of finding the right book for the right child. Picture books really do light learning fires; they are the sparks. Best of all is that emotional bond and the intimacy of sharing something together that picture books create.  What's your favourite thing about writing? My favourite thing about writing... This might seem weird but it’s the freedom and happiness that it brings. I love the unexpected things it brings to your day, that just happen to pop in unexpectedly and never would if you weren’t a writer. At the moment, I’m trying to build creative connections in my thinking. It’s confronting when you sit and think, What am I going to write about today?and nothing comes. But then other days it‘s there. Writing allows you to dig deep and explore yourself and your thoughts. There’s nowhere to hide when you write so it challenges you all the time. And the most challenging? I know I have original and creative ideas but it’s developing my writer’s voice in the best way to share them that challenges me most. Some days you do wonder if you’re ever going to get there.  How has a mentorship with Greenleaf Press helped you?
Greenleaf Press is like a huge magnifying glass that passes over your writing. It highlights all those little gremlins hiding in the words. But it’s so much more than that too. I’ve been mentored by Aleesah Darlison through Greenleaf. Her attention to detail, her strong sense of story and her knowledge of story voice and the flow of the writing has been very helpful. As a fledgling writer, it seems like Aleesah can see your story through both the eyes of a reader and a writer at the same time. I think most of all I appreciate how the advice is given so positively because as a beginner writer you’re so fragile and have so much to learn. When is your book due for release? I wasn’t really sure when I should tell everyone. I’ve been sitting on my hands all year as I thought everybody will expect a book tomorrow and that’s not the case. It’s a waiting game but a very exciting one and it still doesn’t feel real. My fingers and toes are crossed for next February/March. The book is called Feathers and will be released through Empowering Resources. It’s a story of loss and hope and, of course, feathers. What are you looking forward to most of all once your book comes out? This is a hard one, but I hope the book’s message touches reader’s hearts and gives them comfort in some small way. Also, I look forward to being able to give a copy of the book to some very special children who were part of the inspiration for the book and I hope that they feel empowered by that gift. Thanks for sharing your success with us Karen, we'll look forward to hearing more about Feathers - and sharing more news about the book with our readers - as we draw closer to your publication date. Good luck with it all! TTFN Aleesah  Today, I'm giving a recap of an experience I had while on author tour. I hope you enjoy the story. People often ask me what’s it like doing author tours. “Do you enjoy travelling?” they will ask. “You must have so much fun. It must be wonderful.” And of course it is. Touring the country, meeting your young fans, talking about books, performing and entertaining and making people happy is amazing. There’s nothing quite like it and it’s the author dream we all have and all hold dear to our hearts. But it’s not all a bed of roses. In between getting to those uplifting events where kids are clamouring for your autograph, I think any seasoned author will tell you that organising and conducting a tour requires an incredible amount time, energy and commitment. School visits don’t just happen. And I’m not just talking about the work that goes into it from the presenter’s point of view. Have you ever stopped to think about the incredible amount of time and energy it takes a busy teacher-librarian on top of their ordinary day to organise an author visit? They are often the unsung heroes in day in day out. We, as presenters, receive the applause and accolades. The TLs rarely get a thank you. In future Greenleaf Press Newsletter, we’ll be trying to share some information from the point of view of some of the amazing TLs we work with. For now, here’s a snippet of what was involved from the author’s point of view to get me on the ground on the NSW South Coast/ACT recently. The day went something like this…  I have four children, three of whom attend school. The three-year-old, Finn, is at home with me most of the time as he’s only in daycare two days a week. I do an awful lot of my work with him sitting on my lap. After the school drop off, I worked at my desk then took Finn out to run some errands, collect the mail from the post office and buy a Batman Superhero outfit (for Finn not me). We then came home, had lunch, vacuumed. Then it was time for me to do more work at my desk. With Finn on my lap. Again. Finn will read, draw (usually scribbling over my To-Do-List) and watch YouTube videos on my lap. He’s great at swiping that screen. At two-thirty, my husband left work early and came home to take Finn and distract him from the fact that I was leaving. It’s always a tearful farewell. Not just for my husband but for Finn as well (jokes). Separation anxiety is the worst thing for a mother!  I did a radio interview at 3pm, got changed, threw my suitcases into the back of the car. Then I drove an hour to Brisbane airport so I could catch a plane to Canberra. In fact, I wasn’t trying to get to Canberra in the first instance. I actually had to get to the NSW South Coast – Moruya to be specific – before I would then return to Canberra for school, library and writers’ centre talks for the rest of the week. Getting from the QLD Sunshine Coast to the NSW South Coast isn’t easy. Australia is a huge country and flights to smaller places aren’t always straightforward. The quickest way, which wasn’t quick at all, was to drive an hour to Brisbane then fly to Canberra then drive another two hours to the South Coast. When I reached Brisbane Airport, I parked my car at AIRPARK then caught the shuttle to the terminal. I checked in, went through the scanners then set up in the airport doing work on my laptop while enjoying some Vietnamese rice paper rolls. Yum. I waited and worked some more (the plane was delayed) then finally boarded the plane and set out to Canberra. The plane landed at 9pm, I waited for my luggage to finally appear then scurried out of the airport only to discover that it was zero degrees outside. Yikes! That’s quite a shock to the system for a Queenslander wearing sandals. I layered myself up in every item of clothing I’d brought with me, which wasn’t a lot because books are heavy and they take up most of my luggage allowance. Here’s a mental picture of the glamorous (not) author for you: Summery blue floral print pants, black shirt, black bolero jacket, long burgundy wavy pattern coat over the top and a blue check print scarf. Oh, and white sandals. Thankfully, there weren’t any people ahead of me at the car hire counter. I’m not a fan of lines. I took the keys and headed to the hire car in the carpark, spotting Kim Beazley along the way then headed off. Brush with fame! Of course, when you’re on author tour, I’d suggest that you always be prepared to expect the unexpected. I’d never driven the road from Canberra to Moruya before – especially not in the thick of night – and I soon discovered that there’s lots of fog in that part of the world. In some places, the fog was so thick that I couldn’t see more than five metres in front of the car and I had to drive very, very slowly. There were animals on death-wishes running across the road in front of me and then, well, then I hit the multitude of hairpin bends coming down from the mountains to the coast. I don’t think I’ve ever navigated so many hairpins in my life. To top it off, the radio reception was scratchy, sometimes non-existent, and because my mobile is with Vodafone, there was absolutely no phone coverage. I was on SOS for ages.  At one point, I was laughing to myself at the state of my situation. Thank goodness my car didn’t break down. The things I get myself into…
Note to self: If you don’t like driving, you really shouldn’t do regional author tours. By the time I arrived at my room, it was 11:40pm and not surprisingly I was wired from the nine hours of travel, the last two hours of which were spent tightly gripping my steering wheel through thick fog and winding roads. I eventually fell asleep at one am and was up again by seven-thirty preparing for the big day ahead. The day was awesome, by the way, they usually are. The rest of the week I spent in Canberra was also wonderful and I connected with so many children and authors. Being on author tour is always, always worth it and it's also always an adventure. Like I said, be prepared for anything! TTFN Aleesah  Today, we have our very first author interview. Now, this isn't an interview with just anyone. This is an interview with someone who is in the throes of literally making their lifelong dream come true. Many of us have fantasised about the time when we would have our first book published, our name on that front cover and when we could finally hold our head up proudly and sing to the world, "I'm a published author. I've made it!" Many of us have dreamed of this moment from the time we were children. Today's interview is with an emerging author named Ashling Kwok who is taking those very first exciting and exhilarating steps to seeing her dream come true. Over the next few months, Ashling's life will transform. As her writing mentor, and having worked with her on a number of manuscripts, I can certainly attest to her talent, passion, drive and commitment to succeed. She has everything it takes and I'm thrilled and honoured that she chose me as a mentor. I'm so very pleased that Ashling is making her dreams come true and I look forward to watching her progress through her journey to becoming a published author. This girl is on her way. All my best Aleesah  Hi Ashling, thanks for stopping by. Can you please let our readers know how long you've been writing for?
I wrote my first picture book when I was fourteen. It was called Benny’s New Bicycle and was written on a typewriter and had stick figure drawings. Luckily, my writing has improved over the years because my illustrator abilities have not. Why did you choose to write picture books? I choose to write picture books because I love watching children’s faces light up when they get to the end of a story. I've always read to my children at bedtime and loved how a good picture book would build anticipation and give a contented ending. I also love images and watching how both elements intertwine to create a story. What's your favourite thing about writing? Where do I start? I love the storytelling aspect. I love the way readers learn. Writing is my stress release and my frustration all rolled into one. When I write, I escape to a faraway land where nothing but words surrounds me. And the most challenging? The most challenging thing would be when a story just won’t come together. You know what you want to say but you can’t find the words. A lovely writer once told me that you need to walk away because the story will brew even when you don’t know it is. I know this technique works because one day, the ending that I tried so hard to find just appeared. How has a mentorship with Greenleaf Press helped you? My mentorship with Greenleaf Press has changed my life. I have sent manuscripts to editors before but Greenleaf is different. Aleesah Darlison sees things that no one else sees. She picks up on every issue that a writer who is too close to their work misses. She's also incredibly supportive and offers great advice regarding publishers and the submissions process. I can’t thank Aleesah enough for her help. Thanks Ashling, but you have to be commended for your great ideas, your tenacity and your hard work. It's wonderful to see it starting to pay off for you! So... when is your first ever picture book due for release?! I have just signed the contract so I’m guessing it will be mid-2018. Fantastic. Please keep us updated. And what are you looking forward to most of all once your book comes out? I’m looking forward to hearing from readers who love the book. I’m looking forward to sharing it with children and most importantly I’m hoping that I continue to publish more as it's all I’ve ever wanted to do. Awesome, thanks for your time Ashling. Congratulations once again and we look forward to following your journey towards publication... and beyond. Good luck.  Today, we feature an interview with popular Queensland author, Karen Foxlee, who is one of our masterclass presenters at the inaugural Sunshine Writers Retreat (Nov 9 - 12). The Sunshine Writers Retreat will be three and a half days of glorious writing, learning and networking time. The retreat concept has a wholistic approach to story, or manuscript, development. It's suitable for those writing for adults and children. Our residential, on-site accommodation packages sold out incredibly quickly and we are now into overflow accommodation. Selected spots still remain. We also offer Day Visit Packages for those who live locally or those who only want to come for specific days over the 3.5 day retreat. https://goo.gl/JqEujv Friday Night Dinner Packages are available for those who wish to come along to connect with the retreat attendees and hear literary agent, Alex Adsett speak. https://goo.gl/JqEujv Limited Publisher Manuscript Assessments are still available with Rochelle Manners, owner and publisher at Wombat Books. https://goo.gl/JqEujv Professional Photography Sessions are also available on Friday 10 November. If you need a new author or illustrator photo taken, now is the time to get one! They're very reasonably priced. https://goo.gl/JqEujv You can find out more about the Sunshine Writers Retreat at: http://www.greenleafpress.net/sunshine-writers-retreat.html. Or you can email us at admin@greenleafpress.net. I hope you enjoy this interview with Karen. TTFN Aleesah  Can you tell us briefly about yourself and the style of books you write? I’m an author living and writing in south east Queensland. I write books for both children and grown-ups. My books for young adults and adults, The Midnight Dress and The Anatomy of Wings are works of literary fiction published around the world. My books for young readers are aimed at a middle-grade audience. They are fantasy adventure stories. Ophelia and the Marvellous Boy was CBCA notable book in 2015 and A Most Magical Girl has been shortlisted for the same awards this year. It also won the Readings Children’s Fiction Book Prize this year. Which of your characters do you most identify with and why? Jennifer Day in my first novel The Anatomy of Wings is probably the winner. Just like me, she grew up in a little company mining house in an outback mining town. She worries and wonders about a lot of the same things I worried and wondered about as a child. She loves facts, especially facts about birds. She’s funny and brave and when I found her voice to narrate that story everything fell into place.  What is your favourite inspirational writing quote?
“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” – Joseph Chilton Pearce What is your favourite place to be when writing? I mostly write my novels sitting on my sofa or, in the case of my early morning writing, in bed. What experience do you think most shaped your journey as an author? Too many to mention! Having a mum who always valued and encouraged my creative leanings was probably the most important. Going back to University as a mature-aged student and studying creative writing. Winning the Emerging Author Award in the then Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards for the manuscript of The Anatomy of Wings and gaining a publishing contract with University of Queensland Press. The list goes on.  Today, we feature an interview with popular Queensland author-illustrator, Peter Carnavas, who is one of our masterclass presenters at the inaugural Sunshine Writers Retreat (Nov 9 - 12). The Sunshine Writers Retreat will be three and a half days of glorious writing, learning and networking time. The retreat concept has a wholistic approach to story, or manuscript, development. It's suitable for those writing for adults and children. Our residential, on-site accommodation packages sold out incredibly quickly and we are now into overflow accommodation. Selected spots still remain. We also offer Day Visit Packages for those who live locally or those who only want to come for specific days over the 3.5 day retreat. https://goo.gl/JqEujv Friday Night Dinner Packages are available for those who wish to come along to connect with the retreat attendees and hear literary agent, Alex Adsett speak. https://goo.gl/JqEujv Limited Publisher Manuscript Assessments are still available with Rochelle Manners, owner and publisher at Wombat Books. https://goo.gl/JqEujv Professional Photography Sessions are also available on Friday 10 November. If you need a new author or illustrator photo taken, now is the time to get one! They're very reasonably priced. https://goo.gl/JqEujv You can find out more about the Sunshine Writers Retreat at: http://www.greenleafpress.net/sunshine-writers-retreat.html. Or you can email us at admin@greenleafpress.net. I hope you enjoy this interview with Peter. TTFN Aleesah  Can you tell us briefly about yourself and the style of books you write? I write and illustrate picture books and have just finished my first novel, The Elephant. I generally try to make books that have layers of depth and make people think, and I usually write about things that I care about or fascinate me. My stories cover themes such as friendship, loss, love and the meaning of life, and my goal is to always say a lot with very little. Which of your characters do you most identify with and why? I’ve always recognised myself in the silent tortoise in Sarah’s Heavy Heart (and my wife is the little yellow bird). I actually see myself in most of my characters; they’re often quiet people who don’t bother anybody and solve problems by themselves. I also see myself in Grandad from The Elephant. Many of his possessions and interests - record player, typewriter, birdwatching - are my own, and I would like to be like him when I’m older.  What is your favourite inspirational writing quote?
There is line from Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner, which says, ‘Hard writing makes easy reading’. If my writing comes easily, I don’t always trust it. I feel like I should have to work for it. What is your favourite place to be when you’re writing? I do everything in my little studio, which is also home to the kids’ bikes, broken furniture and a spare door I’ve been trying to get rid of for a while. I can’t work in cafes, or libraries, or at the beach. Those places are built for other things, not writing. What experience do you think most shaped your journey as a writer? I worked as a primary school teacher for a few years which exposed me to so many beautiful books and taught me how to read to children. It was during this time that I discovered the breadth and depth of children’s books, and it made me wonder if I could do it myself. Whenever I meet one of my heroes, it gives me a huge boost as a writer, too, especially if they’re lovely and they invariably are.  Today, we feature an interview with popular Queensland author, Elaine Ouston, who is one of our masterclass presenters at the inaugural Sunshine Writers Retreat (Nov 9 - 12). The Sunshine Writers Retreat will be three and a half days of glorious writing, learning and networking time. The retreat concept has a wholistic approach to story, or manuscript, development. It's suitable for those writing for adults and children. Our residential, on-site accommodation packages sold out incredibly quickly and we are now into overflow accommodation. Selected spots still remain. We also offer Day Visit Packages for those who live locally or those who only want to come for specific days over the 3.5 day retreat. https://goo.gl/JqEujv Friday Night Dinner Packages are available for those who wish to come along to connect with the retreat attendees and hear literary agent, Alex Adsett speak. https://goo.gl/JqEujv Limited Publisher Manuscript Assessments are still available with Rochelle Manners, owner and publisher at Wombat Books. https://goo.gl/JqEujv Professional Photography Sessions are also available on Friday 10 November. If you need a new author or illustrator photo taken, now is the time to get one! They're very reasonably priced. https://goo.gl/JqEujv You can find out more about the Sunshine Writers Retreat at: http://www.greenleafpress.net/sunshine-writers-retreat.html. Or you can email us at admin@greenleafpress.net. I hope you enjoy this interview with Elaine. TTFN Aleesah  Can you tell us briefly about yourself and the style of books you write? I have a Master of Letters in Creative Writing. Through Gondor Writers' Centre I offer many services to authors interested in preparing for submission or self-publishing – including manuscript appraisals, edits and writing workshops. I write fantasy books for kids and young adults. I wrote my first fantasy series, The Mystery of Nida Valley, to teach children about Australia's megafauna. But I have since written a non-fiction picture book on the animals and have started a series of picture books about how they lived and interacted. I have the first book in another fantasy series for middle grade readers and the first book a YA fantasy series ready for publishing. Which of your characters do you most identify with and why? I guess when we write our first book, we put a little of our personality into our main character. After all, it is the personality we know best. So I would have to say Meg in The Mystery of Nida Valley series. She has many of my personality traits.  What is your favourite inspirational writing quote?
“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” – Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull I had this printed in large type and taped to the top of my screen for many years. What is your favourite place to be when writing? I have a 'creative room' above the workshop room at Gondor. That is my retreat but, unfortunately, I spend so much time helping other writers that I don't get to go there very often. What experience do you think most shaped your journey as an author? When I got my first rejection, I decided I didn't know enough about writing, so I started a journey of learning about the craft of writing a story – taking all the writing workshops I could and attending all the conferences that I could get to. I discovered that there is so much more to writing a book readers will love than knowing high school English. I got hooked on learning to write effectively and ended by going to university and doing a Master of Letters in Creative Writing. |
Aleesah Darlison
Aleesah is a multi-published, award-winning author and owner of Greenleaf Press. Archives
February 2018
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