Book launches in February

The Race for the Chinese Zodiac

by Gabrielle Wang

illustrated by Sally Rippin

& Regine Abos

10.30am, Saturday 20th February

at Book Bonding

409 Keilor Road

Niddrie 3042

RSVP: Natasha 9374 4458

Bring along your kids to get their faces painted!

Peeking Ducks

by Krista Bell and Sally Rippin

Saturday 27 February 2010

at 2:00pm

Readings Port Melbourne:

253 Bay St,

Port Melbourne

Free, and no need to book.

Out Of Africa

In exactly two weeks I will be stepping off a plane in Ghana, Africa. I am alternately excited and nervous, having never been to Africa before and having no idea what to expect, but my friend Valanga Khoza, who is from South Africa, assures me Ghana is 'Africa-lite' so I'll be fine.

My booking agency Booked Out have lined up some pretty wonderful school visits for me recently; trips to Darwin, Perth and Beijing, but this one would have to top them all. I am spending four days running workshops with kids in a big international school in Accra called Lincoln Community School, then have a few more days in Ghana before I head back to Australia. Coincidentally, my sponsor child, Elizabeth, lives in Ghana, apparently only a few hours away in an area called Ahanta West Area Development Project (ADP), so I am hoping to visit her on my second last day there. She is now ten years old and have watched her grow through yearly photographs since she was four, so it will be very exciting to meet her and her family, and I'm sure a stark contrast to the comparatively well-off students in Accra. World Vision have been extremely supportive of my visit, but all the same it's been weeks of preparation and forms to fill out including police checks and multiple vaccinations. I am so full of antibodies now I could probably just about trek through any jungle and eat off any floor in Africa! I am still waiting on a confirmation on this before I go out and buy presents. World Vision helpfully suggest a list of presents that won't create jealously or incite thievery so looking down the list I'm thinking coloured pencils for Elizabeth and Australian animal posters for her school might be the way to go.

Apparently, internet connection is dodgy in Ghana but if I can I will try to post regularly throughout my stay there, like a kind of travel diary, including photographs. If I don't have any luck getting online while I am away, I shall certainly write about my experiences when I get back on the 18th February.

Then, it will be straight into a row of book launches: The Race For The Chinese Zodiac on Sat 20th Feb, with Gabrielle Wang. Gabi and I will be painting faces so bring your kids along. The following Saturday Feb 27, is the launch of Peeking Ducks by Krista Bell. Then on Sat March 13, I am launching Gabi's new YA novel. I will post details on all these launches soon.

Meanwhile, can I ask you to check out this website and consider joining Peter Singer's pledge. If you earn under Aud$154,000 (which I imagine is probably most of you), by pledging only 1% of your annual income to charity we could virtually eradicate world poverty. If you earn more, you pledge more. Sounds too easy, doesn't it? Don't take it from me though - Peter's done the research: www.thelifeyoucansave.com - hope to see some of you there!

Procrastination

Well, I am really supposed to be working on my novel right now - only two and half days til my kids break up from school!! - but what does any procrastinating writer do when they hit a wall? Blog! So, here I am.

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to participate in a brilliant masterclass at the Victorian Writers' Centre run by Antoni Jach, with a formidably talented and incredibly supportive bunch of fellow writers and, in the days following the course, boy, you couldn't stop me! I was churning out those words. But then, as to be expected, I had one crap day of writing and suddenly all my momentum goes down the drain. Now I approach my computer with a horrible mixture of fear and trepidation. When I read back over all those thousands of words that spilled out of me, will I be horrified to discover that they are all crap! That really, I have no idea what I am doing or where I am going?

I don't know about other writers but I constantly swing between feeling like a genius and a complete waste of space. There doesn't seem to ever be much in between. It's such a deeply personal and vulnerable thing to write, even if you are doing so behind the veil of fiction, that I find it almost impossible to be able to judge my work myself. Apparently, according to Antoni, writers become better at this over time - but this self-awareness and confidence is unfortunately still a long way off for me.

However, I am always comforted by the words of Peter Carey in despairing times like these:

'The whole business of writing is to live with doubt: to do what you don't know how to do, to place yourself continually in a situation of ignorance and inelegance. When you begin writing you're in a basic state of stupidity because you don't know anything.'

I figure if even PC feels like this after all those book sales and awards under his belt, I'm probably not alone.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone and if, like me, you're trying to write with a houseful of kids, my sympathies go out to you. :-)

Winding down and looking forward to 2010!

I've had a busy year, illustrating and writing, and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished books early next year. First one to hit the stores will be a book I illustrated for Black Dog Books, written by Gabrielle Wang. It's called The Race For The Chinese Zodiac and we are looking at launching it in February 2010.

The next one to come out, also in February next year, is a lovely story by Krista Bell, called Peeking Ducks and published by Windy Hollow.

I'm also really excited to launch a series of four books that I have written for young readers about a fiesty young girl called Billie B Brown. These are published by Hardie Grant and will be out in April next year. I will write more about these in detail later on.

Lastly, I've finally got my new website up and running so have a look and let me know what you think.

A Thousand Words Festival

Martine Murray and I will be appearing at the Thousand Words Festival (see below) between 11.40 - 12.20 pm to chat about the making of Mannie and the Long Brave Day

Storytime sessions with Andrew Daddo, Anna Pignataro, Anna Walker,

Tony Wilson, Sally Rippin, Martine Murray & Dan Jerris

Talk and reading by multiple CBCA award winner Glenda Millard

YA fantasy panel with Michael Pryor, Jen Storer and Lili Wilkinson

PLUS book signings, generous giveaways, free Go-Go Class, competitions, craft activities,

and a special appearance by SANTA!!!

Cost: Author Sessions: $10 adult full day, $5 child full day, children under 2 FREE.

$5 young adult fantasy panel. Plenty of free activities too!

www.athousandwordsfestival.com.au

Saturday 21st November

10am – 5pm

The Abbotsford Convent

1 St Heliers St, Abbotsford

Family Fun Day

As Children’s Week celebrations draw to a close, a new initiative—Children365: celebrate them every day—will be launched at Melbourne Museum on Sunday 1 November 2009.

The concept for Children365 was developed after the tragic death of Darcey Freeman in early 2009. Following the loss of their precious little girl, Darcey’s mother and her family suggested an annual day to cherish all children. They asked the Alannah and Madeline Foundation to help make it a reality. The Alannah and Madeline Foundation initiative Children365 encourages all of us to cherish our children every single day of the year.

The Victorian State Government is proud to partner this initiative and by hosting a family fun day to launch the beginning of Children365. This day signifies the end of a week of celebrating children and the commitment to cherish and protect our children every day of the year. Melbourne Museum is supporting Children365 by generously offering FREE entry for all adult patrons on Sunday 1 November 2009. Concession and children 16 years and under are free every day.

ACTIVITIES AT THE FAMILY FUN DAY

A wide range of free activities will take place throughout the family fun day including – kite and puppet making workshops, chalk drawing, appearances from Premier’s Reading Challenge Ambassadors, sports and games, arts and crafts, entertainment and lots more!

The museum is open from 10am until 5pm. Most of the free activities will run from 10.30am until approximately 3.30pm (some will finish a little later). Andy will be speaking at 1.00pm. Some activities will be held outside the museum (in marquees such as the kite making), but most will take place inside. A full program of the day will be distributed to patrons attending the event and will also be available on our website from mid October.

Mannie and the Long LONG Brave Day

Mannie and the Long Brave Day is now out in the world. It was a long (and brave?) process, finding just the right style to suit Martine's text, so I thought I'd post some of the early sketches to give you an idea of how the book developed.

There is also a photo of the 'real Mannie' - Martine's little girl. I took heaps of photos of her and stuck them all around my studio while I worked to inspire me - but this is one of my favourites, sent by Martine when they were in Paris together.

I have included the illustration we ended up using for the cover (left), as well as another cover idea (above) the designer came up with using one of the illustrations from inside the book. It took a long time to find a style that everyone was happy with and I worked in many different mediums. You can see that at one stage Lilliput was going to be in pink gingham! In the end we decided on the pale watercolour wash because Martine and I wanted the book to have a classic, almost old-fashioned feeling.

Every book I work on I try out many different styles and techniques until I find the one that most suits the feel of the book. I will post some other examples of more books I am working on later on.

"Mannie" has had some nice reviews so far. Here is a lovely one from the Sunday Age:

13 September.

When you were a child did you have (or wish you had) a Useful Box chockers with incredible items that might come in handy some time? Mannie has a special box filled with secret things and it's the perfect accessory for a girl with a yen for adventure. The intrepid Mannie coaxes companions Lilliput and Strawberry Luca into an expedition. They set off into the great unknown, stopping regularly to check the box for anything that will put the excellent back into their exploration. During their journey, repetition and delicious onomatopoeia abound, reminiscent of "We're Going On A Bear Hunt". Indeed, read this to an under-five and you'll see their eyes light up as they detect the patterns in the story. Two talented author-illustrators have collaborated for this tale. You can feel their friendship frolicking from page to page.

This one is from Australian Bookseller & Publisher:

And this one was from Magpies: