Book Launch: The Wish Giver
1 Comment »18th October, 2008; Category: Authors, Books, Fiction, Picture Books, Reviews, Writers, Writing for Children, Young Readers
Yesterday I had the wonderful privilege of attending a book launch. Rosanne Hawke, one of my lecturers in my Master of Arts Creative Writing Course, is a writer of children’s books. This new book is her 15th book to be published, and her third picture book.
The Wish Giver
Written by Rosanne Hawke and her daughter Lenore Penner.
Illustrated by Michelle Mackintosh.
Published by Windy Hollow Books.
The Wish Giver is a delightful book for young children. The Wish Giver lives on “the biggest and brightest star.” His job is to make children’s wishes come true. Unfortunately he falls off the star and lands in Layla’s garden.
Layla has a problem. She has no friends and no-one will play with her at school. She wished she had some friends to play with. She helps the Wish Giver return to his star, and he in turn helps her to find some new friends to play with.
One of the privileges we had being in Rosanne’s class was getting a view of the printer’s proofs many weeks before publication. The book was launched by well known South Australian author Phil Cummings. One of the interesting aspects of this book was that Rosanne’s daughter Lenore was also credited as the joint author. The original story of the Wish Giver was written by Lenore as a high school assignment. It was this story that initially got Rosanne into writing. It was also very much a family event, with Rosanne’s grandchildren also present.
After leaving the launch my wife told me she had been taking notes on how to run a book launch. Rosanne, when signing our copy of the book, added: “It’ll be your turn next.”
Now it’s up to me to get some of my manuscripts off to publishers.
Good writing.
.
What I am reading: picture books
1 Comment »2nd May, 2008; Category: Books, Master of Arts course, Picture Books, Writing for Children, Young Readers
One of the units I am studying at present is called Writing for children. Our lecturer is award winning author Rosanne Hawke. In our early lectures and workshops we looked closely at how to write picture book texts. Writing this kind of book is a passion for me; I love reading them and sharing them with children – and adults.
One of the things that Rosanne impressed upon us from the very beginning was the importance of reading picture books – as many as we can get our hands on. I’ve always read plenty of picture books, first when I was a teacher librarian, and then as a classroom teacher.
When I retired from teaching four years ago I drifted away from reading picture books as regularly as I used to do. Rosanne has given me the impetus and reason for getting back into this exciting and enjoyable area of books. So once again I’ve reactivated the use of my library card and I am borrowing ten or fifteen a week to read. And I’m thoroughly enjoying the activity.
There is another incentive: we need to keep a reading log of what we are reading, as well as write some short reviews of the books we read. This is a required, assessable component of the course. It is a very enjoyable part of the course I might add.
Good writing.
Good reading.
Writing success – well, sort of
2 Comments »11th April, 2008; Category: Master of Arts course, Picture Books, Poetry, Writing for Children
Today is the last day of the first term of my time back at university. To refresh your memory, I’m doing my Master of Arts in Creative Writing. It has been 33 years since I’ve studied at this intensive level.
We have a two week mid-semester break from lectures. It might be just enough time to catch my breath – and to catch up on a little reading, not to mention starting on that essential planning for assignments due at the end of the semester. Whoever called it holiday has to be kidding.
Several weeks ago I presented my first tutorial paper. I was a little apprehensive about whether I had addressed the question adequately. I need not have worried. A Distinction was a little higher than I had expected. It is very encouraging and gives me the courage to keep on studying hard. This week I handed up two more major assignments.
The first was a major work in poetry. Normally I write little more than 15 to 30 lines for most of my poems; many are shorter than that. This poem had to be between 50 and 100 lines, the longest poem I had ever attempted. I even managed to write it in iambic pentameter. I also wrote it in blank verse; I didn’t have the mental capacity to make it all rhyme. I was very happy with the result.
The second assignment handed up this week was the text of a picture book for children. At about 700 words it may seem easy. Wrong. It went through six intensive drafts over quite a period of time. Every word has to count. It is a very delicate and demanding art. Again, I was quite pleased with the result.
Writing prompt #7: Choose a word
2 Comments »20th March, 2008; Category: Short Story Starters, Writing for Children, Writing prompts, Young Readers
Last week in my writing for children course the lecturer handed out a card to each student in the workshop. We were not to show anyone the word on the card. She then asked us to write for about five minutes illustrating the word in some way.
Here is a list of some of the words:
fear, anxiety, enthusiasm, happiness, courage, joy, anger, excitement, despair, sadness
This is what I wrote:
James could hardly wait for Saturday. He was jumping out of his skin. “When will it be Saturday?” he asked for about the tenth time. “Tomorrow,” said his mother patiently.
James raced to his room. He checked his money box again. He counted the coins over and over. He was ready for the Agricultural Show.He couldn’t wait to go on the rides. He wanted to see the animals; the cows, the horses, the dogs and the cats – even the ducks, especially the ducks. He thought of the icecreams and lolly-pops and fairy floss. He could just taste it melting in his mouth. He thought of the colours and the sounds, the smells, the crowds and the clowns. He wanted to see the machines and the cars, the ferris wheel and the tents.
At that point we were asked to stop; and I was just getting warmed up!
Can you work out the word I was given?
Enthusiasm. When I was asked to read it out aloud I also read it with a great deal of enthusiasm.
Your turn:
As a warm up writing exercise, choose one of the emotion words I listed above. Write about it for five to ten minutes. It does not have to be a story, nor does it have to be for children. Just write.
This may be just an exercise but do not throw it away. File it carefully; you never know when it may become useful for a story or an article.
Good writing.
The problem with writing poetry
2 Comments »18th March, 2008; Category: Picture Books, Poetry, The Writer's Life, Writing for Children
“There is no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money, either.” Robert Graves.
I have heard that there are some countries where poets are highly regarded and appreciated, even revered and some even make a living from writing poetry. Australia is not one of those countries. Probably only two or three poets in Australia actually make any decent income from their works.
Publication of poetry is having something of a resurgence in recent years here. More magazines are publishing poetry and individual poets are getting their works into book form. Sadly, most of these books can only be published with government grants and most volumes are bought either by other poets or a few libraries.
I am generally an optimist. One thing I am hopeful about is that one day I will make some money from some of my poems. I have a number of poems written for children. I believe that they would make excellent picture books for young children. This is going to be tough. My lecturer at college advises not to write picture book texts in verse because very few ever get published.
That is just a challenge to me to prove everyone wrong.
Good writing.