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If you’re not away or flying back from Bologna or at festivals and conference, the SCBWI Network is:-

5-7 p.m.

Monday 2nd April

at The Hughenden

14 Queen Street Woollahra (near Paddington, Sydney).

I have been on a conference and festival trail where I have met kids, librarians, teachers, adults, even politicians from Queensland to Picton to the beautiful Dixon Room in Sydney’s heritage Mitchell Library overlooking our Botanical Gardens towards the Opera House.

I’ll be keynote at the Glouceter Festival , touring the USA with my ‘Butterflies’, visiting Taree, Melbourne ….and more ….. and I am looking forward to speaking at the IBBY Congress in London.  It’s crazy but the wonderful life of a writer.

Deborah Abela, Serena Geddes, Lesley Vamos, Christopher Cheng … are just back from Bologna Book Fair; and

shared a fabulous time with heaps of brilliant authors and illustrators in Somerset on the Gold Coast like Jacqueline Harvey, Michael Wagner, Oliver Phommovanh, Ursula Dubosarsky, Tristan Bancks, Karen Brooks, Leigh Hobbs, Scott Westerfield, James Roy, Georgia Blain and the brilliant list goes on.

Frane Lessac, Mark Greenwood, Sally Murphy, Norm Jorgenson, A J Betts, Dianne Lawrenson, Samantha Hughes …

….and all those WA writers and illustrators are on the move throughout WA and NT at festivals and reaching remote indogenous communities.

Sarah Davis and Deborah Abela have flown to Alice Springs to join them. Love it.

Aleesah Darlison is back from Hong Hong; Jan Latta just back from China speaking at festivals; Jacqueline Harvey is doing her Alice-Miranda tour in the USA and UK.

Sue Whiting’s at All Saints in Perth which I loved when I spoke there last year

This is the coolest community ever!

If anyone is in Sydney on Monday 2nd April, there’s a great talk by Wendy Blaxland on non fiction writing; catch up with SCBWI Conference information on 29th June-2nd July and networking at The Hughenden.

Watch out for the announcement in the next few weeks.

Check out the SCBWI Australia and new Zealand facebook pagewebsite.

It’s a first come first served basis – so when it opens you need to book quickly as it’s a small intimate conference Australia wide and new Zealand.

Some tid bits:-

Jill Corcoran literary agent from the Herman Agency New Yorkmaximum of 100 delegates.

Major Australian publishers have come on board including Lisa Berryman HarperCollins, Laura Harris Penguin, Zoe Walton Random House, Sarah Foster Walker Books …..

There are wonderful authors and illustrators coming including Sally Murphy, France Lessac, Pamela Rushby, Meredith Costain, Hazel Edwards …. have a great time with the children’s writing community …. more news coming soon.

Bill Condon -Prime Minister’s Literary Award Australia – Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God by the talented, thoughtful Bill Condon with his dry humour.

Frane Lessac -The Muriel Barwell Award for Distinguished Services to Children’s Literature CBCA

Frane Lessac and Mark Greenwood - Simpson & His Donkey- wonderful picture book

Dianne Wolfer - Winner of the West Australian Young Readers’ Award for the beautiful lighthouse Girl publisher Fremantle Press

and there’s more, much more – look at the awards for  Sally Murphy, Pamela Rushby, Lisa Shannahan and Emma Quay, Libby Gleeson, Deborah Abela

Great friends, great people, great authors & illustrators!

Like most writers, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with my postie (actually, that’s not quite true – I really like the postie himself, he’s a nice guy and a friend of mine – really it’s the post I have issues with. Some days the mail in my letter box is just plain depressing, with rejections making me ponder whether this writing life is for me. Other days, there’s nothing writing-related

It's the last day of March, and so time for another of my monthly updates.Lots has happened in my writing life in March, with things moving along on three of my forthcoming books. I feel more and more like a 'real' author every day.At the start of the month I was featured in Susan Stephenson's column at Muselings, an ezine for writers. Susan is an Australian based reviewer of books and passionate

Week Four of the Verse Off – and a special welcome to any who may be joining us for the first time! (Feel free to scroll below to past posts and see what we’ve been up to.) This is the final edition of the Verse Off, for now, so if you’ve been waiting to contribute, now’s your chance.If you’ve played before, you know the routine.. If this is your first time, here’s the drill…May is a dual

There were some wonderful responses to yesterday's verse-off stimulus. Without further ado, here are the free verse responses. To view the rhymed responses, head over to Kathryn's blog. Felix Apel said... Whaling about,I’m feeling blue -Don’t ruffle my feathers,Life's a beach! J.R.Poulter/J.R.McRae said... I don’t know what to make of thisA whale away beached in the outback.Are they thinking of

Okay, it's not really a medal, but it is shiny and silver and it IS mine! I am still glowing with yesterday's announcement of Pearl Verses the World as Best Children's Book in the Indie Book Awards for 2009. I'm also delighted with the wonderful responses I've had from friends, family, industry colleagues and even people I don't know to the news of this award. I can truly feel the love.Reading

The virtual launch may be done and dusted, but the celebrations to mark the release of Snowy’s Christmas are still in full swing. Today marks the beginning of our eleven week blog tour. Each Sunday for the next eleven weeks we’ll be visiting a different blog to talk about Snowy, about the writing and illustrating life, about Christmas – in fact about whatever the blog owners ask us to talk about

With all the wonderful writing advice available online, you could be forgive for thinking that hardcopy writing books have become redundant. After all, why pay money for a book when you have so much advice available online, for free? I’ve just taken delivery of an order of three hardcopy books which set me back about $40. Not a fortune, for three books packed full of good advice, but still $40

It's Sunday, which means another stop on the Snowy's Christmas blog tour. Today I'm breakfasting with my friend, talented WA illustrator Samantha Hughes. Drop by for some bacon and eggs at this link.If you’ve missed the start of the tour, you can follow it at:Week One: 4 October Deescribe Writing Blog Week Two: 11 October Write and Read With DaleWeek three: 18 October Alphabet Soup Blog Week Four

Time for another stop on the Snowy's Christmas blog tour. This week I am visiting with the lovely Sandy Fussell, at Stories are Light, talking about Christmas stories, and what makes them special. We'd love to see you there.If you’ve missed any of the other tour stops, you can find them at:Week One: 4 October Deescribe Writing Blog Week Two: 11 October Write and Read With DaleWeek three: 18

Dear Santa It’s Christmas Eve and this children’s author is reflecting on the year that was, and, of course, thinking about what she’d like to find in her writerly stocking tomorrow morning. I have had the best year of my writing life and for that I am really grateful. The release of Pearl Verses the World in May was the beginning of a wonderful merry go round of nice reviews, excellent

Time for a new regular feature here at my Writing for Children blog. Called Seven Answers to Seven Questions, it asks the same seven questions of any writer who cares to drop by and answer them. I’ve started by asking some of my writer friends to contribute and their answers will be posted here soon. In the meantime I figured I should have a go at answering them for myself. So, here are my own

Time for another cute site. More cute animals this time - at the Cute Cat Blog. My favourite is the Invisible Guitar Hero photo - my friend Sally's kids (the Murphlets) love Guitar Hero, but I've never seen a cat playing it!

Anyway, enjoy the site.

More sample pages, especially relevant if you are a teacher of English, primary literacy or viewing. Today's sample comes from Writing the News, newspaper and media related activities, with an emphasis on writing. You can see the sample pages here. Enjoy.

Today's sample pages come from my blackline master book Aussie Authors, aimed at classroom and library use. The sample pages include some sample activities and the index, where you can see the full list of authors included in the book. You can access the free sample here.

More sample pages from my blackline masters book. This time from Aussie Authors 2, which, as the title suggests, follows from the successful Aussie Authors. Aimed for classroom and library use, the book provides brief profiles, reading lists and activities aimed at encouraging kids to read more from some of Australia's best children's authors. Enjoy the sample.

Today's sample pages come from my very first published book, Speak Out. With the focus on speaking skills, this is a book I still use regularly int he classroom. Enjoy the sample pages.

Today's sample pages come from a spelling book called (not very originally) Spellbound. This is the book I wish I'd had when I was first teaching - teaching spelling rules to upper primary and lower secondary kids is both difficult and important. Enjoy the sample pages.

This is the last in my series of links to sample pages from my books of blackline masters, published by ready Ed. Today's featured title is The Book Book, a book all about books, for use in primary school classrooms. Enjoy the sample pages.

In spite of my still being largely on holidays, January has been a busy month for me. Just the way I like it, really. There's been lots happening with my forthcoming titles. Earlier in the month, Virginia, my editor at Walker Books sent me through a new, slightly revised cover for my verse novel, Pearl Verses the World. I loved the old cover but adore the new one, tweaked slightly to really

I'm having an author visit at the Enjoy the Journey blog this wek. If you want to learn more baot me, drop by and have a read. And next week, I'm off on a blog tour, visiting five blogs in five days to talk about The Big Blowie, so watch this space for further details.