s I said in my last post, we didn’t have a lot of competition entries, which was a bit disappointing. But the high quality certainly made up for the lack of quantity. People clearly put so much effort into their book trailers, and as a result I’ve been scratching my head, trying to work out the winner.

As I said, I decided to have one winner for people who did either a video or powerpoint, and one for those who drew a storyboard. And because we’ll have two winners (and not a lot of entries), I’m not going to award a second prize or a runner-up.

BUT – the first two people to leave a message on this post (as long as they’re not one of the winners) will receive an Ice Breaker poster!

Now for the winners. Storyboards first, and the winner is nine-year-old Oliver from Auckland, New Zealand! Here’s his entry – and what I liked about it was that it is REALLY like a movie trailer.

As for the videos/powerpoints, the winner is Elena, who is twelve. And once again, her entry was like watching a real movie trailer.

I’ll be emailing the winners later today to ask them what they would like for their prize. Thanks to everyone who entered! And keep an eye on this blog for news of Sunker’s Deep, Book 2 in the Hidden series!

This is to keep you entertained while I ponder the competition entries. The cover for Book 2: Sunker’s Deep is here at last. What do you think?

The competition will be closing shortly, folks. Midnight tonight, I reckon is a good time. And I’m hoping to get at least ONE more entry by then. (Yes Io, I’m looking at you!)

I admit to being a bit disappointed at how few entries we got. However the small numbers have been made up for by the very excellent quality, so it’s not all bad. And it means that those who DID enter have more chance of winning a prize!

So, this week, along with pressing on with Book 3 (it’s going dreadfully slowly and I’m a bit worried about meeting my deadline) I shall sit down and go over the entries very very carefully. Then I’ll pick a winner or two. I’m thinking I might have one winner for people who’ve done a video, and another for people who’ve done a storyboard. Sound fair?

I reckon it’ll be next weekend before I put up the winners. So if you’ve entered, keep your fingers crossed (which might make writing difficult, but it’s in a good cause) and you might just be a winner!

I’ve decided to extend the deadline for the competition to Sunday August 3rd. So if you didn’t think you’d have enough time to enter, you’ve now got a couple more weeks.

We’ve had three entries so far, and the standard is high! It’s pretty exciting seeing what people are coming up with and wondering what else is going to arrive in my inbox. And then, of course, I have to judge them, which is the hardest part – for me, at least.

Meanwhile I’m working away at the first draft of Fetcher, trying to make sense of WHY people do the things they do. It’s not always straightforward – sometimes people say they’re doing something for a reason, but you know they’ve got another secret reason underneath. Aaah, secrets! That’s what this series is all about!

Not much news this week, so Harry has requested that I post some supermodel pictures of him from his most recent photo shoot. He claims that he was advertising bedding for a well-known department store – I’m not at all sure that he’s telling the truth! Judge for yourselves.

Oops! Tried to upload the pics and couldn’t. I’ve just had an upgrade on the technicals, so looks as if there’s a bit of a bug in it. I shall email my WordPress expert and see if he can fix it. Stay tuned – hopefully Harry’s photos will turn up some time during the week.

An early start this morning, as I’m off to teach a workshop on ‘The public face of writing’. There was a time when authors sat at home and wrote, and when they finished their manuscript they sent it off to the publisher, and some time later the publisher sent them a royalty cheque. Oh, maybe they did an occasional reading, but nothing like what is expected these days.

And that’s a problem for many authors, because we tend to be a quiet breed. Not all of us, of course, but I’d guess that there are more introverts among the writer population than in the general population. A lot of us actually like sitting at home alone, with our stories running through our heads.

For me, it’s a bit of a mix. I love the solitude – just me, Harry and the chooks for days at a time – and find it hard to write without it. But at the same time it’s fun to do the occasional concert or school visit, just to remind myself that there are other humans in the world. And when it comes to public speaking, I have the perfect background – as a teacher and an actor. I remember when I was at uni, I was absolutely terrified of speaking in public – even in something not terribly public like a tutorial, my hands and my voice would tremble.

Ha! Three years of teaching knocked that out of me very effectively. And later, drama school and acting taught me all sorts of interesting skills that have come in handy. Hence today’s workshop. It’s the first time I’ve taught this topic, so have no idea how it will go.

The chooks have had an exciting week. Up until three days ago, they’ve been using two different nests, mainly because Floss is a contrary sort of bird and doesn’t like laying in the nest I provided. And Clara is heavily under Floss’s influence, so she followed along to the new nest which was in the middle of a bush (to make it harder for me to pinch their eggs). Dolly – loyal sensible Dolly – continues to lay in the original nest. Anyway, a few days ago, something attacked Clara and ate her egg. A cat? A rat? She was in an awful bother, and no wonder. The next night, the fake plastic egg disappeared too. Hopefully whoever pinched it will conclude that all future eggs will also be plastic and it’s not worth going after them. Meanwhile Clara has returned to the original nest.

Now off to make my porridge!

We have had the first two entries for the competition! I’m amazed that Rose (11) and Racquel (14) got them in so quickly, but also very pleased, as I always have this niggling worry that maybe no one will enter, and I’ll be left clutching the prizes and looking around in a pathetic sort of way, saying, ‘Hello? Is anyone out there? Anyone?’

I originally said that I’d put up the entries as they came in, but I have decided that’s a bit unfair, because people who haven’t done theirs yet might get ideas from the people who have.

So you’re going to have to wait.

What else has been happening? Well, I was sick for a week – nothing serious, just a cold, but I lost my voice and sounded as if I was about 95, and I took the week off from writing to sit by the fire with Harry snoozing on my lap and a pile of books to read. Now I’m back at work (with a pile of handkerchiefs beside me), and the experimental draft of Fetcher has turned into the first draft – which means I’ve stopped flailing around and it’s starting to feel a bit more like a book. Lots of problems to solve still, and I still don’t know how it ends, which is a bit scary, but I’m feeling happier about it.

I’m putting aside a bit of time every day for drawing. When I was learning to write I did it every day, and it seems to make a huge difference. Not straight away, but in the long run, so I am trusting that my drawing will also improve if I just keep doing it. And besides, I’m really enjoying it. It’s a nice break from writing because it seems to use a different part of the brain (a bit like gardening).

Meanwhile the map for Book 2: Sunker’s Deep has received the Sebastian Ciaffaglione treatment and looks terrific. (I’m going to have to draw a map for Fetcher at some stage, but not yet.)

And I am in the middle of preparing a workshop for next Sunday, on the topic of ‘The public face of writing’. I rather like running workshops, but hate preparing them. This one is for the Tasmanian Writers’ Centre, and is to do with the fact that it is no longer enough to just write books – you now have to go out and talk to audiences about them. For many authors, this is a trial, as we tend to be an introverted bunch. I’m lucky, as my background in teaching and acting was perfect preparation for talking to large groups of people, but many authors have no idea where to start. Hence the workshop!

And the shortest day has been and gone, which means the days are getting longer (and colder), Harry is spending most of his time curled up on my bed, the bulbs are coming up in the garden, and the chooks aren’t laying quite as well. No sign of moulting yet, though.

I’m rambling on a bit. Better stop, so I can finish preparing the workshop.

I’ve been talking about a new competition for a few weeks now, and here it is at last! You can enter by either 1. Making a video trailer for any one of my children’s novels. or 2. Making a storyboard for a trailer for any one of my children’s novels. Competition rules: 1. You can... Read the rest of this post

After five days of swanning around the little town of Bellingen in sandals and shirt sleeves, I’ve come home to VERY COLD nights. I lit the wood heater as soon as I walked in the door, and Harry immediately started purring. Since then he has barely moved, except to roll over so that he can... Read the rest of this post

And it is gorgeous! You probably know that I adore the cover for Ice Breaker, so I’ve been waiting with bated breath to see what artist Seb Ciaffaglione would do for the second book in the series. On Friday I got to see it at last – and it is just as beautiful as Ice... Read the rest of this post

I know that several of you have been waiting impatiently for the new Ice Breaker bookplates. I thought your wait was over earlier this week – a parcel came in the mail, from the US where the bookplates are being printed. I opened the nice little box (which said ‘bookplates’ on the outside) thinking ‘Yes!... Read the rest of this post

I’ve been thinking about running another competition – mainly because they’re fun, but also because we haven’t had one for ages, and we’ve never had one for Ice Breaker. Trouble is, I can’t decide what it would be about. My favourite comp so far was the dress-up one – it’d be good to do another... Read the rest of this post

Some of you may know that parts of the second book in the Hidden series, Sunker’s Deep, are set on a tiny submersible called Claw. So a big part of writing it has been research, because I know Nothing At All about submarines and submersibles. Well – I didn’t when I started. Now I know... Read the rest of this post

Last weekend I went up to Beaconsfield in northern Tasmania for the first Beaconsfield Festival of Golden Words. The name comes from the fact that Beaconsfield used to be a gold mining town – well, still is, though the mine is closed at the moment. The town is where two miners (Brant Webb and Todd... Read the rest of this post

Well, I’m on holiday. I handed in the revisions for Sunker’s Deep a week ago, and decided to take two weeks off before I started in on Book 3, which has a working title of Fetcher. So last week I – um – pottered. That’s what I do on holidays. I don’t particularly like going... Read the rest of this post

I’m in the process of getting some new bookplates made for the new series. I love the Keepers bookplates (and if you don’t have at least one yet, go here to see what they’re like and order them), but I also thought it’d be good to have ones with Mister Smoke and Missus Slink on... Read the rest of this post

My niece Megan came to stay the other night, on her way down to Bruny Island to visit her sister. While she was here, we got out the photos of me and my brothers when we were kids, and laughed at the bathers we used to wear, and how my father used to line us... Read the rest of this post

I’ve been a bit lazy about updating this blog recently – partly because I haven’t had anything to say, which is as good a reason as any for keeping my mouth shut. Also, after the great excitement of the release and launch of Ice Breaker, I needed to hide for a bit. But now I... Read the rest of this post

After lots of to-ing and fro-ing and yes-ing and no-ing, we at last have a title for the second book in the Hidden series. SUNKER’S DEEP. What do you think? I liked it as soon as I saw it, and I like it more and more as time goes on. And it’s HUGE relief to... Read the rest of this post

What you need for a good book launch is a group of extraordinary people – creative, hard-working and clever. (It helps if they have theatrical experience.) And that’s what I had. An hour before the launch started, the Founders Room was bustling with people building icebergs out of cardboard boxes and white plastic, other people... Read the rest of this post

Yes, my dears, ‘Ice Breaker’ is now officially in the shops – in Australia and New Zealand, at least. Which is pretty exciting. Have you seen it anywhere? Have you read it yet? If you have, come and tell us what you thought. Here’s what Elena said about it (she’s one of the girls who... Read the rest of this post

I’m getting nervous. And excited. Two really good things happened this week. Firstly, my author copies of Ice Breaker arrived – and they look beeeauuuutiful! Such a gorgeous cover (I may have said this before )! It’s always so exciting when a new book arrives. I spent an afternoon driving around Hobart handing out copies... Read the rest of this post

I can’t believe the launch of Ice Breaker is getting so close. Here’s part of my to-do list: design badges buy card for badges talk to the tech person about sound and video measure doorway in Founders Room write script for Joel pick up the dvd Glenn made find cardboard for the main hatch arrange... Read the rest of this post

Only six weeks to go to the launch – and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery has agreed to lend us some penguins. Not real ones, unfortunately. Though I suppose things could get a bit out of hand if they were real. Loud squawking during the speeches. Feathers everywhere. Penguin poo on all the new... Read the rest of this post

It’s only seven weeks till Ice Breaker hits the shops, and things are hotting up. For a start, it just got its first review, in Bookseller & Publisher, which is the magazine that goes to all the bookshops. Here’s part of what they said: ‘Ice Breaker is wonderfully realised: the clanking engines, rusted walkways and... Read the rest of this post

My apologies for not having posted for a while – I’ve been busy working away at the second draft of Claw (which is no longer called Claw, but that’s still how I think of it). And the work isn’t finished yet. I’m writing a completely new ending, with bells and whistles, goats and pigeons, and... Read the rest of this post