Could writing become an Olympic Sport?

I'm writing this with one eye on the telecast of the Olympic Games. I see the nerves, agitation and stress in the mannerisms of those competing. Why not? If it was me lined up to compete with the worlds fastest who made Olympic selection I too would be sweating it. After many years of training, and finely tuned to perfection, the day arrives and the athletes compete in their chosen field. For the most elite, it is success, and dreams achieved. For many, their dreams are shattered in minutes.
For writers, life is somewhat the same. A lengthy period of months or years slogging away writing what they hope will be the book that sees great success can end with a simple letter. The rejection letter! Not what one wants to find in a letterbox or an email. Like the athlete who returns home determined to train harder, and become the best they can, so too must the writer revisit the rejected work and make it their best work. The world is competitive and we all strive for success, however,  learning to accept failure along the way is also a vital part of life. 

SCBWI Conference Sydney June/July 2012

Wow here it is the end of July and I am ashamed to admit I haven't updated my blog in a month! It has been such a busy time in the past couple of months for me. Late June I had a wonderful trip to the South Coast visiting Ulladulla and Broulee schools as part of the Carpet Court Storybook Challenge. It was a fabulous finish to what had been a very busy and rewarding month of visiting schools in Regional Australia. Soon the competition entries will be judged, and the winning entry from students will be selected, and the student's schools will be rewarded for their participation in the challenge. Fingers crossed to the schools I have visited and to all the gorgeous children I met. I hope you win the fabulous prizes on offer.

It was a quick visit home with my family for a few days before I was yet again packing a suitcase and off to the bi-annual SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) writing conference at the end of June. Oh how I love SCBWI!  It is such a fantastic time. I love nothing more than meeting up with many wonderful Australian writers who attend every two years for what is an action packed conference. Not only do writers and illustrators attend, Publishers and agents also join the line up.

This year the conference opened with a meet and greet book launch, an Illustrators showcase of artwork and a fabulous cocktail party on the Friday evening. Saturday was a huge day, with packed sessions at the NSW Writer's Centre and the welcome dinner at the Hugheden Hotel later that night. As always we laughed and talked into the wee hours after a wonderful night of entertainment by some talented writers and illustrators who not only write books, but can sing and play instruments!

Sunday settled into the regular norm of a full day of sessions that kept everybody running between listening to guest speakers, manuscript assessments, lunch, book launches and more fabulous sessions in the afternoon. This year we were offered the chance to partake in another day for Masterclasses. I jumped at this chance to learn more from the masters and did two classes. What a full on day it was with much scribbling of pens, taping of keys on Ipad's and laptops. It was like being back at University and so worthwhile.

Sadly my 4 days had come to an end.   I said farewell to my friends, both old and new and headed home - with my bags loaded with books and business cards and inspired to get stuck into my writing.

SCWBI

Announcement from New Frontier Publishing

Congratulations to Peter Carnavas and Tracey Hawkins

Congratulations to Peter Carnavas and Tracey Hawkins.

Both The Great Expedition and Nancy Bentley have been shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Book of the Year Award in the Lower Primary category.

Each year, Speech Pathology Australia awards three Australian authors the “Best Book for Language Development” in the categories – Young Children, Lower Primary, Upper Primary and Indigenous Children.  

The awards aim to promote literacy and the need for good literacy skills, while building a library of resources that speech pathologists, teachers and parents can use to help promote literacy and reading.

These awards are very special to us at New Frontier and we are delighted that two of our authors feature prominently on the shortlist.

June 12, 2012 at 9:25pm

www.newfrontier.com.au

Storybook Challenge, New England Region, NSW

 On Friday 15th June I had the opportunity to promote the Carpet Court Storybook Challenge to regional schools in the New England Region. 

My first author event was to visit with students at St Edwards Primary School in Tamworth and then to The Armidale School, Armidale late afternoon.

"A big hello to all the lovely kids and teachers I met."

I was warmly welcomed at both schools, and the kids, what can I say? Wow, they were so very excited!

It was very thrilling for me too as the kids had never met an author before.  

To read my books and explain to them the story behind the writing process was akin to sprinkling magic upon every little head.

I arrived to a sea of smiling faces, little waves and everybody wriggling that little bit closer to be near me. I was touched. While it was another author visit for me- for them,  I was the mysterious person who wrote the book. No longer was I simply a name on the book cover.

As I read,  the books danced into life, with every word becoming a real storybook moment.  

The room filled with laughter and giggles as I snored my way through Max Meets a Monster. 

I had lots of questions to answer about writing of Nancy Bentley The First Australian Female Sailor . 

Most certainly kids are interested in history, and a snake bite had their attention!

Most surprising was the arrival of a Prime News Crew in Tamworth. They stayed for the entire session and  the event aired on the news that same evening. Click on the link to watch the segment.

http://au.prime7.yahoo.com/n2/video/-/watch/29670897/the-wonderful-world-of-books/

I can't be sure who had the most fun? I certainly enjoyed myself as much, if not more than the kids. It was a perfect day in every way.

Carpet Court Storybook Challenge 2012

June is powering along and I have many exciting Author Events to undertake in the next 3 weeks . This month I am off on road trips around NSW visiting schools, promoting the Carpet Court Storybook Challenge.

Last week I had a beautiful trip out to Cootamundra and Young. It was a crisp day but the schools were warm and welcoming. After reading my picture books, I spoke with the children about entering the challenge.

So what does a Carpet Court Store have to do with writing a story I hear you ask? Schools in the region have been invited to enter the Carpet Court Storybook Challenge and each student in years 1- 4 has the opportunity to write and illustrate a story based on "What I love most about my community".  Entries are to be posted on the Carpet Court Facebook and the community can view and vote on the entries. The winning  entry wins a $250 Book prize for the student, and the school wins a $1,000.00 book prize and a wonderful reading mat from the local Carpet Court store.

Friday 15th June I am visiting Schools in Tamworth and Armidale NSW. The following week I'm off to Ulladulla and Bateman's Bay, finishing with an event in the ACT.

To find out more about the Storybook Challenge and how to enter, simply click the link below.

www.carpetcourt.com.au/storybook-challenge

Nancy Bentley- Shortlisted for Australia's Speech Pathology Awards 2012

 

                  

Speech Pathology Australia’s Book of the Year Awards 2012 – Shortlist Announced

 Nancy Bentley has been listed on the Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards shortlist for 2012.

Congratulations to all the authors shortlisted.

Secret of the Swords: Sword Girl 1	Frances Watts	Allen & Unwin
The Little Refugee	Anh and Suzanne Do	Allen & Unwin
Ships in the Field	Susanne Gervay	Ford Street Publishing
Billie B Brown: The Little Lie	Sally Rippin	Hardie Grant Egmont
The Great Expedition	Peter Carnavas	New Frontier Publishing
Nancy Bentley: The First Australian Female Sailor	Tracey Hawkins	New Frontier Publishing
Ready, Set, Boris	Andrew Joyner	Penguin Group (Australia)
Ted Goes Wild	Michael Wagner	Penguin Group (Australia)
Our Gags	Catriona Hoy	Walker Books
Violet Mack’s Remarkable Recovery	Anna Branford	Walker Books
Walker Stories: Lollylegs	Pamela Freeman	Walker Books
Sam the Cat	Sam Bowring & Andrew McLean

Book of the Year Awards 2012

Each year, Speech Pathology Australia awards three Australian authors the “Best Book for Language Development” in the categories – Young Children, Lower Primary, Upper Primary and Indigenous Children.  

Each award is based on the book’s appeal to children, interactive quality and ability to assist speech pathologists and parents in communication and literacy development.

The intention of Speech Pathology Australia’s Book of the Year Awards is to:

• Enhance people’s awareness of the role speech pathologists play in literacy development.
• Gradually develop a nationally recognised pool of books that speech pathologists can recommend for the development of oral language and speech and/or sound awareness.
• Promote the Association with the Book of the Year Awards ceremony.

The 2012 Shortlist has been announced. Winners will be awarded at a ceremony on 16 October.

                                                                                  Previous winners 2011

Unblocking the pipes and oiling the cogs.

May has all but passed me by and what have I been doing? Hmm, wish I could say I have been in lock down writing up a storm, but in fact, I have to admit I have been otherwise occupied. All the same, I have been in my study for most of the time busy with things. There comes a time when you have to unblock the pipes, oil the cogs and make the creative environment...well creative again. To enable this I had to attack my appalling filing system, and win the battle of the computer vs. spam infiltration, and find my desk beneath the piles of creative mess in progress. Some it seemed was mine, a large pile of paper seemed to be missing school notes (aha there they are!), yr 12 assignment drafts from my youngest son and strange coded sheets of my eldest son's Software engineering assignments that had misprinted.  Unwanted paperwork was torn and shredded, vital work placed into folders and organised into book boxes, school work returned to owner, and desktop cleared.

My second task was to back up my computer before it was wiped. A big job when you are not brilliant at all things technical and the 'brilliant one' you need, has a heavy load at Uni and works as a Business Analyst in a Government depart 17 hrs a week and has no time to help his mother.

However, with the help of Google I found answers to my problems and found out how to do the things I needed to do with saving/exporting files and emails. Complications arose as my not-so-old (but well out of warranty) widescreen monitor decided to pack it in at the same time! One minute I would be in the middle of a crucial act- then the screen would suddenly go blank... so I'd have to wait for the screen to return to normal and then continue. It was time consuming and frustrating! Eventually I had to resort to using my old square monitor- Arrgh, how horrid,  it was the wrong shape.
By last week I saved all I needed (and saved the family folders too- although they all own computers/laptops/Ipads etc as do I, my computer is the hot spot). D day arrived and I wiped the computer,  and bought a new monitor. Installing all my folders and components back to the computer was a big job. Not content with importing the folders as they were, I decided to rejig everything. I  created basic folders and combined all the relative folders within. I moved all my pictures into folders defined by the year they were taken and VOILA  I have created a more orderly look to the various folders and my messy filing system is under better control. 
Once I had installed my new Samsung monitor with its 24" screen on the desk, I was back in business. 

My focus in getting my work place organised has been partly due to the 10 week writing challenge I started 6 weeks ago. Although not monitored or regulated,  any goals I have set for myself  during this period are all self achieving. Family needs always work against the flow but I have somehow followed through on my to-do list and I am making progress.





I added some fun to the study with wordart





This is my funky hand I sit in to read over my work!