Marysville and beyond

I wasn’t quick enough to get photos before two of the three attending schools for our MARC Literature Festival had to board buses to return to Buxton and Eildon. So this cohort is Marysvile PS students.

As always, this is a wonderful festival, supported by Merrijig MARC, Marysville PS and the indomitable Libby and Lyn.

I presented The Anzac Billy and Christmas at Grandma’s Beach House to both my groups of P-Yr 3 students (and yes, there was some singing) and then we made Christmas chains. As you can see, they worked hard!

Me, Marjory Gardner, Corinne Fenton, Mark Wilson and Libby, all of us still smiling. Hard to believe this is our tenth MARC Lit Fest. Hope we can keep going for many years to come.

Took a little drive up to Steavenson’s Falls afterwards. Wonderful to see vegetation returning, although scars are everywhere.

King parrots joined us for afternoon tea at the bakery.

The Black Spur never ceases to put on a show, even through the dirty windscreen of a moving car.

At the opposite end of the same weekend, I had visitors at Younger Sun, in Yarraville. They’d been using Dingo to model making their own stories. They had very insightful questions for me about the writing of Dingo, several I had not been asked before. Then Patrick showed me Panda.

Wow! A fabulous story including foreshadowing and very sophisticated image-making. Congratulations to Patrick on a great story, and to the teachers at St Joseph’s. It was such a thrill to meet these three and their teacher. Thank you to them for visiting and to the wonderful Younger Sun for facilitating it.

Making their own stories and reading for pleasure. Spinning their own worlds as they head into secondary school. The future is bright.

Literature Festival

I’m very much looking forward to this annual MARC Literature Festival, this year hosted by Marysville Primary School. MARC = Mobile Area Resource Centre = mobile library. This MARC service is now operated out of Merrijig and covers about 16 schools (don’t quote me on that, but there are a few). Eildon and Buxton students will bus in to join Marysville students in a day-long literary festival.

It’s wonderful to trip out of town, and to meet students from smaller, more remote schools. It’s my last school visit for the year and it’s always a highlight. This year we’re trialling longer sessions, because we always seem to run out of time! Looking forward to it.

 

Peaking

Bookweek is peak school-visit time for writers and illustrators and over recent years, the ‘week’ has (fortunately) extended to a much longer time. This year has been a doozy!

It began for me in early August with Papua New Guinea, where Tina Clark and I spent just over a week working with students and teachers. The week culminated with a presentation to parents and families of the work they’d been doing (and a fabulous birthday celebration for Tina!)

We were also lucky enough to get a sneak peek at a Queen Alexandra Birdwing butterfly breeding program that is hoping to return these world-biggest butterflies to their land.

Next up, I travelled to Vanuatu as guest of Port Vila International School. What a wonderful whirlwind! In addition to working with the students at PVIS, I also visited an island school via banana boat and another primary school (both schools were on holidays but opened for our visit), a French school and an independent school. In between, I snorkelled, swam in the bluest lagoon, watched sunrises and sunsets, cruised the harbour and sampled some of the finest food. I also learned that the duration of a land lease there equalled the life of a coconut tree! Having lived in Bougainville in my childhood, there were many familiar experiences, but so many new ones too. I was welcomed so warmly by the school community it was hard to say goodbye.

 

I flew home on a Friday afternoon, switched clothes and resources and was on a plane to Sydney on Sunday afternoon for a week of school visits in Sydney and Newcastle, organised by The Children’s Bookshop. 

Back in Melbourne, I visited schools very near and about as far from my house as is possible and still be in town.

Throw in a trip to Vietnam, edits on an upcoming novel and an upcoming picture book and it starts to explain why I’ve not blogged for a bit. I am so lucky to work in the world of words, teachers, librarians, children and their families. But I am looking forward to some time at home.

A coupla pics

Thank you Robinsons Bookshop (Werribee) for supporting my visit to Tarneit Library.

The wonderful Tarneit (Wyndham) Library. Thanks for such a warm welcome.

 

From here to there

I am halfway through a schedule of four events in less than 7 days. Not that I’m thinking this is necessarily a heavy speaking load, but it is taking some planning.

You might think I can use a single talk for all of them, but of course life isn’t like that. And that’s okay, but I’ve needed to make lists and pack bags early to be sure that I have the right resources for each.

Yesterday I visited a lovely local school. The initial brief was that I’d be speaking for an hour with a group of Yr 1&2s who have just completed their unit on writing narratives. That grew to include all the preps, and then on the day, there were also some Yr 4s! Flexibility is the name of that game!

Today I was a Books in Homes Ambassador at a school about 40 min away. This time the audience was the entire school body and the duration, 15 minutes. Afterwards, I and three representatives of the sponser Mainfreight, had the lucky job of personally handing out bags of books to students.

There were too many students to photograph, so here is a picture of one of the occupants of the tank in the reception area.

Tomorrow I’m at a library about half an hour away, doing storytime for an hour, for a group that is currently unnumbered but could be around 100. Preschoolers mostly and their siblings and carers.

And to round out my week, on Tuesday next, I’m guest speaker at a Christmas in July event at a RSL club north of the city. I have no idea of numbers but I do know which book I’m talking about.

Paperback Writer

It’s been a week or so of parcels. I love parcels. Who doesn’t? Each one of the parcels has contained books. There were paperback editions of Koala (Australian)

Dingo (US)

and a new-cover Old Sailor (Australia).

There have also been emails confirming:

1. Seadog will be back in paperback soon

2. Wild Pa will soon be available in paperback

3. Meet the Anzacs and Meet Weary Dunlop will be appearing for the second time in ALDI

And as if that weren’t enough excitement, there was a Royal Mail sack, complete with special security tags, containing Walker UK editions of ‘The Anzac Billy’.

My cup runneth over.

 

Oh, what a night!

It started with a – no, not a kiss, although it’s possible that my header suggested a song.

It started with a ‘The Anzac Billy’ event at my wonderful local Hobsons Bay library, Altona Meadows branch, with attendees from Queen of Peace primary school. We talked all things 1915, WWI, children missing absent parents, Christmas treats and the multiple uses of a billy.

Then, I was out the door quicker than you could say, ‘I have a plane to catch.’ I was off to Sydney for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards presentation night at the NSW State Library’s Mitchell Library.

Made the plane with at least 10 min to spare. Plane was on time. Taking off and landing. Made the train with 3 min to spare. Booked into hotel. Rapid costume change. In and out of the hotel in less than 15 minutes. Made the pre-event meeting with 12 min to spare. Made the event time within 2 min of start time.

Ahh. Relax.

Well as much as you can relax when your book is shortlisted and there’s going to be announcements. Concentrated on greeting familiar faces, and meeting new ones. (Sharon Kernot – love ‘The Art of Taxidermy’)

We’d been briefed to have a 1 min acceptance speech. Such a tricky thing to do when you are desperately trying not to imagine winning because every book in the shortlist deserves to win. Including ‘Leavetaking’, by friend and writing buddy, Lorraine Marwood

We sat alongside the illustrator of Dingo, Tannya Harricks, who I’d met for the first time only minutes before.

Then this happened …

‘Leavetaking’ and ‘Dingo’ were announced as co-winners of the Patricia Wrightson Award.

 

NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2019 held in the Mitchell Reading Room, honoring Australian writers

NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2019 held in the Mitchell Reading Room, honoring Australian writers

NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2019 held in the Mitchell Reading Room, honoring Australian writers

There’s some fog around the next hour or so, but it included the pre-prepared speech, much hugging and a bit of pinching. And look at the other company our book is keeping!

Visit here, for the complete list of the wonderful short list and winners.