I’ve been back working on my wip today and I desperately wanted to include ‘swash’, but no matter how many times I rework the lines, it just won’t fit.
The shallow wave wash that pushes up the beach after a wave breaks has a name! I knew that the pull back was called backwash, but I didn’t know that there was such a thing as ‘swash’. What a great word!
I’ve finally accepted that – wonderful word though it is – there’s no room for it in this for this story. I’m a bit disappointed but perhaps now the story can move forward.
A little taster from my novel “Haywire” which was published mid-pandemic. Notice the lovely silver sticker? “Haywire” was shortlisted in this year’s NSW Premier’s History Awards.
Tom (Hay NSW) October 1939
There is silence around the dinner table: no plate-clinking, no elbow-jostling, no open-mouth chewing, no seat-wriggling.
Nothing normal.
Mick and Pete have joined up. Joined the army. Volunteered to go fight in the war.
‘The militia?’
The militia are a sort of home army. They won’t go overseas but do stuff here. I’m not really sure what.
Pete shakes his head.
They’re going on a ship. Overseas. To fight against Hitler and the Germans. Like we see in the newsreels each Saturday.
Mum’s face is paler than it was the time I nearly cut my finger off. Dad stares into the distance. Mick’s chin is out. Pete scratches at something interesting on the tablecloth.
My big sister, Joanie, opens and closes her mouth like a landed fish. Her boyfriend is in the militia and she reckons she knows everything. But my little sister beats her.
Mary takes a big, noisy breath. ‘But people get killed at war!’
…
Max (Bockhurst, Germany) October 1939
I am in mathematics class, turning numbers into angles.
If I’d known what was about to happen, perhaps I would have cleared my desk.
Or told Markus Kleinitz what I really thought of him.
I know I definitely wouldn’t have worried as much about geometry.
But I didn’t know.
I thought it was a normal day.
The school secretary whispers to Mr Weber, then waits by the door. Mr Weber looks at me and I wonder what I’ve done.
‘Gruber.’ He nods in the direction of the door.
I untangle my legs and follow the secretary down the central corridor of the middle school, all the way to the office.
There at the end is my mother. Why isn’t she at work?
‘Danke.’ Mutti nods at the secretary. ‘Come, Max,’ she says and hands me my coat, hat and scarf. ‘Your grandmother is gravely ill. We must go to her at once.’
I frown. Oma died more than a year ago. I open my mouth to ask. Mutti shakes her head, just a little, but enough so I close my mouth again and wind my scarf around my neck.
Still she says nothing.
Mutti retrieves a knapsack from the snow steps and threads my arms into it. It’s heavy.
…
Haywire is a novel for 10+ and travels from Germany, via England to outback town Hay, where Tom, son of local baker, meets Max, German internee who arrives via the Dunera with 2500 other internees in the small, quiet inland town of Hay. Both boys are trapped in lives not of their choosing.
Available for purchase here, here, here, and independent bookshops everywhere.
Melbourne and Victoria are slowly emerging from lockdown and it’s a wonderful thing. We’ve been able to see family and have begun to see friends again too.
On Tuesday, Sam from Wild Dingo Press and I visited bookshops – real live in person visits! It was so lovely to walk through familiar doors and chat to familiar booksellers. To talk books and sign books.
There’s no doubting that there are many people and places that have had tougher lockdown experiences than I have, but doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate being able to leave home for more than the four reasons. I love wandering about and seeing unexpected things. All add to the ‘filling the well’ that I find so important for writing. This image is from the gallery under Flinders St that leads to the station. The title for the exhibition, or for this window, is ‘Structured Layer by Layer’ and features the work of Penny Sharples (on wall), and mosaics by Luna Cameron-Parrish. I like the calm of the painting and the contrast of the layers in the mosaic with the wall tiles of the tunnel.I saw this before the subway art, but it fits really, being so many layers. So many posters layered on top of each other, but peeling away to show what else is there. Like a paperbark tree. This lane, between Bourke St mall and Little Collins, is usually full of photographers taking pics of the graffiti. There’s a quietness here, despite the shouting of the colours. Shops are opening slowly, but there are lots of empty ones too. This is a favourite streetscape, between Collins and Flinders Lane. I overheard snippets of conversations between vendors and customers like whispers or memories. I love that the world lives here.
Georgia Ward-Fear and I have been chatting on the radio with Shane Huntington. Neither Georgia nor I could be there live, so we Zoomed in. It was a good half-way method. We could see each other but it was an audio interview (which went out live). Whoever thought of this idea is to be applauded!
It also meant I didn’t need to put on shoes and it didn’t matter that it has been time + several months since I had a haircut!
If you’d like to listen to us chatting about our Wild Dingo Press book Aussie Stem Stars: Georgia Ward-Fear, here‘s the link. You’ll meet the wonderful Georgia and get a small taste (or not taste) of cane toads, and why goannas are no longer eating them.
Thank you so much to everyone who entered our Kookaburra competition, for your imagination and skill. We were overwhelmed by the quality and number of entries in both categories. Thank you to the parents and teachers who supported their children/students.
Congratulations to our winners, for their imaginative and lyrical new verses
Emily (9, Forest Hill VIC)
Kookaburra sits in the empty playground
wishing there were children to make a sound
Come everybody, come everybody,
when this lockdown ends.
and Noah (Yr 2 St Pius X Unanderra NSW)
Kookaburra sits on my garden shed
Eyeing off my food like he wants to be fed
I give in kookaburra, you win kookaburra
I’ll leave some out at tea
Congratulations to our artwork winners for their creative and original artworks:
Quentin (Yr 2 Our Lady of Lourdes PS NSW)
and Petra (Yr 1 Brunswick Nth PS Vic)
Congratulations too to Yr 5B at St Joseph’s Catholic PS Como-Oyster Bay NSW for submitting 36 verses – a clear winner for the most entries from a single class (verse) and to Yr 1/2AL at Avalon PS NSW for submitting 22 artwork entries, the most for a single class and school. Prizepacks are being sent to both classes.
Tannya and I shortlisted 5 entries in each category before choosing winners. Choosing a shortlist was tough but choosing winners was even tougher.
Each of the entries on the shortlist deserves a Special Mention.
Writing Special Mentions:
Amali (Year 6, William Clarke College Kellyville NSW),
Kookaburra sits in the hot gum tree
Tryna find shade cause it’s a hundred degrees
Search kookaburra, search kookaburra
Burnt your feathers must be
Hamish (Yr 2, Camberwell PS Vic)
Kookaburra soars through the dusty sky,
Looking down on rivers and lands so dry.
Fly, Kookaburra, fly, Kookaburra,
Watch the scene from high.
and Iyah (Yr 2 Our Lady Star of the Sea PS Ocean Grove Vic)
… only a few more days to get your Kookaburra entries in! We’ve had so many fabulous verses and pictures, it’s going to be tough to choose winners (if only we could award every single entry!).
I love the different ways that young authors and illustrators are bringing our Kookaburra to life and look forward to sharing some with you.
*Did you know*
Kookaburra teenagers (not really teenagers, really they’re young adults) are really keen to help with nesting, but are so clumsy they sometimes break the eggs.
There are two more weeks until the end of our kookaburra competition (scroll down for details). Tannya and I are so pleased that students and classes are creating kookaburra magic. There are so many talented young people out there sharing their work.
Submitted artwork has been stunning, and I nearly fell off my chair laughing at some of the new ‘Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree’ verses.
There are prizes for illustrators, prizes for writers, and a prize for the class that submits the most entries! So many ways to win.
Keep those entries rolling in. We love your work.
To inspire you further, here are some wonderful words. All are from NSW indigenous languages (although spellings vary depending on who wrote them down). All are onomatopoeic.
Kookaburra entries are coming in. Yesterday’s poetry offerings had me rolling about on the floor! Just the perfect thing for a wintry lockdown Wednesday. Keep them coming!
My biography of Aussie Stem Star Georgia has hit bookshops around the country. It’s so exciting to see this book in print. Georgia had no idea what she wanted to be until after she started university and even then she nearly dropped out to become a cabaret dancer! But her childhood was full of exploration in the Aussie bush in the Blue Mountains, both with her family and solo. Her love of animals and her passion to see them in their natural environment led to a career as an reptile biologist and explorer. Her PhD involved teaching yellow-spotted monitors NOT to eat cane toads! But that’s not all … you should read about how she travelled through Pacific Islands in a demountable kayak.
Look out for the other two books in this new series from Wild Dingo Press
Dianne Wolfer has written about Munjed al Muderis, and Cristy has written about Fiona Wood. Such amazing writers and such wonderful subjects.
Science has never been more important than it is now. Look out for these titles in all good bookshops.
