Turrible misssspellings...

I am mortified. I has been misspelling Brian Falkner's name and I apologise. I can not blame anyone when it comes to my name because, really, it is jolly complicated. If you only hear it said, you have a snowball's hope in Hades of spelling it as it should be. But after a lifetime of this I have always made an effort to get other people's names right. So Brian, I am sorry. And folks, it is Falkner, not Faulkner. And Brian, not Brain although Brain is probably a good alternative if you read his books. I have severly punished myself with a large amount of chocolate.

I have been dreaming of international travel recently, possibly prompted by the fact that my daughters are off to the States soon for a couple of cheerleading competitions in Florida. This time we are not accompanying them. I keep looking up residencies but know my children are not yet old enough for me to be absent for several weeks or several months, even if I was fortunate enough to be awarded one. The travel bug is pesky like superbugs resistant to antibiotics or an incurable hangover. I am plagued by wanderlust. My loftiest dreams include travelling overseas because of my books. I try to keep my feet on the ground but experience has shown me you can never tell what's around the corner.

The agent is soon off to Bologna and although Bologna has not yielded me international success and worldwide domination so far, I am ever hopeful. The Were-Nana is making an appearance in Scholastic Australia's very attractive brochure this year and I have given my agent some very eye-catching postcards of my most recent books to lure overseas publishers in, and compel them to sign up overseas rights, or look at other stories of mine still available for first time publication. They are good. Better than chocolate and less fattening too. You know you want them!

Jack and I do like a good review...

I'm off to a few book launches over the next three weeks - for a picture book, The Cat with No Name by Sher Foley and Brian Lovelock (on Saturday 14th at Mainly Toys, 4pm), a junior novel Tough Enough by Tania Hutley (at Jabberwocky Books on Monday 23rd at 6pm), and an adult novel, Weathered Bones by Michele Poweles, (details tba). This feels good on so many levels: books are still being published, good things are happening to my friends, people are still celebrating. This weekend at the Auckland Festival Brian Falkner will be reading from his new book The Tomorrow Code on saturday in the Spiegel Tent and Lorraine Orman from her new book Haunted on sunday. Go hear them. I'm enjoying The Tomorrow Code so far, and certain elements of the story are really appealing to my secret inner science geek ( I am a science graduate after all). I have to say, the whole concept of a mobius strip may do my head in though. Good fun!

An author friend and also my agent alerted me to the happy fact of a nice review by Jenny Millar in the latest Magpie magazine (volume 24, page six of the NZ section) for my book Jack the Viking. Yay. The review is a bit spoilery so I will not quote the whole thing here but it closes with:

This is a great adventure story that describes the everyday life and ordeals of the Viking people. The novel also explores the world of adolescent boys, their secret attraction to girls, competitiveness, and power struggles. Highly recommended for the school library.

Also perfectly good for home libraries as well!

Work must come first to get love, adoration, contracts and book sales...

Over at Mary McCallum's blog she has a link to this which I agree is terrific advice for writers, although writing isn't quite like other work because you don't necessarily get paid for the time you spend. When I write I don't intend to come up with something to be rejected. I do my best to create something that I hope a publisher will feel compelled to accept. From all those hours/days weeks/months I hope payment will come. And even after a string of no's and unrewarded time I must knuckle down and spend more time beavering away at new material that also may be unrewarded. Sometimes this is depressing and its hard to push myself on to more creating. Other times I just feel downright lazy because it is, as Ms Frame so rightly said, work. Right now I am being BAD and avoiding work I MUST do. Blech. Don’t want to do stinky old work, just want love and adoration and book sales and new contracts. Pooh – work must come first to get all of those.

Writing for me is not a hobby although sometimes it has the qualities of a hobby (something done for love/enjoyment but not money). There are times when i call it a career because I work at it to improve my skills and sometimes the writing community or the world at large responds with positive noises and/or a commercial transaction takes place. But all the time, as Kate Grenville said in her submission that I linked to yesterday, it is a vocation; something I can and must do because of an undeniable desire and a belief that this is where my skills lie. And of course now I have to stop blogging, stop avoiding the work I should be doing, and go do it with the undying hope of the writer that at some point someone might say yes and I will get published and paid.

Why I love the blogosphere...

Wandered over to Justine Larbalestier's blog this morning, as I do most days. Its always fun to read but also often a source of inspiration and education. This morning was no exception. Today's entry contained a list of things she loves right now. I love lists! I may have to do one of my own. But my favouritist thing on Ms Larbalestier's list this morning was this - Kate Grenville's second submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Copyright Restrictions on the Parallel Importation of Books. The Australian Government is considering allowing the parallel importation of books and I have been trying to understand the issue and keep up with developments on this. I am unsure what the status of this issue is in New Zealand (although I must find out) but Kate Grenville's submission was brilliant. It not only clearly outlined the potential downsides of parallel importation for the local publishing industry and writers it was also an insight into the career of a tremendous best-selling australian writer which has not always run as smoothly as you would hope for someone of her calibre. Thank you to Justine Larbalestier for the link and thank you to Kate Grenville for clarity on a complex issue. Everybody go read it now.

When the voice isn't quite right...

Went to see the movie Watchmen last night. I can't say I was keen. This movie contains what I call extreme excessive violence. Ack. Now I ain't too squeamish. I like a good action flick and heck, I've even autopsied dead animals at 2 o'clock in the morning while all by myself, in the name of science, but this was a hard watch when I wasn't busy covering my eyes with my hands. I do have to admit, however, that I was fascinated by other aspects of the movie. I loved the idea of exploring a world where superheroes are part of the normal fabric of society. And that they weren't all good and noble. I loved the idea of the Dr Manhatten character - finding his humanity while being able to understand and control the physical nature of the universe. But after presenting a world where violence is the answer to just about everything and man is his own worst enemy, I didn't buy the characters rejoicing in the miracle of being human. And how many people was the most philanthropic character willing to kill? And that final act of altruism? The Dark Knight did it so much better. I'm glad I'm not immune to that level of violence but I'm worried about all the movie goers who might be. I also have to say it was weird being in town on a saturday night. I hope all those drunk young folk, especially the ones in their flimsy mini dresses didn't freeze to death and got home safely. Their parents were probably worried.

I have a truckload of writing work to do at the moment and I have been putting it off. However there's a deadline appraoching at a hundred miles an hour on this and I will have to suck it up and get on with it. I have this story idea I am very keen on and there is interest in it. I have already written an outline and a few chapters but I just know I haven't got the right feel yet. The voice is too old and too inside his head. I'm going to expand my outline and then try switching from first to third person and see what the result is like. The main issue behind the idea is quite a weighty one too and while respecting it, I don't want young readers to drown in the message so i have to keep a firm yet light control. I shall keep you updated. Oh and one of the short stories I submitted for this year's Random anthology edited by Barbara Else was accepted. Yay!!

Still giddy...

Still feeling all thrilled and squeeful on the inside about being a finalist in the NZ Post Book Awards. I'm not sure what it all means yet but I do know it means an author tour to Westport in May which I am very excited about. I have never been to this part of New Zealand before so its already feeling like a really big adventure and i love talking books and writing with children.

I can't get my head to stop doing mental cartwheels so writing is off the agenda this week but reading has been wonderful. Stopped in at a bookshop yesterday and was happy to see near the front entrance of the shop a big stand dedicated to the NZ Post Book Awards. Yay this was fabulous although the stand only had about three of the listed books on it. I guess its early days yet. I hope they are planning to fill up the stand. The only picture book finalist they had was Duck's Stuck (Kyle Mewburn, Ali Teo and John O'Reilly) so I got to read that and loved it. I reckon its guaranteed to make any child fall in love with words, its such a fun read. And I'm now reading The Tomorrow Code by Brian Falkner. Only just started though as I finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer last night. After successfully luring me in with the fun title and the light humorous beginning, this book takes twists and turns, describing the German occupation of Guernsey during the Second World War which was not at all light or humourous. I like a book that's smart without being too tricky and I'm a bit of a sucker for history without a text book feel so thoroughly enjoyed this. Now I have quite a bit of reading ahead of me to cover all the other finalists so I'd better get on with it...

The Were-Nana - NZ Post Book Awards finalist...updated

BREAKING NEWS! - my picture book The Were-Nana is a finalist in the picture book section of this year's NZ Post Book Awards. Yay!!

'There's nothing Simon enjoys more than scaring his little sister, Stella Rosa.And now that the mysterious Nana Lupin is coming to stay, Simon is having great fun. Stella Rosa is afraid. Is her nana really a monster?'

Congrats to Sarah Anderson too, co-finalist, who produced such fantastic knock-out illustrations and did such a wonderful design job. And thanks to Scholastic NZ for taking a chance on a story thats a little different.

Whoops - due to an error by the NZPA The Were-Nana and me were omitted from the list of NZ Post Book Awards finalists in yesterday's NZ Herald. They also got illustrators a bit mucked up and a book title too. Don't worry, you can read the correct list here by clicking on the side menu.