Book Review: Annual....

I was recently sent a copy of Gecko's 2016 Annual so I thought I'd do a bit of a review. It's a bold new step for Gecko, to produce an Annual: a collection of different writing, games, comic strips, poetry, activities and art for the intermediate/young teen reader. I remember owning and enjoying one or two annuals in my own childhood, but nowadays they seem to only be associated with teen boy bands, British icons like Beano and Rupert, or sports teams. There hasn't been anything available that is particularly kiwi that I can recall and as a gap was perceived in reading needs in this age group, Gecko responded with this very handsome book. It was with great interest and curiosity that I dived in between the pages.

I have to say it is rather beautiful, and every care has gone into making something that looks and feels cool and attractive, but is also hard wearing and long lasting.

So, to the contents. There are short stories, comic strips, poetry and essays of varying sizes by writers new and familiar. Names like Bernard Beckett, Barbara Else, Sarah Laing and Steve Braunias alongside Paul Beavis, Whiti Hereaka, Giselle Clarkson and Kirsten McDougall. There are things to do, games, things to make, differences to spot, a play, music, and quirky collected things. It is a superb selection. The writing is smart and assured. Stories examine themes such as family, relationships, finding your own place, growing up and being real. The art work is varied, often fun and always inspiring. I can see children with an artistic bent having a go at some of the tasks, but also trying to imitate some of the styles seen here.

(this artwork by Gavin Mouldey)

There is a really useful guide to visual storytelling. There is humour (poor Bad Luck Zebra) and a funny board game (whatever you do don't land on the square where you accidentally see Grandma naked!). I didn't like everything that was in there, but I think that is to be expected. There is a wide enough variety of theme and style to appeal to a good range of readers. With sophisticated writing, and all of it with an underlying ideas-driven and artistic vibe, this book is for the hungry, confident reader, and I think it will bend and stretch and entertain them in all sorts of good ways.

Out now at good bookstores

Excuse me while I do the limbo...

This year is a year without a book. I have a small project which will be out in print next month and I have been writing, mostly on the novel which I began while at the Pah Homestead, but this has been a fallow year. Sitting on the sideline watching the book world move forward without me. Excuse me while I do the limbo.

After the hurly burly of the last few years this feels strange. But I am no stranger to strange. Much of the first half of the year was spent at the Pah Homestead. Several months ago my focus was on preparation for our big overseas trip and then we embarked on the trip itself, which was awesome and monumental, both literally and figuratively. And then we returned and the remainder of the year fell into a kind of limbo with few fixed dates. The most excellent NZ Book Week (in the last week of October) and the wonderful and full of warm fuzzies NZ Bookshop day (on Halloween!!) was a most welcome departure from this. Huge thanks to the NZSA for rescuing this incredibly important event, and to the two bookshops (Time Out Bookstore in Mt Eden and the Dorothy Butler Children's Bookshop in Ponsonby) who invited me along on the 31st to share in their celebrations. It was a day of mutual love and respect between booksellers, writers and illustrators, and readers, and every one felt very wanted by the end of the day. I have everything crossed and knotted that this becomes an annual arrangement.

But the rest of the time... well ... I'm mostly still in limbo. It feels like being in one of those flotation chambers where you have no choice but to be introspective. I've been navel gazing and reading posts and articles on the social media platforms I'm signed up to which can be a very dangerous occupation. And trying to fathom twitter which is a deep well of weirdness. Whether Essena O'Neill's reasons for quitting social media were honest or not she's right about sites like facebook, twitter and tumblr being a heavily filtered version of reality. Even if photos and comments are raw and genuine, folk still curate their images and words carefully to show the side of themselves they are willing to reveal. And people have agendas. Twitter, while it still feels like learning a foreign language, is a perfect example of an agenda driven medium. All sorts of strangers have started following me and I know it's not because of my phenomenal wit and stunning beauty (ahem - cough) as clearly neither of these are on display on the platform (cough, cough). For some, it's because they hope to sell me something at some point, whether it's their services or their books. I am allergic to direct selling, preferring to find my books by way of good writing and discovering an author is really cool and has interesting things to say, which seems to be a novel way of doing things these days. And I always (where possible) try and buy my required services locally. And yet twitter  is so interesting. Social media has multiple means of luring you in and turning you into an internet zombie ... anyways, as always, I have digressed.  

So, while I wander the labyrinth of social media like a modern day  Ulysses without a ball of string wondering whether I mind being lost or not, 2016 looms... looking mostly like a blank canvas. The thought of a new year is always a mixture of dread and giddy anticipation. So many possibilities, so much free time.

I do have a picture book scheduled for release next June. Yay!! Fuzzy Doodle. Illustrated by the marvelous Donovan Bixley and published by Scholastic. I don't have any pics to share yet and I am feeling a little coy about revealing any part of the story. Soz. But soon folks ... soon you can have a wee peek...

So, one key event for 2016, and the rest has still been feeling like a yawning chasm of nothing. An emptiness...

I booked a few things to give myself the illusion of busy and/ or important. Tickets for my SO and I to see The Tempest at the Pop Up Globe Theatre in March. And a follow up specialist's appointment in October. Woohoo! But after the schedules of the last few years things were still looking a leedle bit barren. Don't worry, my SO said, things will crop up. That's pretty much always been my philosophy too. Stay connected and involved. Keep writing - cos that's what I like to do. And have faith that things will arrive to pepper the calendar with busy and/or important. And fun!

And you know what? It's already started happening...