And now for something completely different...that's actually the same thing (A Winter's Day in 1939 Australian Cover)

And then there's this :)

For the Australian market.

A Winter's Day in 1939...(New Zealand Cover)

Coming out March 2013

The boy on the front cover is my father...(designed by Book Design).

The book has been reviewed on radio by Kate De Goldi and Kim Hill (you will need to scroll down the list) here and by John McIntyre of the Children's Bookshop in Wellington here. There are other reviews here, here and here.

Why and How I wrote A Winter’s Day in 1939

When the Soviet soldiers come and order them out, Adam and his family have no idea where they are going or if they will ever come back.  The Germans have attacked Poland and the world is at war. Boarding a cattle train Adam and his family embark on a journey that will cover thousands of miles and several years, and change all their lives forever. And mine too. Because Adam’s story, the story told in my new novel A Winter’s Day in 1939, is very much my Dad’s story.

I often heard fragments of this story from my dad when I was growing up.  It was shocking, and sad, and amazing.  My Dad’s family was forced out of their home and taken to a labour camp in Russia. It was freezing cold, and many people died from disease or starvation. Even when the Soviets finally let them go, they spent weeks travelling around the USSR , were made to work on Soviet farms and were still hungry and often sick, with no idea of where they might end up next.  As a child growing up in a peaceful place like New Zealand it was hard to imagine the real dangers and terrible conditions my father experienced.

 I didn’t get to know the full story until I was grown up with children of my own and was regularly writing stories for children.  I wrote a short story, also called A Winter’s Day in 1939, based on a single event I knew fairly well  from my Dad‘s childhood – when Soviet Soldiers first come to order them off their farm, the only home my father had known up till that point in his life. The story was published in The Australian School Magazine.  I showed the short story to the publishers Scholastic who liked it too. They wondered if I could turn it in to a novel.  This was a chance to tell my father’s story. By now I knew it was an important story that should be shared

Luckily my Dad had made notes about his life during World War Two; about twenty pages all typed up.  However I know people’s real lives don’t always fit into the framework of a novel and I knew I would have to emphasize some things and maybe leave other things out.

I read and researched to add the right details to the story. And asked my parents lots of questions. How cold was it in Poland in January 1940? Who or what were the NKVD? What were the trains like? What are the symptoms of typhoid? How do you make your own skis? Some information was hard to find. Some of the places that existed in the 1940s aren’t there anymore. And people didn’t keep records about how many people were taken to the USSR from Poland or what happened to particular individuals. But what I wanted to give readers most of all was a sense of how it felt to live that life.  So this then is the story of a twelve year old Polish boy in the USSR during World War 2 that all started on A Winter's Day in 1939. 

Sherlock analysed...

So, I'd been hoping I would be able to show you the cover of my new book A Winter's Day in 1939 today but there has been a slight change of plans. Do not be alarmed faithful friends as the changed plans are not problems.

Instead today I am forced to change topic and talk about one of my current obsessions, shoes, chocolate, Sherlock. As we head in to the summer television season the quality of programming is already dropping. I am forced (and okay I am not really having my arm held up my back here) to watch my Sherlock DVDs to ensure the continuing quality of televisual entertainment. And not only am I entertained but I can feel my writing improving from watching things like this with smart plotting and characterisation, creating an effective villain, sowing clues, satisfying conclusions and awesome dialogue. Of course the experience is elevated by great production values, effective direction and superb acting but, really, these are essential in a book as well so its all good training. We writers have the best boot camps. I feel fitter already.

As any good fan will know the final episode in the second series of Sherlock was quite a cliff hanger and it is difficult to imagine how they are going to explain the main character surviving a very busted head and large blood loss on the pavement after his fall from the top of the hospital. One of the writers Steven Moffat has said there is a clue in that final episode to how its done and it is specifically something that Sherlock does that is out of character. I have watched and re-watched and have seen what I think are a few clues but haven't been able to formulate a solid explanation. I think I understand the Higgs Particle better. Damn you Mr Moffat et al - I would have watched the next series anyway but now I am forced to suffer in between times and have much racking of the brain trying to figure it all out - consider my brain severely racked. My suspected clues so far include the front page headline of the newspaper Sherlock reads in A Scandal in Belgravia (with The woman) that says Refit for Historical Hospital. I can't imagine this is just a casual production effort and I can't see any other reason for its inclusion. In the Fall episode Sherlock makes tea (for Moriarty) which he never does otherwise but this doesn't seem to be terribly meaningful. There are several plot developments that have potential such as the little girl screaming at the sight of Sherlock and the blood?/mark? at the spot where Holmes steps up on the ledge, the van parked below, the cyclist knocking Watson over but none of these is an out of character thing for Holmes. That Sherlock is indifferent to Mrs Hudson's being shot is out of character but this is clearly part of his effort to get Watson out of the way. I guess I'm a little surprised Watson didn't question this. Holmes includes Molly in his plans because he recognizes that his previous behaviour towards her has led Moriarty to ignore her, thereby excluding her as a potential target for Moriarty's final plans. She can fly under the radar so to speak. So Sherlock has guessed some of what Moriarty is planning (wheels within wheels) but fails to see that the binary code tapped out is a red herring??? He knew he was going to have to appear to die, how did he not see the code?? That's unlike Holmes. His statement to Molly that he needs her, is unlike Holmes. So Molly and the Hospital are crucial to Sherlock's great escape. I'm hoping there's not some look-a-like/great switcheroo involved (the screaming girl, the convincing dead body). They did whisk the body away with unseemly haste - not enough time to draw a chalk outline round the body folks - don't they usually wait for the police in these circumstances?? Mr Moffat am I warm with any of this? I hope I believe the denouement when I finally get to see it. Either way I'll be learning from it.

I do like a little vitamin D...

The light has changed. I've seen daffodils, and magnolia are going crazy all over the neighbourhood. And I try not to look but there's a lot of Tui love going on out in the back garden. Can Spring have sprung? I don't like to say it out loud cos its only just gone August but shesh, you can't deny what's going on in front of your own eyes, can ya? I hope its Spring - nothing like the season of hope and renewel to make me feel just a wee bit perky. That and all that vitamin D coursing through me. Yowza.

General perkiness can probably also be attributed to holiday plans moving ahead and the dreaming's about there-of. Nothing like a laid-back, pre-christmas, tropical break to soothe the nerves.

And following up on an earlier post I couldn't help noticing in today's children's PW e-zine that the cover of Justine Larbalestier's book Liar is to be changed. Huge congratulations to Justine. And I'd also say one big tick for the internet on this one as general outrage and disappointment about the inappropriate nature of the original US cover travelled mighty fast and wide. You can read about it at Justine's blog here. This is excellent news but I'm still a little sad there was ever a problem in the first place. At least things are moving in the right direction.

Not much else to say for myself. Already at work on the next assignment. Trying to keep hopeful about all my stories out there trying to wow the publishers. Thinking too about some writing about writing to present at the Speed dating, at some author talks I have ahead of me and maybe a bit of research on how it is I write short stories. Somethings working but I haven't figured out what or how yet. Funny analysing one's self. Freud would probably have something to say about that!