We interrupt this broadcast....

I would like to interrupt this interlude with a brief return to normal service (well, as normal as you can ever hope to receive from me). I have been having a bit of an interesting time of it lately and thought I would share some of it with you folks.

The residency, I am very happy to say so far, has been providing me with the perfect environment for 'getting on with the story'. It is a reminder of what is needed to do this job - a quiet place, surrounded by beautiful things both natural and made, with no distractions. While my home meets some of those criteria, it is woefully short on some of the others. I am thinking of enforcing office hours when the residency is over. At least between the hours of 1pm and 5pm intruders will be required to talk to the hand (the one not tapping on the computer keyboard that is).

I have been signed up to take part in a very exciting project with MTG Hawke's Bay and last Tuesday I popped down to Napier for the day to check out some of the pieces in the Museum's collection in storage with the Museum's curator. Some of the things were rather cool and incredibly fascinating and have prodded my brain into all sorts of interesting cogitations which I will be writing about soon. And Napier is a beautiful place. If you haven't been there, you should go!

This week I am in Wanaka for the NZ Book Council's Words on Wheels Tour with some terrific people - writer/illustrator Bob Kerr and writer/academic Kate Hunter. Yesterday I visited Wanaka Primary School with Bob. I gave all the children a very tricky, brain-stretchery task to do and was most impressed with their response. Nice work folks!!

This morning I trotted up the road to Mt Aspiring College and chatted with the year 8's and year 10s and found myself in the company of another awesome switched-on group of students. Tomorrow I'll be visiting Hawea Flat School, again riding shotgun with Bob Kerr and then Thursday we are taking part in a speed date the author event. The week culminates in a Festival of Colour True Stories Told Live Event. It's an unscripted event so my script has been told it will have to stay home.

There are all sorts of cool events on every day this week for the Festival of Colour here in Wanaka - plays, shows, puppetry, cabaret, music, and much, much more. I'm feeling pretty honoured to be taking part. It is fantastic to see a variety of these incredible cultural feasts popping up all over the country. Nice work New Zealand!!

Oh! And last, but by no means least, I am super thrilled to say my book with awesome illustrator Dominique Ford The Song of Kauri has become a finalist for the Librarian's Choice Award in the 2015 LIANZA Children's Book Awards.

Life is like a box of chocolates, without the chocolate identification card ...

So I had a weird kind of summer hibernation where my writer's metabolism slowed right down in the languid seasonal heat - I guess maybe the equatorial folk would call that a siesta. Semantics aside, it seemed an involuntary response to everything that was going on and that had gone before, and in the end had a bit of a therapeutic quality. I feel (mostly) ready for 2015 and a new book project is tugging appealingly at my subconscious and conscious mind. A plot has taken shape and now I am getting to know my main protagonist a bit better. He is a little elusive and while in the past my key characters have often rocked up to the page fully formed and ready to go, I am having to set my chisel to the stone to pick this boy out of the marble. Hah, maybe I should call him David :)

And after looking somewhat empty after the hurly burly of 2014, the old schedule is starting to get interesting. Life is what happens while you are making other plans. After challenging my poor family and pushing them to the limit with my wilful independence (a.k.a. the Children's Writer's Residency in Dunedin) last year, I rashly applied for another residency for this year. I thought it a long shot, but my six months away had made me brave/foolhardy, and I tossed my hat in the ring with a wild project (the one with 'David' in it) that I thought they would either love or hate. They seem to have been in the 'loved it' camp as I will now be based out of The Pah Homestead in Hillsborough when I take up the University of Otago Wallace Residency for three months starting in March. I can't wait to get writing on the new project. I am thanking my lucky stars and bribing my family relentlessly to keep their affection.

I'm also doing a talk at the next SCBWI NZ meeting on March 21st (more details soon), and then in April I'm off to Wanaka for a week as part of the Festival of Colour, where I'll be taking part in a Speed Date the Author morning, a True Stories Told Live event, and assorted other authory visits. Most exciting, and what a wonderful time to be in such a beautiful part of the world.

My SO and I have booked a holiday away for September (yay!!!) and when we return I'll be off to Wellington for the Bi-annual National Children's Writers and Illustrators Conference - Tinderbox 2015 - for the first weekend of October (email 2015tinderbox@gmail.com for info and updates if you are interested in attending).

A few other exciting potential engagements are being discussed. It's all been a bit surprising (apart from the holiday which we have been planning since late last year). Take note universe, these are the kinds of surprises I like. Anyways, I'm off to dig David out of a rock...talk to you later.