It's Elve o'clock, have you got your tinsel on? ...

Somehow the clock is broken and this year ran fast. In a surprise twist that I (and only I) did not see coming it is Christmonth already! Also known as Tinsel Time and elve o'clock. At this time of year the shadow is permanently over the yard arm and we look back bewilderedly at the last eleven months and ask what the hell happened, and squint ahead fearfully at the year threatening to jump out and ambush us before we are any where near ready for it.

AKA time for a wee stock-take of 2018 and some prognosticating over 2019.

So, in review:

- I was honoured to participate in my third year of the Otahuhu Project, a magnificent programme operating in a cluster of deserving South Auckland schools, bringing authors and students together to work on writing skills and a love of books. Long may this project reign.
- I visited lots of other schools and had a real blast - thank you to all the schools who invited me and the NZ Book Council who bring authors, illustrators and students together in the best possible way.
- I attended my first ever KidsLitQuiz World Final and associated celebrations, and oh my goodness it is just the best to have your reading habits outshone by smart, witty, engaged intermediate age students from all round the world. It was a real privilege to be a part of this.
- I was disappointed to find that one of my favourite stories I have written could not find a home. I'm still pushing on, but it's sown a few seeds of doubt about the story and my writing skills.
- But then a picture book has been accepted (see you in 2019/2020, little book!) so all is not lost.
- and I am working together with the Ahoy imprint (of the Cuba Press) on bringing out a collection of my short stories which I have always wanted to do. More news on this soon I hope
- there may be other book news shortly - fingers crossed - watch this space...
- I assisted on, and then ran, a 'Write Like an Author Camp' over the October school holidays. This was a new experience for me and I learnt some new skills and unearthed a few latent ones.
- I got invited on a couple of writing retreats on Waiheke Island with some very good writer friends. These were wonderful - a good  way to refresh your writing mojo, grow your writing project, and talk shop.
- I became part of the Storylines (an organisation I have belonged to for many, many years and benefited from in many, many ways) Management Committee and I'm really pleased to be able to contribute to such a hardworking organisation with some truly great goals.
- a kind person (to whom I am extremely grateful) made a wikipedia page about me which you can see here. This is quite a thrill!!
- we put our house on the market - results are currently mixed - no one has bought it yet but it has never looked tidier :)
- I achieved 25 rejections, three acceptances, and 8 submissions/applications are still in play.

Looking back on it all, I realise I had forgotten some of these things (and I suspect there are some things still missing from this list) and in the grand scheme it has not been too bad a year at all. Getting and staying published is still proving challenging but my writing career is still alive and I give thanks and raise a glass to that.


And in 2019?

- Hopefully a book, maybe even two, will be launched.
- Hopefully my current project will be completed - I estimate another four months of work on this.
- A new game plan for finding a publisher for my much loved manuscript.
- Maybe moving house, if we sell the current one.
- Attendance at at least one writers retreat
- aiming for 50 rejections. 

The rest I have no control over. While an unfilled dance card is always a little daunting, as a writer I always have some incomplete projects to fall back on and keep me out of too much mischief and there will always be new ideas that spring up as well. And if my thumbs are threatening to twiddle there are plenty of good books I haven't yet read to get on with.

What about you guys? What are your 2018 highlights? And what are your most ambitious plans for 2019?

A Week Away in Wanaka...

Well, that was way cool. Wanaka in autumn is stunning and the name of their biennial arts festival - The Festival of Colour - is apt. The trees had traded in their summer green for a broader palette of reds, yellows and oranges. The descending sun left haunted shadows stepping down the hills toward the town. It was beautiful. The weather was fine and mild.And I had fantastic company - history professor/author Kate Hunter and author/illustrator Bob Kerr - with whom I shared a house, great conversations, dinner making duties and events. Meeting other writers has to be one of the key highlights of tours like this.

After three days of school visiting, we met up with Wellington playwright Dave Armstrong and local writer/poet Liz Breslin for a Speed Date the Author event (always one of my favourite gigs) on the thursday, talking to school students from Queenstown, Alexandra and Arrowtown, and then True Stories Told Live at the temporary 'Crystal Palace' venue in Wanaka to a mostly adult audience on the Friday. The True Stories event involved all five of us speaking for ten minutes each, unscripted on the topic 'Don't Talk About the War'. Of course we all did. We hadn't shared our talks with each other beforehand but they seemed nicely complementary. I spoke about my Mum's childhood during World War 2. After all I'd told my Dad's story in my book A Winter's Day in 1939. I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to share my Mum's story, although it was hard to avoid the talk being taken over by my great grandmother. I believe she was a little like that in real life. The crowd was sizeable - more than 210 folk. And they'd paid to hear us talk. I think they liked it. After some nerves, especially about the unscripted aspect, I felt pretty comfortable talking. And now? I would jump at the chance to do this type of event again.

 It was a good note to end our Words on Wheels Tour on. What a week!

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.

Adopt an author?....(generally house-trained)

Feelin cranky about the evidence of sock puppetry that has been emerging on the intramawebb in recent weeks. Authors, some established with good books and careers behind them, made up 5 star reviews on their own books and one star reviews on their competitiors using fake identities. Of course we also know some folk are paying for others to make up lots of lovely five star reviews to bolster their cache. On the one hand, after reading what Justine Larbalestier had to say on the topic of reviews, I guess I shouldn't worry. Your ratings don't seem to have a great influence over book sales, better to be talked about than not talked about yadda, yadda, yadda. On the other hand I think the minute someone discovers that some reviews are fake, it casts doubt over the integrity of all reviews. And I'd just like to say I haven't faked any reviews for myself or any other book I've reviewed online or elsewhere. If I haven't read it I won't review it till I have. If I tend to have a lot of positive things to say its because I pick books I think I have a good chance of liking. And I try my hardest to be fair and straight up. I feel proud of the good reviews my books have, and intrigued by the not so starry. And I couldn't bring myself to give a bad review with the object of hurting another author's success. What is with some people?? And if doubt is cast over all reviews than reviews have no meaning at all. Why would you do that to authors everywhere. That is a huge cost for some very selfish behaviour. Shame on you

I'm also feelin a lot more cheerful over some other things. I had my second session (and fourth visit) as author-in-residence at New Windsor School yesterday. Usually a school visit is a one off, or I run a series of workshops over a number of weeks with a small group of students (something I've done previously with Auckland Normal Intermediate and Hebron Christian College). Being an author-in-residence offers a very different kind of opportunity, one that's new to me as well as to the school. I have to say, so far, its a terrific experience. It allows you to build a special kind of relationship with the school and the children. I've had hugs, hellos and fan mail. We've been chatting and extending some things we started in the first visit. Maybe schools could have an adopt-an-author programme  where they have a particular author make several visits over a year providing more structured workshops along with informal chat or Q and A sessions, or as I am doing with New Windsor, working with their book club. Everyone benefits. What a great start for the book creators of tomorrow. Maybe the NZ Book Council might like to consider this as an alternative or option to their writers in schools programme.

In other news I think the latest MS is off to the book designer today. That text is closed to alterations now - it is what it is. I feel incredibly excited and nervous all at once. Yeehah!!