Packing my suitcase ...

My new picture book with fab illustrator Vasanti Unka, Lucy and the Dark, is released!! Huzzah! Published by Penguin RH NZ with a glorious glow-in-the-dark cover, this wee book is garnering some nice reviews which makes us very happy. Reviews can be found here, here, here and here. Many thanks to Lou from Wardini's Books, What Book Next, The Sapling and Kids Books NZ for their very kind words. There are copies of the book signed in fancy silver pen by both Vasanti and I available at Time Out Bookstore if you are interested in getting yourself one.

It's been a busy old month with the NZ Children's and Young Adult's Book Awards held in Wellington, a school visit to the wonderful Sylvia Park School and a day-long workshop on writing picture books at Selwyn Community Education. A trio of poets including me ran a writing-poetry-for-children competition which culminated in sharing the winning poem on facebook on National Poetry Day - you can check this out here. I've been submitting poetry (mostly adult) and chipping away at a few longer works. And this Thursday I am off to Shanghai for the writing residency with the Michael King Writers' Centre. I've been slowly packing my suitcase and getting all my laundry done, organising plug adapters and getting vaccinations and paperwork completed. There is a lot of admin for an adventure like this and hopefully I've dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's that need dotting and crossing and soon I'll be tapping away on some very cool projects in this amazing city that I have never visited before. Wish me luck! And see you in November!!

... in the meantime here is some more poetry I have written for young people:

How to Fly

Is it better to be

a bird or a plane?

Do birds mind the weather,

the wind and the rain?

If their wings got wet

would they fall from the sky?

Do they get blown off course?

Do those feathers drip dry?

Planes only fly to

particular places.

They’re crowded on board

with too many faces!

I suppose at the least

that it’s cosy inside

and I don’t need directions,

the plane is my guide,

but they also cost money,

my savings are zero.

Want to take flight?

Be a caped superhero!

Mixed bag ...

 I'm not sure if writers still get caught up on the whole issue of copyright these days - the whole, do you need to assert copyright on your work, when do you do it, how do you do it, and what might happen if you don't? 

I'm pretty sure copyright is automatic here in NZ, meaning it applies as soon as your words are assembled on the page or screen. You don't have to add the symbol or register your story anywhere. Once you submit your completed story to a publisher there is a date stamp on your email which can corroborate any arguments about who had an idea first (information that is required so rarely that I cannot recall any instances of stolen ideas over my more than 20 years in the business). And if the publisher decides to publish, it is then up to them to do the final official paperwork/admin and copyright appears in black and white on the imprint page. 

So you are not required to do anything. And doing something can cause problems and make you look amateurish. You can read about it here - this from a US blog but it is relevant here too.

Things have been quiet around here since my big news about getting the residency. I have a few articles to write, a few missives too, and I am slowly sorting the admin for my trip. Visas and the like. Part of me wishes I was going away next week. I want the admin to be over and I want to be focusing on my project. I have made a very modest start and I have been wondering/worrying about the technique I am using. It is new to me so I have gotten some books using the same technique to read. The one I'm reading first is next level genius and it is a little intimidating, but when I went back to my own modest beginnings I thought this isn't so bad. Probably not Cilip Carnegie Medal material like my exemplar, but not as bad as I suspected. Maybe I can do this. The technique I mean. I already think the story idea itself has legs. Anyways, in lieu of having anything else to talk about I thought I would post up some poems for younger people. Enjoy!

(And if you are an NZ adult writing children's poetry you might like to enter a poem competition some poet friends and I are running. You can check out details here. The competition close August 4th and there is a small cash prize and the winning poem will be printed and displayed.)

Reluctant Ambler 

I go out for a walk,

(they make me),

I don’t want to go!

I dawdle, mope,

and drag my feet

I get so rambly slow!

The grass is tall

above my head,

each step I take

fills me with dread,

I fancy being in bed instead

but no one is at home -

so!

I smell the flowers

(Pinks I think),

I must admit

a spicy stink.

I touch the grass,

admire the sky,

watch monarch

butterflies sail by,

and by the time we reach the bay

I actually have a mind to stay.

The sun is shining

waves shush in,

I secretly let

out a grin.

We picnic on

a sunlit shelf,

don’t tell them

I’ve enjoyed myself.

And just in case

next time’s a pain,

I drag my feet

back home again.

Blistery Mystery

There’s a word for this

I know what it is

it’s just on the tip of my tongue

and ‘tongue’ is a tip

well, a clue -

it’s a quip

or a joke

not a word on its own.

It’s a weather event

it’s a tempest, a storm

but it means

something different

as well

giving your tongue a blister -

‘She sells shells,

that shore sifter.’

That’s it -

a tongue twister!

Well done!