Annual Stocktake and Crystal Ball Gazing...

It's writery stocktake time, and I have to say, this year has been a bit of a wild ride. I always find it interesting to look back over the year that's been because I always forget things - often the best things - that have happened. And - surprise, surprise! - it's often the bad or sad things that bob to the surface of my memory first, keeping the nicer, happier stuff stuck just beneath, out of view.  

So what went on in 2024 - I had a book contracted (yay!) and a book contract cancelled (boo!). Several other picture book manuscripts didn't find a home, but one of my picture books was published in German. I had poem acceptances and poem rejections (11 children's poems  and four adult poem's appeared on online publication sites this year, with one more children's poem set to appear sometime in 2025). I wrote a couple of writing-related articles for the Sapling, and interviewed fellow writer Feana Tu'akoi for Magpies Magazine. An early chapter book I wrote for the Ministry of Education was published. I was filmed for an NZSA Writers Toolkit on 'Writing Picture Books' and you can check this out here - this was a cool experience albeit fairly nerve wracking, but I've had some very nice feedback from folk who've watched. 

I visited some schools, ran some out-of-school creative writing workshops for intermediate age students, and also gave my one day writing workshop for adults. I spoke to teaching students about using NZ Children's books in the classroom. I was involved in a range of meetings and events as a Trustee on the NZ Book Awards Trust. I was part of a panel discussion on poetry. I did quite a few picture book manuscript assessments, was on the NZSA manuscript appraisal selection panel and did one junior fiction assessment. 

I attended NZSA Board Meetings as a rep and became the organisation's Vice President. Two of my books were shortlisted for the NZ Children's and Young Adult Book Awards. And one was shortlisted for the PANZ Design Awards. And I got invited to be a part of the Bookaroo Children's Literature Festival in Delhi, India. 

Next year is mostly a mystery. I have three events locked in - one is the day long workshop and the other two are small summer gigs at local libraries. I have a picture book, BatKiwi and the Big Wet, coming out in February illustrated by the amazingly talented Isobel Joy Te Aho-White and published by Scholastic. I've resigned from the Book Awards Trust from February next year, so I can devote a bit more time to my own writing. And any travelling we do is most likely to be around Aotearoa/New Zealand. I am super excited by the promise of time - but based on previous experience I know all sorts of unexpected things will pop up and demand my attention. Being an author means many aspects of my work are outside of my control - I am kind of used to it now. I have goals and aspirations but not the kind you can necessarily plan for. I have some irons in the fire - a few things submitted here and overseas, and I plan to keep on writing and submitting through 2025 - after all, that IS a part of my job that I can control. I hope you have some nice surprises looking back over you 2024, and have some cool things to look forward to in 2025. Have a wonderful Christmas and a safe and happy summer y'all - see you on the other side.

When the post is more of a poem ...

Walking in Circles

This is a weird time of year. There are still things to be done. Little jobs to be finished. All the things you kept putting off which can be avoided no longer. And you never stop turning ideas over in your mind and trying to push them out into the sunlight like little paper boats. But things are also winding up. Folk are hurrying to get work completed as quickly as possible because there are festive preparations to be made and end of year functions to attend and holidays to be anticipated. And then there will be the complete silence of empty offices for a month. It is my annual limbo. It is my fever dream when I fantasise about who might invite me to talk at their event in the coming year and do they live in another country. I imagine chatting on stage with an interviewer like the grown ups do. I plan my response to an eager media keen to talk about my latest titles: where they sprung from, why I write them, what motivates me, what I worry about at night. And then late January I will wake up and go about my usual business. I have been wondering about reinventing myself. Perhaps it is already happening. Certainly writing poetry is a sort of new path. It might have started in a limbo time fever dream years ago. Maybe I am just walking in a circle and I will come back to the beginning again. Like when you are lost but not really. I am taking the appropriate steps ... perhaps next year will be different after all.

 

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?