TGIF...

Yay, its Friday. The programme for the Spinning Gold conference is now here and I am looking forward to registering next week. One of my favourite things about conferences besides listening to smart people talk about hot topics, and rubbing shoulders with some of my heroes, is getting to hang out with a bunch of fab lovely children's writers. There's no better fun than chewing the fat with folk on the same wavelength - i think Einstien wrote an equation for it in his earlier work, genius that he was.

I'm still processing my trip to Westport but hope to give a bit more of a review of this next week. Westport was very intriguing, bordered by the sea on one side and mountains on the other, wild and rugged, it is a place of stories. I'd like to go back. And how cool is the place name Granity. It is begging to be used in a book.

In the meantime, via Jet Reid, here is a very cool little rant titled 5 lies writers believe about editors. Its a good peek into the truth about being an editor, I agree with all of it, and it concludes with the very sensible comment that there are no great secrets to being published.

Hi honey, I'm home....

I'm back after a whirlwind tour of primary schools around Westport reading my books and talking about writing for the NZ Post tour. Things got a little shaky before I even took off from Auckland when I arrived home from my weekly gig at the local school to find my greedy dog had sucked all the chocolate out of their foil wrappers: the chocolate I'd bought specially to maintain my sense of humour on my trip. I know it wasn't the end of the world but I shed a tear and called my SO to tell him about it because a trouble shared is a trouble halved. And my sweety arrived home unexpectedly before my departure with a new box of chocolates because he totally understands their essential status. He wuz my hero. I got to the airport in good time and boarded the plane but the plane was broken and we had to get off. Even a ten mintue delay might have made catching the once daily connection to Westport tricky but it looked like being 40 minutes plus. Air New Zealand - bless them - swung into action, grabed my bag and the bags of the two other westport bound folk and scooted us on to a flight to Nelson. Once there we had a three hour drive in a taxi in the dark and made it to Westport by around 9.30. I'm glad i didn't have to make the taxi trip alone. My companions were civil engineers making their weekly trip to help manage the coal mine at Stockton and they were great company - thank you Sarah and Warren for keeping me from the brink of insanity. As bad things happen in threes when I called my SO to let him know I'd finally made it to the Motel he let slip that on the way back from the emergency chocolate delivery his car had been swiped by a bus doing an insufficient job of trying to squeeze through an insufficient gap in traffic. I blame it all on Robbie, of course.

I enjoy school visits except for the nerves and the mental preparation. Although there was plenty of time between engagements over the Tuesday and Wednesday, the itinerary was fairly full. Thank you so much to Kate and Margaret who chauffered me round, showed me some sites and gave me lots of information and insight into the region (especially loved the walk up part of the Denniston incline) accompanied me everywhere, and said positive encouraging things and to Michaela who organised everything down in Westport and glued it all together. You were all great company and made the trip even more enjoyable. I hope the schools enjoyed the visits. And I hope too that I get a chance to go back there.

Had an idea for a new picture book when I went to see Star Trek last weekend. Must get on with writing it.

Would I do it all again, knowing what I know now?

Sometimes I think having a writing career is like having a baby: you don't really know what it means until the baby has arrived. Before the birth you can't understand what people are trying to tell you, no matter how many times you've heard it, in however many different ways. You have to experience it yourself for the penny to drop. Once your offspring has turned up, just as you figure out how to get them to eat and sleep in a routine, they grow and develop into the next stage and you have to start the learning process all over again. This is a never-ending cycle. You can never get complacent or smug. Your children will always be one step ahead of you. And so it is with being an author. You wrote your masterpiece and some publisher finally said yes. And you thought, 'at last!' - Hell no - this is just the beginning. Now your novel/picture book/whatever, needs you more then ever. You have to learn new skills in marketing and promotion. You have to learn how to talk about writing to a variety of audiences. You have to talk about yourself to strangers. You have to learn how to look busy and not worried as you sit alone at your signing table at an event that didn't quite work. You have to figure out how to get over rejections for manuscripts that are just as good as the ones you've had accepted and you have to suck it up when your books don't sell. And then you have to go back and write another story. And then another one. Even though you're going to have to go through the baby raising thing all over again, every time. And there will be things in the future I don't even know I have to learn yet. Would I do it all again if I could start over, knowing what I know now. Are you kidding me? Hell yes!

By the way as my mother's day treat (no no it wasn't cleaning up the dishes after my children made themselves a cooked breakfast leaving an impressive trail of dirt and destruction) I went to see the new Star Trek movie on Imax. Yowza. Is it too soon to go see it again? It isn't perfect (revenge is so yesterday) but I loved what they've done with all the characters and as soon as the credits rolled I wanted it to be a weekly hourlong series on tv again because even an annual movie length fix isn't enough to satisfy my addiction.

And hey, check this out on youtube. Filmed in the neighbours back yard, the first bag jumper is my son, and the last is my SO. I think the plot is well developed, don't you.

Because there will never be a time when we know everything about our craft...

Hey go check out this superb site called Casting the Bones, which has all sorts of excellent advice and tips on writing. It is on my side bar list as well anytime you fancy popping over for some good writing direction. Thanks to this blog for the link.

Oh and I'm off to the West Coast on Monday for NZ Post author tour. My schedule has changed a little so first up on Tuesday I am giving a workshop. I'm also booked in to give a workshop at a school visit here in Auckland in June. We'll be focusing, I think, on writing scary stories. I'm feeling very inspired. I met a seriously unpleasant person today and if you cross me for no good reason you're likely to end up in one of my stories. I can't wait.

Books rock - and the children know it

I had a school visit on Tuesday. Over the course of the morning I talked to the whole school - in two groups. They had a wonderful new school hall - an auditorium with tiered seating like a lecture hall. When I was first ushered in to speak to the year 3-6 classes, the tiered seating was full of children and down in front was one single solitary chair - for me. Whenever I have the choice I opt for smaller groups, but this isn't always possible. This was the biggest single group I've addressed so far and the more perceptive members of that audience might have noticed my sudden 'possum in the headlights' appearance. Turning the hall lights up helped. After my initial surprise, I got into stride and delivered my talk.

I continue to be impressed by the behaviour of the children I talk to. They sit quietly and listen, are keen to answer my questions and think hard about good questions of their own to ask. Its extremely thrilling to think I might positively influence someone's love of books or writing. And the children who glow with the excitement of books - they make me super happy.

Frankenstein's monster wasn't popular...

So what do you do when you've written something you rather like and you've shopped it round a few places and you think you have something there but no one in commercial publishing agrees. After you've swigged a few bottles to dull the pain of your grief over the rejection you re-read their rejection letters/e-mails to check whether anyone has said "I would take another look at this if...." and if their suggestion is not an affront to your moral compass and doesn't turn your teenage romance into a slasher zombie horror (unless you'd considered making this change anyway) you do your best to edit your work and send it back ASAP. Saying "I'll take another look" is the publishing equivalent of gold and should not be dismissed lightly. Try and avoid taking years to edit and reply: publishing staff, book trends, and remembering you and your ms will all change and fade. If other stuff is happening in your life that affects your ability to rework and resend drop them a line and say you are making changes and intending to resubmit as soon as you are able.

If your rejection was a form one, the best next course of action is to work on new material. Reworking old material can lead you down a blind alley you might get lost in. Reworked material can come out looking like Frankenstein's monster - he wasn't popular. Take what you've learnt from writing that ms and apply it to a new story. You need more than one story. If all you ever have is one story, if a publisher does say yes at some point you have no other work to show them and will have months, if not years ahead of you, to produce something else. If your first published piece does well and readers are keen to see more of your writing, you will lose the opportunity to wow them with your next book because it might be three or four years away. Be prepared. Keep writing new material. But never throw out the old things either. Their day may come. Nothing is ever wasted.

No excuses left...

It was my annual pilgrimage to watch my son play soccer today. Today's weather would put many hardy souls off - it rained, it blew, it froze - but I really should go more often. For a bunch of eleven year olds there were some impressive skills on display and in the second half my boy played in goal and made some breath taking saves. His team squeaked in 1-0.

I have few excuses left not to finish my assignment (apart from still waiting on some important material). Its raining, the dishwasher and washing machine are full, switched on and doing their thing and the kids are on the playstation, taking turns on a rented game (and yes I am shocked by how chummy they currently are - I shall enjoy it while it lasts). My SO is off playing soccer. We are out to dinner tonight in honour of his birthday so I don't have to prepare any food. I want to write but know I can't until I get this assignment completed. All the calculations needed for our companies GST Tax return are complete. There are no excuses left. So I shall leave you with the opening lines of an as-yet-unpublished picture book story of mine while I go off and do my assignment:-

Nobody was surprised when Mick turned into a monkey.

Although its quite true he liked to swing on the gate, climb doorways and hang upside down from trees...
...it wasn't that, that did it.

It was dragging everything out of every drawer and cupboard...
...and never putting them back,

slamming doors...
...pulling his sister's hair...

...and jumping up and down screaming.

His Grandma said, "if the wind changes you'll be stuck like that."