Celebrity Reads Picks for NZ Book Month 2009 (Kids Category)

Here is that list I mentioned yesterday...

Celebrities have been reading submissions from NZ publishers over the last months and have now picked their personal favourites to promote during NZ Book Month. A (list) of these titles will be available from the NZBM website in September.

Kids Category – Cast of ‘Studio Two’
‘Studio Two’ is New Zealand’s most popular after school kids television program.
1. The Were-Nana – Melinda Szymanik and Sarah Nelisiwe Anderson (Scholastic)
2. Awesome Aotearoa – Margaret Mahy (AUT Media)
3. Why Do Dogs Sniff Bottoms? – Dawn McMillan and Bert Signal (Penguin)
4. Salt – Maurice Gee (Penguin)
5. Five (and a bit) Days in the Life of Ozzie Kingsford – Val Bird (Random House)

The list and our celebrity readers’ reasons for their picks will appear in newspapers and online in October and will be promoted by our TV and radio personalities on-air.

Whew. I am amazed (and very happy).

Come and meet me...

The scheduled publication dates of several projects that my work is appearing in have been delayed. I know these things happen. I feel like a pirate. Garr.

I have not written any words of fiction this week. Rats.

I got my second assignment back and I got a good mark - yay.

The Were-Nana has made another list - will tell you more soon. Yowza.

If you would like to come and say hi and meet me in the flesh or have me sign a book I am appearing at the Storylines Family Day in Auckland on Sunday August 30th. This is a free event on at the Aotea centre (the Edge). I'm in the Limelight room at 10.30 - 11 talking bout my books, at Wheelers Bookshop stand at 11 - 11.30 with Kyle Mewburn, and reading at Borders Bookshop at 12 - 12.30. I'm at Lower NZI at 1.30 - 2 (St Cuthberts are doing a performance of The Were-Nana) and at the Children's Bookshop stand from 2 - 2.30. I wrap up with some more reading on level 4 at Scholastic Books out loud from 2.30 - 3. Storylines family Days are excellent fun and a chance to meet authors and illustrators of childrens books. I'm hoping to squeeze in a visit myself to the Artists in Action event and especially hoping I will have the opportunity to meet Dylan Horrocks. There are lots of excellent people talking about their work, reading from their books and exhibiting their talents. You can check out the Storylines website here for more details about family days in your area. I hope to see you on the 30th.

I liked it more than the pirates of penzance...

saw this clip over at Meg Cabot's blog and laughed so hard....I had to share it. And there's a prize for whoever gets the reference in today's post title.

ps for people allergic to cats this clip includes LOTS of cats. But do not worry - I am not asking you to like cats. This is not about cute fluffy things, this is about physics, gravity and on many occasions the defying of these two things.

Swimming through the troughs...

Ok, should I be worried I just bettered my score on Solitaire (3 card draw) to 19,000 points plus, with a time of 38 seconds. I think I should. Is there money in this like there is in poker - maybe I should change careers (or just hang my head in shame). I blame microsoft. I wonder if anyone has sued them over the time-wasting, distracting games they provide as part of their standard software. Yes I know i had to hunt the game down when we bought the new computer and loaded the latest software and yes I know I make a choice whenever I click on the games. It helps me think - like white noise - I tell myself. And look at my great score. Maybe its a good thing my writing deadlines are all still self imposed. Or maybe I'd play less and write more if my deadlines were more strict. We may never know. How often do writers wonder if they have peaked and may never write a decent thing ever again. I can't remember where I read it but i recently came across a comment responding to the theory that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become really proficient at something (writing, painting, golf, tennis etc..). The commentor suggested it wasn't so much that it took 10,000 hours practice but more likely that it was about hanging in there that long. 10,000 is alot of hours and most people would have dropped out because they decided it wasn't really for them, they were bored or found something else they would rather do. Of course all this means is that I can't blame anyone else if i drop out of this business. Yes, you've peaked if you then walk away and do something else. Only by hanging in there do we give ourselves the chance to climb the next peak or find that there is one even higher or better or on a completely different continent. Perhaps success in any business isn't measured by the number of peaks we reach but the fact that we survive through the troughs. I'd better go and write a few more words then I guess...

I do like a little vitamin D...

The light has changed. I've seen daffodils, and magnolia are going crazy all over the neighbourhood. And I try not to look but there's a lot of Tui love going on out in the back garden. Can Spring have sprung? I don't like to say it out loud cos its only just gone August but shesh, you can't deny what's going on in front of your own eyes, can ya? I hope its Spring - nothing like the season of hope and renewel to make me feel just a wee bit perky. That and all that vitamin D coursing through me. Yowza.

General perkiness can probably also be attributed to holiday plans moving ahead and the dreaming's about there-of. Nothing like a laid-back, pre-christmas, tropical break to soothe the nerves.

And following up on an earlier post I couldn't help noticing in today's children's PW e-zine that the cover of Justine Larbalestier's book Liar is to be changed. Huge congratulations to Justine. And I'd also say one big tick for the internet on this one as general outrage and disappointment about the inappropriate nature of the original US cover travelled mighty fast and wide. You can read about it at Justine's blog here. This is excellent news but I'm still a little sad there was ever a problem in the first place. At least things are moving in the right direction.

Not much else to say for myself. Already at work on the next assignment. Trying to keep hopeful about all my stories out there trying to wow the publishers. Thinking too about some writing about writing to present at the Speed dating, at some author talks I have ahead of me and maybe a bit of research on how it is I write short stories. Somethings working but I haven't figured out what or how yet. Funny analysing one's self. Freud would probably have something to say about that!

I want me some focus-straightening-writer's-specs

Common advice to writers is to focus on writing the next book whilst waiting to hear responses to those manuscripts already out at the publishers. This is, in my opinion, tremendous advice. A writer always needs more work to send out and it distracts from the whole business of trying to wait and pretending to be patient. But there is a spanner in the works of this advice. Pretending to be patient, especially when a few months have passed, gums up the works. I become (for want of a better word - sorry folks) constipated with my writing. I'm not blocked (that word is frowned on in this house) as i have ideas and ways to move forward on my stories, but my focus is affected and sitting down to write is...lets say, difficult. As my assignment is finally finished and is now winging its way down to Christchurch I think I may play hookey for a day or two and see if I get my focus back. Otherwise I may need to investigate the acquiring of some special focus-straightening-writers-glasses - I woner if these will be available at the Spinning Gold conference.

I am also finding that while recent events have well motivated my writing of short works, my longer works are experiencing a dip in confidence and they have been seen wearing hoodies and milling around with bad postures in darkened corners at the mall.

I am too miffed to discuss this further...

I was a tad miffed to see photos from the Montana Book Awards Ceremony in the social pages of both the Sunday Star Times and The Herald on Sunday yesterday. Neither carried photos from the NZ Post Children's Book Awards back in May. Why are adult writers social and children's writers aren't?

How are children's writers percieved by the public, the media, other writers? I want to know. Will I like what I find out?