Katrina McKelvey's Blog: Cheri Hughes

Showing posts with label Cheri Hughes. Show all posts

Wednesday, 13 February 2019

Katapult - Edition 10 - February, 2019

Welcome to Katapult!

Hello there! Did you miss me?

Well, I've just finished dusting the cobwebs off this blog. There were quite a few since edition 9 - about 5 months worth. Oops!

'So where have I been?' I hear you ask. The simple answer is nowhere and everywhere. I've been at my desk, working hard, doing stuff, but I've also been trekking around parts of America on a very special family holiday trying to escape the heat of Summer.

I'm going to fly over the events of the last 5 months to catch you up and then give you a hint of what's to come in the first half of this year - it will be my busiest six months ever!

What's Up?

1) Up To Something Update:

Up To Something, our picture book about billy carts being published by EK Books and illustrated by Kirrili has gone to print - yay! Kirrili finished the illustrations and sent them to our publisher in September. Our book designer then weaved more magic into the layout and the cover. In January, the final edits were completed. I can't wait for you to see this book. So much hard work, tears and time have gone into creating it.

2) No Baths Week Update:

No Baths Week, our picture book about Ben and his dog, Bandit trying to avoid having baths for a week being published by Big Sky Publishing and illustrated by Cheri Hughes has gone to print - yay, two books! Cheri finished the illustrations early this year. After a few last minute changes, it was perfect. Can't wait to have both books in my hands. It has been a very long wait!

3) A new picture book about my Ivy:

Thanks to the craziness of raising a puppy, I've had oodles of inspiration to write a picture book about a puppy. After many rewrites, Sue Whiting, my freelance editor helped me nail the story and characters so I had a polished book to send to publishers in the new year. Watch this space as I will be getting face-to-face feedback from an agent and a publisher at the SCBWI Conference in less than two weeks - eek! Hope they like it!

4) 'Stories After Dark' CBCA NSW Branch Newcastle Sub-branch Childrens' Event

This was our local CBCA annual children's event and it was huge! Children of all ages filled the Newcastle Region Library to hear stories read in the dark by loads of local children's authors and illustrators. Too much fun!

5) Book Launches:

I popped my head into a few book launches over the last few months. I love attending these events. Here's a summary:

Sue Whiting's Beware the Deep Dark Forest
James Foley's Gastronauts
Kate Simson's Finding Granny
Jess Black's The Tales of Mr Walker - Book 1

6) Muswellbrook South Public School visit

Late last year I visited Muswellbrook South Public School to have a chat to the infants children about how picture books are made. What fun we had :)

7) I attended the CBCA Newcastle Sub-branch and the Sydney SCBWI Christmas Parties

I am a party animal! Yes, I am. I go to these events to socialise and catch up with my local and Sydney kidlit friends. There's not enough time to do all the socialising I wish I could do, so I always jump at the chance to attend these lovely events.

8) USA Family Holiday

My husband and I took the kids to USA to visit Disneyland, California Disney Adventure Park, Legoland, San Diego Zoo, Palm Springs, Universal Studios, Hollywood, LA, and everything in between. What a hoot we had! I won't talk about the vomiting bug both my children had while we were in Disneyland, but apart from that, we had a fabulous time. I needed a break from my computer, my town, my country, and technology (OK, I did sneak on Facebook and check my emails but that was it, I promise).

9) Puppy Update:

My beautiful Ivy will turn one on the 28th February. Where has that time gone? She is so lovely but she still chews things. The latest victim - my new, expensive sunglasses! Grrr ...

Ivy with Copper - her big brother!

10) Family

In between all these events these things happened: my son finished Year 6 and started high school, I attended all end-of-year school concerts, assemblies and events, the dishwasher broke down, soccer presentations, golf tournaments, P&F meetings, writing group meetings, school discos and keyboard concerts, singing concerts, Yr 6 camp, birthday parties, started water polo, funerals, haircuts, sport gala days, public speaking finals, school assignments, Aspire auditions, school excursions, new orthotics fitted (kids and me), dentist appointments, Bon Jovi concert, family Christmas functions, end of Yr 6 activities, dog grooming, a trip to the Hunter Valley Gardens Christmas lights, CHRISTMAS!, NEW YEAR!, bought new school shoes, spring cleaned the house for four days, packed for an o/s holiday, AMERICA!, prepared for the new school year, worked out school buses for HS, started Aspire rehearsals, pest man sprayed the house, first school swimming carnival, first junior golf tournament for 2019, and Year 7 camp. Oh, and the cat died :(

And you all know in the middle of this was housework, groceries, cleaning and other boring things.

Oh, and sleep ... we had some sleep :)

Upcoming Events

I'm chairing a panel of four publishers at the upcoming SCBWI Conference in Sydney in less than two weeks. At this conference, I'm also meeting with Walker Books Australia publisher, Nancy Conescu. I'm also meeting with an agent to discuss possible representation. And I'm getting a manuscript assessment from an o/s agent. Phew!

I'm also attending:

Newcastle Writers Festival Program Launch
CBCA NSW Night of the Notables event
Grey-glasses-itis (by Lynn Jenkins and Kirrili Lonergan) Book Launch
Local CBCA Newcastle Sub-branch meetings
CBCA NSW AAA event
Newcastle Writers Festival - presenting two writing workshops and launching 'Up To Something'
CBCA NSW High Tea with the Stars event
Launching 'No Baths Week' in Lambton Park - bring your dog!
Gresford Billy Cart Derby - presenting storytime
Crown St PS Lights Off Torches On event
Kitlitvic Conference - Melbourne
CBCA National Conference
CYA Conference - presenting a 90-minute workshop on how to write picture books
More events to be confirmed ...

And this is all in the first half of the year! I have Book Week school visit bookings coming in too.

Hmmm ... I think I've overloaded myself a little.

Publishing Update

So, if you don't follow me on Facebook, you've missed the all-important reveal of both of the covers of my new books. Here they are:

Book launch information for both books coming soon. They will both be in April.

Anything to Share?

This meme was taken from Facebook. No explanation needed.

I was in the USA while the government shutdown was on in an anti-Trump state (California). Two teacher strikes also happened during our time there. As we had sick children for some of the trip, we spent a lot of time watching American news. Eye-opening stuff!

Recent Book Purchases?

Where can you find me on social media?

I’ve made it easy. Just click on the live links below to like or follow me.

Feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email: author@katrinamckelvey.com

I’d love to hear from you!

I've just finished making my, 2018 My Year in Review movie and have uploaded it to my YouTube channel. Click here if you'd like to see it.

I can't promise I'll be back on my blog in March. I may be too busy. But I do visit my Facebook page often so keep an eye on news about my book launches and other events there.

The definition of resilience!

And some information about my writing workshops at the upcoming

Newcastle Writers Festival.

Tuesday, 20 February 2018

Katapult - Edition 1 - February, 2018

Welcome to Katapult!

This is a new thingy for me - a monthly newsletter. It will evolve with time and have many changes I'm sure, until I find the structure that works for you and me. Some newsletters will be long and some will be short. Sub-headings will change and some will say the same, but I'm glad you're here to share this journey with me :)

So why call my newsletter ‘Katapult’?

Kat is obviously from my name.

Catapult is a fun word. As a verb it means to hurl or launch. I often find my mind hurling into stories and ideas (anywhere, anytime), or launching into crazy and spontaneous decisions (some I regret later!). What a way to live one’s life!

I pushed the two words together and ‘Katapult’ emerged. I love it!

A Book Joke?

What do you do if a librarian rolls her eyes at you?

The answer is at the bottom :)

What’s Up?

Well, 2018 started nearly two months ago - where has that time gone? - and I have made a pledge to myself I’m going to write a monthly newsletter. I find snippets of news on my social media don’t quite give the full picture of what’s happening here at my desk.

Yes, I’ve missed a January newsletter, but everyone was on holidays including me so that doesn’t count. Right? No one would have poked their heads out of their Summer reading books and read it anyway. So let’s just merge January happenings into this February newsletter.

I’m not going to promise I’ll have my newsletters up and running on the first of every month. Too much pressure! But I’ll try to have it out during the first week of the month. Having said that, I’m already late with February, and March starts next week. Eek!

And I’m not apologising for any typos either. Just read over them and assume I was rushed, distracted, trying to do three things at once, I’m a terrible typer, or I just lost my mind. Any or all of these things could have been true at the time of that typo.

Let’s go back to December. My head was in a mess. There, I said it. A mess!

I had a pile of picture book manuscripts at 90% finished, I was waiting for a signed contract for two new picture books and I was getting anxious (I thought it was never going to come and that the publisher must have changed her mind - she’d just forgotten to tell me!), the end of the year was hurtling towards me at an alarming rate, Christmas was around the corner, and I started to consider getting an agent. Of course, then I got sick - flat on my back for two days!

I emailed a professional friend of mine to help me sort out my head so I could make a plan (maybe I should have enlisted a team of psychologists).

As a result, I spent December and January finishing some of my favourite manuscripts, sending them to her for editing, and then making a submission plan for 2018. I also sent another manuscript to a different professional editor.

I booked into the children’s literature Kidlitvic Conference in Melbourne held in May this year, and I joined The Duck Pond Facebook group to keep my motivation fresh and ongoing.

Santa came and went, the signed contract arrived (phew!), we rang in the new year, and relaxed and soaked up Summer holidays.

Hello 2018!

So January was relaxing and all about my husband and I entertaining our two children. We went to the Sydney Opera House to see the 78-Storey Treehouse on the stage. We also saw Operation Ouch at the Civic Theatre in Newcastle. Both were great shows!

Our CBCA Newcastle Sub-branch was on my mind too. I had been the president for nearly four years, and had spend the fifth year as the vice president. I had enjoyed being the VP as a lot of the workload have been taken off me. But did I still want to be an executive committee member?

I had also found out who was going to illustrate my first Big Sky Publishing (BSP) book called No Baths Week.

Drum roll …

Cheri Hughes

I was very excited by this. Cheri is very talented and has illustrated several titles for BSP. I was then in communications with BSP to help set up Cheri’s illustration brief. What fun!

The rest of January involved school shoes, labelling uniforms, testing out lunch boxes and making sure new school drink bottles didn’t leak - ha!

And here we are in February.

I submitted one of the professionally edited manuscripts to a publisher. I found out recently it’s going to an acquisition meeting. YAY! Anxiety builds while I wait.

No Baths Week is moving along very quickly. We’ve been working on cover concepts, back cover blurbs, initial character concepts, and sales documents. This part of the process is extremely exciting!

I have also been working on a picture book manuscript based on my childhood memories at my grandmother’s house. It’s such a lovely story and includes some of my favourite sweet delights. Mmmm … jam drops and apple pie! It went to a professional editor yesterday. Fingers crossed.

Flights, workshops and a manuscript assessment have been booked for the Kidlitvic Conference in May.

We had our CBCA Newcastle Sub-branch AGM early February. So did I put my hand up for an executive position? No I didn’t. But I am happy to be a general committee member. It was time for Kirrili and I to hand over the sub-branch we started mid 2013. It’s in wonderful hands now (thanks Jodie and Liane) so I look forward to seeing it evolve with fresh blood and new ideas. I also have loads of undistracted time to write now so I can seal the deal on more publishing contracts this year.

I have also booked into a manuscript assessment at the NSW Writers Centre in March with Leonie Tyle. I’ll be working on that manuscript all of next week so it’s ready to submit to her a week beforehand.

Upcoming Events

I’m very honoured to be speaking at the upcoming CBCA NSW AGM on the 17th March. It’s a great opportunity to share my journey so far as a writer and share some sneak peeks of my upcoming books.

I'll be volunteering at the upcoming Newcastle Writers Festival. I'm going to the VIP program launch tomorrow. The Schools Program has been released and is selling out fast. We have some wonderful visitors coming to inspire primary school kids in the Hunter area.

I'll also be attending the CBCA NSW Branch Night of the Notables event at Dymocks, Sydney on the 27th February. This event celebrates the longlisted titles for the CBCA Book Week awards in August.

Publishing Update

My first picture book, Dandelions, is still out and about. I love to hear stories of children still enjoying it and I continuously see dandelions everywhere.

No Baths Week, my second picture book is being illustrated as you read this. I can’t wait to see a storyboard and more sketches. It is scheduled to be released in October this year. I have booked in a venue and date for the launch party, and I’ve started to plan food and decorations. These October school holidays will see me doing some interesting story times in conjunction with Newcastle Region Libraries. More information soon.

Chasing Rainbows, my third picture book (second one with BSP) will be released early in 2019 so it will be illustrated mid this year.

And my fourth picture book, Up To Something, the second with EK Books and Kirrili Lonergan (same team as Dandelions) will be illustrated mid this year with a release date of May, 2019. We’re planning some exclusive pre-launch local activities but it’s too early to reveal anything yet.

Anything to Share?

I’d love to share a secret. I have major problems with passive voice. When working on my manuscripts, I often copy and paste the text into a website called Hemingway Editor to get rid of it.

I know a group of clever girls doing podcasts for lovers of kids' books. It's called One More Page. The second episode was released today. These podcasts are for anyone and everyone who loves books for kids. Very funny stuff!