Katrina McKelvey's Blog: Just Write For Kids

Showing posts with label Just Write For Kids. Show all posts

Monday, 7 May 2018

Katapult - Edition 5 - May, 2018

Welcome to Katapult!

Where did April go? That must mean it’s time for the May edition of my newsletter, Katapult. So what has been happening at my desk since the last time we had a chat? Truckloads!

What’s Up?

The Newcastle Writers Festival Schools Program and Family Fun Day: This was amazing! In case you missed it, the link to my newsletter blog post about it is here.

Baking: I’ve been trialling an original recipe I wrote to be included in my latest picture book about a great-grandmother and her great-granddaughter. It has made me realise the work that goes into making a cook book ready for publication. We've had fun eating my creations, even the failed ones! I think I’ll need to make one more before I’m happy. Maybe two ;)

Writing Workshop with Zanni Louise: I was lucky enough to attend a writing workshop at The Children’s Bookshop, Beecroft presented by Zanni Loiuse during the school holidays. I love going to workshops and soaking up any snippets of information I can on how to make my writing even better. Zanni was so beautiful and so were the people attending.

Harry Hartog, Kotara: I presented a little storytime at Harry Hartog, Kotara during the last week of the school holidays. Some of the kids made my laugh with their stories about the weather, rainbows, unicorns and their TV viewing.

Puppy: We got a puppy last Sunday. Her name is Ivy and she is a black cocker spaniel. You may think this isn’t writing related but trust me it is! I’ve been eagerly jotting down notes about her arrival and the ups and downs. There may be a picture book in there somewhere. I do have a dog in my next picture book, No Baths Week. Dogs are an endless source of ideas for stories.

Play Outside Day: Last Friday, Kirrili Lonergan and I presented an interactive storytime at the Hunter Wetlands as part of the Play Outside Day event hosted by Newcastle Region Libraries. Kirrili and I shared our book Dandelions, went on dandelion hunts, hosted craft activities, blew bubbles, and drew pictures. There were lots of kids, beautiful weather and a few pesky mosquitoes, but overall we had a beautiful day.

Storybox with ABC1233 Newcastle: I was handed the ABC1233 Newcastle Storybook last Wednesday and was interviewed on ABC1233 at 6:30am the following morning. Whomever has the box agrees to share their ‘story’ on the radio with the local listeners. It was a nerve-wracking experience but lots of fun.

Upcoming Events

1) I’m doing a monthly story time event at Harry Hartog, Kotara until the end of the year. My next one is this Wednesday, 9th May at 10:30am.

2) I was interviewed for the Just Write For Kids blog by the lovely Debra Tidball. It has been broken into three parts as I talk too much and Deb couldn’t fit it in the usual two parts - oops! Thanks for having me, Deb.

The first part is here.

The second part is here.

The third part will be released early June.

3) The third meeting of the CBCA NSW Branch Inc. Newcastle Sub-branch is this Wednesday night. We’ll be hearing from Deb Abela and Susanne Gervay about Room to Read, SCBWI and their wonderful books. I’m really looking forward to this event.

4) The MANTLE Conference is on this Friday. It’s an annual one-day conference for teaching librarian from the Central Coast up to Taree. I’ll be helping man the local CBCA table at the trade fair. I love talking books and reading with educational specialists. They do such a wonderful job making literature a joy for children.

5) Kirrili and I are off to Melbourne for the Kidlitvic Conference next week. This will be our third year attending and we’re very excited. I have a manuscript critique with a publisher while I’m there so fingers crossed they say something nice and encouraging. They usually do but that doesn’t help the nerves that come with the critique.

6) Kirrili and I have a school visit towards the end of May we are really looking forward to. I’ll have photos in the next edition. If you’d like us to come to your school, shoot me an email so we can organise one that is perfectly designed for your school’s needs. Preschools, Primary Schools and High Schools welcome!

Publishing Update

I have news to announce but not formally yet. Hopefully I can announce it in the June edition. Keep an eye on my social media platforms as the news may appear there first. They’re all linked below.

Anything to Share?

The Aspiring Writers Mentorship Program hosted by CBCA NSW and sponsored by Harper Collins is open for submissions. Good luck to anyone entering. Submissions close 30th June. For more information, click here.

Davina Bell will be hosting a workshop at the NSW Writers Centre on Saturday, 26th May. It looks wonderful.

Recent Book Purchase/s?

If I’d attended the Sydney Writers Festival on the weekend I would have had a truckload of new books. But I didn't make it so I don’t. Phew! My shelves are getting full and my ‘to read’ pile is very high. I hope everyone who presented at the festival, especially as part of the children’s program, or who attended it had a wonderful time. All your photos on social media looked amazing. I was quite jealous! And the weather was divine.

At the moment I’m reading ‘Missing’ by Sue Whiting.

Where can you find me on social media?

I’ve made it easy. Just click on the live links below and 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!

Happy Mother’s Day

to anyone in a motherly role.

The definition of ‘mum’ is so diverse.

Hope everyone in your family has a wonderful day.

This photo of my cherubs is a few years old now but I love it!

Thursday, 5 April 2018

Katapult - Edition 3 - April, 2018

Welcome to Katapult!

Here’s the April edition of my newsletter, Katapult. So what has been happening at my desk since the last time we had a chat? Heaps!

Don’t forget: I’m not apologising for any typos.

What’s Up?

CBCA NSW AGM Guest Speaker: I was very honoured to be the guest speaker at the CBCA NSW AGM on Saturday, 17th March. I may have shown a few sneak peeks of upcoming books but you had to be there to know what they were. All will be revealed in time. I know, it's a slow business :)

I broke my toe! Yes I did - I am a clumsy monkey. It has slowed me down but it’s more of an inconvenience than anything - thank goodness I can still drive! So how did I do it? A mixture of losing my balance and trying not to land head first on sharp-cornered furniture. SNAP! I have a pretty photo of my bone and three hours wasted in ER thanks to my efforts.

I attended the AWC Writing Chapter Books for 6-9 year olds course with Lesley Gibbes. I’ve been thinking about and planning an early chapter book series for a few years now. I keep hearing some of the big publishers are keen for new voices in this area. So after completing Lesley’s course, I now feel I have the tools to seriously jump in. Watch this space!

CBCA NSW AAA Event - Shortlist of Book Week Awards: I boarded a 5:27am train to attend this very exciting event. It was a long day (didn’t get home until 8pm) but it was worth the effort. Not only did we have engaging speakers try to predict which titles would be shortlisted in each of the categories, we heard amazing authors and illustrators talk about their books and how they match the new Geography syllabus. They included Jackie French, Bruce Whatley, Tim Harris and Susanne Gervay.

~ I have some photos but Blogger won't let me load them. Grrr! ~

CBCA NSW Branch Inc Newcastle Meeting: Exhibition - The Art of Anne Spudvilas: Our lastest local CBCA meeting was held at Newcastle Region Library. As part of that meeting, we had a tour of the recently renovated library space as well as a look at the Anne Spudvilas exhibition. This exhibition was breathtaking!

It will be on Monday 26 February to Saturday 14 April so be quick if you want to catch it.

From the Newcastle Region Library website:

25 years of illustration - The art of Anne Spudvilas.

A visually stunning exhibition of illustrations from the multi-award-winning artist and children’s book illustrator Anne Spudvilas. This striking exhibition includes works from picture books by well-known Australian authors such as Isobelle Carmody, Margaret Wild, Bryce Courtney and Gary Crew.

From sketchbooks, dummy books, storyboards and background material viewers will be taken on a creative journey to discover some iconic Australian picture books. The exhibition includes original artworks from award-winning books The Race, Jenny Angel, Woolvs in the Sitee and The Peasant Prince. Beginning with the cover of Isobelle Carmody’s picture book The Gathering, the exhibition includes work from Li Cunxin’s popular story Mao’s Last Dancer in its picture book – The Peasant Prince.

The exhibition provides rich opportunities for students to explore the nature of visual texts and to participate in illustrator workshops.

More information can be found here.

Upcoming Events

1) In a special edition of Katapult next week, I’ll give a run down on how the Newcastle Writers Festival went. It started today with the Cessnock Schools Program. Tomorrow I’ll be at the Newcastle Library helping supervise the Newcastle Schools Program and then I’ll be attending the Jimmy Barnes Opening Night event at Civic Theatre. Over the weekend the main program will be in full swing. And the finale on Sunday will be the free Family Fun Day.

2) I’m looking forward to the upcoming school holidays. I dare say we’ll get up to some literary fun.

3) I have submitted my interview for the Just Write For Kids blog visit. It will be broken into three parts. I think the first part will be released tomorrow. I’ll share the link on my social media platforms.

Publishing Update

We've been working hard on edits for the cover of No Baths Week. It’s not ready to reveal yet but it’s looking great.

Kirrili has started mapping out the spreads for Up To Something and preparing the paper for the final illustrations. We’ve also been chatting about a few design features. This is the magical stage - where stories come to life thanks to illustrations.

Anything to Share?

If you're keen to attend the next Writing Chapter Books for 6-9 year olds with Lesley Gibbes on 16th May in Sydney, the link is here.

Recent Book Purchase/s?

Suri’s Wall by Lucy Estela and Matt Ottley (signed copy by Lucy)

Pea Pod Lullaby by Glenda Millard and Stephen Michael King

The Feather by Margaret Wild and freya Blackwood

Archie and the Bear by Zanni Louise and David MacKintosh

Exploding Endings - Book 1: Painted Dogs & Doom Cakes by Tim Harris (signed copy)

A Boat of Stars written and illustrated by Australian authors and illustrators and edited by Margaret Connolly and Natalie Jane Prior

Where can you find me on social media?

I’ve made it easy. Just click on the live links below and 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 usually put something inspirational here but Blogger isn't playing niceat the moment.

So here's a lovely memory of mine. Thanks Ramona! ~

Sunday, 11 March 2018

Katapult - Edition 2 - March, 2018

Welcome to Katapult!

Here’s the March edition of my newsletter, Katapult. So what has been happening at my desk since the last time we chatted? A lot!

Don’t forget: I’m not apologising for any typos. Just read over them and assume I was rushed, distracted, trying to do three things at once, I’m a terrible typer, or I lost my mind.

What’s Up?

I attended the CBCA NSW event, ‘Night of the Notables’ at Dymocks, George Street, Sydney on Tuesday, 27th February to hear the announcement of the long listed titles for the CBCA Book Week Awards for 2018. Click here to see all the long listed titles.

I have lots of friends in each of the categories but congratulations to my local friends, Deb Kelly, Leila Rudge, Liz Anelli, Paul Russell and Fern Martins who have all been long listed. Very clever creatives!

At this event, I really enjoyed hearing about the new series, The Poppa Platoon by the successful team behind Little Lunch, Danny Katz and Mitch Vane. Book 1 will be released 1st April but I now own a signed early-released copy :) - lucky me. My daughter is a huge fan of the Little Lunch series so she devoured it within 24hr of the book being in the house.

The shortlist will be announced at noon on Tuesday, 27th March. Information about this professional development event for adults can be found here. Information about the event for kids can be found here.

Kirrili Lonergan and I spent last Thursday night with Aleesah Darlison at the NSW Writers Centre participating in her workshop, ‘Book Promotion Essentials’. It was a jam-packed session that was motivating and inspiring. We now have lots of ideas brewing as we start to think about how we would like to help promote and launch our new picture book, Up To Something next year.

I had dinner with some lovely children’s authors in Sydney on Friday, 9th March in North Ryde (or Macquarie Park if you ask my GPS. Hmmm ...). It was so lovely to catch up with Aleesah Darlison, Susanne Gervay, Amelia McInerney and other newbie children’s authors.

I had a manuscript assessment at the NSW Writers Centre with Leonie Tyle on Saturday - a very pleasant experience. Leonie looked at two picture book manuscripts for me. She advised me to develop the main charter a little more in one. It was suggested the other one go into a complete rewrite with a new storyline triggered by an event in the original manuscript.

What?

I’m still thinking about that feedback but she could be right. I may write the new story anyway as it did bubble away nicely in my head during the long drive back to Newcastle. But I might try my luck with the original version a little more. It’s a hard one as this industry is full of subjective opinions - some are right and some are wrong.

I’ve just submitted two picture book manuscripts to be assessed by a publisher at the Kitlitivc Conference I’m attending in May. One of them is my apple pie story mentioned in last month’s newsletter - the one I sent to a professional editor. I’m including the recipe with that one so last weekend I road tested it. I’d pushed together a couple of recipes and added a new ingredient so I own the copyright - but I wasn’t sure it would actually work. I’ve never cooked a pie from scratch before. But my taste buds told me it worked. Yum! I’ve now sent the recipe off to be road tested by my mother-in-law. She’s a wonderful cook.

It has a secret ingredient I can't mention, that's why I haven't shown you a photo of the filling. If I find a publisher and you buy the book, you'll know what it is - one day :)

The other one is a story that went all the way to a Scholastic acquisition meeting last year but didn’t quite get over the line. It’s a crazy, funny story about chickens. Fingers crossed either or both of these manuscripts have something that resinates with her so I get lots of juicy feedback or an invitation to rewrite and then resubmit.

I’m still playing the waiting game on whether the picture book manuscript I mentioned in my last newsletter made it through its acquisition meeting. Keep those fingers crossed!

Are you having trouble keeping up with all these manuscripts? Me too!

Upcoming Events

I’m very honoured to be speaking at the CBCA NSW Branch AGM this Saturday, 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 attending the upcoming course at the Australian Writers Centre, ‘Chapter Books for 6-9 year olds’ by Lesley Gibbs later in March. I’m looking forward to it as this is an area I want to move into very soon.

I'll be featured in a two-part interview on the Just Write for Kids Blog in April. I'll put the links in my April and May newsletters and on my social media platforms as soon as they're available. Thanks for interviewing me Deb Tidball! They have a great Facebook page community too.

Publishing Update

Last night I saw three coloured options for the cover of No Baths Week. Cheri Hughes is very clever! I’ll reveal the final cover soon once we work out which one and it’s been approved. Sorry to make you wait.

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 titled 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.

Anything to Share?

The Newcastle Writers Festival is on its way. The program was released a few weeks ago. I’m looking forward to seeing the children’s faces as they leave their sessions inspired to jump into new books.

Recent Book Purchases?

The Great Rabbit Chase by Freya Blackwood

The Lion in our Living Room by Emma Middleton and Briony Stewart

The Poppa Platoon by Danny Katz and Mitch Vane

Here We Are - Notes for Living on Planet Earth by Oliver Jeffers

Rodney Loses It! by Michael Gerard Bauer and Chrissie Krebs

The Fabulous Friend Machine by Nick Bland

Missing by Sue Whiting