SCBWI Conference, 2016

What a time was had by all participants of the SCBWI Conference over the last two days!

Roving Reporters have captured every session across the 2-day conference and will upload their reports over the next few days so I will not give loads of details here. You can find the official SCBWI Conference blog here. And the first report is about the EK Books panel featuring Anouska Jones, Kirrili Lonergan, Gwynneth Jones and Belinda Landsberry, chaired by me.

I also took photos of almost all sessions and posted them on Twitter. 

Feel free to use the hashtag #scbwisyd to find out all the gossip, or visit my twitter feed.

This was my first SCBWI Conference and lucky me got to chair the first panel of the first day of the first conference I attended. Talk about pressure!

This was the second time I had chaired a panel and I had so much fun. But I have to admit I had a flurry of butterflies hiding in my tummy, arms, legs, and ear lobes beforehand. Once the conversation started, they fluttered away thank goodness.

I loved being able to help highlight the recent achievements of EK Books while sharing my personal journey with them. I didn't mind throwing in a few jokes here and there either.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to chair. To continue to develop my chairing skills is a personal goal for me. I would love to chair many more festival and conference panels in the future.

Our EK Books panel about to start
Photo: Penny Morrison

EK Books panel in action
Photo: Georgie Donaghey (Creative Kids Tales)

Anouska, Belinda, Kirrili, Katrina, Gwynne
Photo: Lynn Jenkins

A conference is always so much better when experienced with friends. Thanks Kirrili, Lynn, Gwynne, Jenni, Liz, Anouska, and all my extended literary family members who helped make this conference a roaring success. My literary family expands across Australia now and an event like this just reminds me of how lucky I am to be part of such a warm, supportive and caring community.

Jenni, Katrina, Lynn, Kirrili, Gwynne

We missed our local and interstate friends who could not be with us this time, but we can't wait to cross over with you soon. You just never know when or where.

Good luck to everyone with future submissions and book deals.
It's conferences like these that give hope and inspiration to everyone.

Thanks to the SCBWI committee (Susanne, Deb, Sarah and Marjorie) and the extended team (it is huge!) for all the hard work to bring such a magnificent experience to so many people. The educational benefits are priceless and the social benefits are forever remembered in our hearts.

See you at the next SCBWI Conference in 2018!

Lunch with the Stars - Manly (CBCA Northern Sydney sub-branch event) 30th August, 2016

I had the absolute pleasure of spending yesterday as a 'star' at the seventh annual 

'Lunch with the Stars' 

event hosted by the CBCA (NSW) Northern Sydney sub-branch.

Twenty-two schools (176 students) and 22 'stars' (aka children's authors and illustrators) from across Sydney filled the Grand Hall of ICMS (old St Patricks College) in Manly. 

Grand Hall just before the kids arrived

 This amazing venue made me feel like I was in a Harry Potter story. The old 

sandstone building certainly set the scene for an incredible experience.

(I forgot to take a photo of the outside of the building this year - doh!) 

LWS Booklet 2016

Each child was given an event booklet full of 'star' information
and for gathering autographs after lunch. 
Signing these booklets is the highlight of the day for everyone which makes the hard work producing it worth it. The time and effort to bring this publication together behind the scene is mammoth (I know as I've co-ordinated and am currently finalising the
Newcastle LWS booklet with the support of a team of people). The booklet then becomes a precious memento of the occasion.

Humphreys, the local Manly bookseller, sold books by the stars during the day. 

It is so lovely to see our little book sitting with such an outstanding selection 

of beautiful children's books and to see older children buying it.

 

 I was so lucky to host a table with students from Marina Regina, Avalon. This is a small Catholic school on the north shore. It was extra special when I found out they are part 

of the Broken Bay Diocese as I used to teach in this diocese many years ago and 

I have such fond memories.

Just take a look at the following photos showing how they decorated our table with a dandelion theme. I must admit their efforts meant so much to me as our book is a picture book and these students are in Stage 3. As soon as I tried to explain picture books are for everyone, they assured me they already knew as their librarian tells them the same thing. 

GREAT NEWS! 

Notice the wooden recycled place mats, fresh flowers, hand made dandelion puffs, gardening tools, grass table runner, yellow cups and basket of paper flowers. 

They can come and decorate for me any time - clever chooks!

 

 The illustration challenge was very popular. The children had a great 

time drawing a tapir led by the amazing Marjorie Crosby-Fairall.

This last photo is my effort - hense why I am an author!

It was an absolute delight to have Kirrili with me at this event. My students got to meet her too and she got to see how the Marina Regina students decorated the table for our book. Kirrili's student's from Random House decorated her table using ideas from her LAC books.

Here are the clever chooks from Marina Regina. They dressed up using the dandelion theme as well. I have had a few of these student email me with sweet messages since meeting them yesterday. Such a highlight of my job!

 And here is a photo of all the talented authors and illustrators who gave up 

their time to help the CBCA Northern Sydney sub-branch celebrate books.

From left to right:

Katrina McKelvey, Belinda Murrell, Felicity Pullman, Wendy Blaxland, Kirrili Lonergan

Wendy Fitzgerald, Louise Park, Lesley Gibbes, Susanne Gervay, Allison Tait

Lindy Batchelor, Kaz Delaney, Kate Forsyth, Marjorie Crosby-Fairall

Deb Abela, Aura Parker, Jill B. Bruce, Laurine Croasdale, Debra Tidball

Not in photo but at event:

Jan Latta, Peter Macinnis, Mark Thomason

Thank you to Belinda and Wendy for including Kirrili, Kaz and I from Newcastle. 

The long drive to this beautiful part of Sydney is always worth it. And it's  

a pleasure to help the Northern Sydney sub-branch have fun.

With help from the Newcastle sub-branch LWS committee, I look forward to delivering our second 'Lunch with the Stars' event on 13th September to 14 local schools in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie area. 

Wish us luck as I hope our lunch is as spectacular as this one!

Book Week Celebrations 2016

Congratulations to all the libraries, schools, playgroups, teachers, librarians, authors, illustrators, storytellers, publishers and crazy book lovers for celebrating 'Australia: Story Country!' in a profound way last week. What fun was had across our amazing country! It makes me so proud to be part of the Children's Book Council of Australia. 

It also makes me proud to be a children's author. Helping to make top quality children's literature and promote reading in my local area and beyond is so rewarding.

I celebrated Book Week this year in a way I never had before. You see, this was my first Book Week as a published author. Previously I had celebrated it in my classroom as a teacher and with my children as a mother. Being with your readership as they tell you why they love your book (beyond it's initial layer) is a magical moment. Children are such clever creatures!

My experiences last week were many and varied but all of them were rich and fulfilling. It's experiences like the ones below that keep me fresh and inspired.

Digital Story Writing Workshops with Newcastle Region Libraries

Classrooms are such busy places. Together with Newcastle Region Libraries and Julie Swane, we thought we'd offer story writing with a difference to extend the experiences offered in the classroom - in digital form using the program, 'Storybird' .

Across three after-school workshops involving children from Year 2 to Year 6, we introduced 'Storybird'. This program offers a platform to build stories into published books using images within the program. The children could use these images to spark story ideas. We discussed how this is actually the opposite way to how most children's authors work. The stories created during these workshops were amazing. The next generation of authors are fabulous!

Author/Illustrator visit to MacKillop Catholic College, Warnervale

Kirrili and I were very excited to be asked to celebrate Book Week with all the students from Kindergarten to Year 4 attending MacKillop Catholic College in Warnervale (on the Central Coast).

Young budding authors and illustrators were very excited to hear about our love of children's literature. The children were a delight while we read 'Dandelions', discussed its themes and demonstrated how Kirrili designed the illustrations. When we left, children could be seen continuing to draw dandelions and hot air balloons in the playground. We certainly touched those children in a profound way. What joy!

Jeannie Baker talk and exhibition of original 'Circle' collages

We were so lucky to have Jeannie Baker at the Newcastle Museum during Book Week to discuss her work, 'Circle'. (It was very similar to her inspiring talk at the CBCA Conference earlier this year.)

Jeannie discussed her research journey as she studied the images she needed to build into collages for the amazing story of this shorebird, the bar-tailed godwit.

Here are a few photos of some of her collages. I don't want to show you too many but just a taste of her brilliance. Her chosen media and intricate work is mind-blowing. If you can get a glimpse of her work, it's a must!

Jeannie stayed to sign books and answer any questions privately. A softly spoken and beautiful person.

Book Week Dress-Up Disco

My children's school combined it's annual disco with Book Week celebrations this year. The students could dress-up as an Australian book character or an Australian olympian to attend  the disco.

My daughter dressed up as 'Jill' from the Treehouse series by the creative dynamic duo, Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton. She had a sign explaining this as Jill wears very ordinary clothes. We discovered Jill wears lots of purple on the covers but we didn't have any purple in the wardrobe. Her handbag was stuffed with animals and she wore shiny disco shoes to finish off the outfit perfectly. Not too bad for using only items already in the house. (I don't do dressing up very well so my kids usually have to design their own costumes for these occasions).

My son dressed up as a soccer olympian. Too easy from my end but hence why he is not photographed in a post about Book Week!

To my surprise, one for the students from Year 1 in our school dressed up as the little girl from 'Dandelions'. This just tickled me pink! But I never got to see her due to my workshop commitments :( (I had completed an author talk with them a week earlier.)

I thoroughly enjoyed following my fellow authors and illustrators on social media last week as they celebrated Book Week across the country. So many things happened and so many kids, schools, teachers, parents, and libraries were involved.

Congratulations to everyone who planned events or participated in them. I'm sure kids everywhere will remember these experiences for years to come.