Over on the Audrey of the Outback blog, Christine Harris talks about interviewing your characters as one way of getting ideas for your story. She interviews Audrey while she’s at it!
We are sad to hear that there won’t be any more Audrey paperbacks, but on the blog Christine Harris says there will be an Audrey picture book coming out, so stay tuned …
For a morning of pirate songs, stories and pirate treats, go along to the Captain Clawbeak Pirate Party on at Fullers Bookshop.
When: Saturday 17 July 2010
Where: Fullers Bookshop, 131 Collins St, Hobart TAS
Email Fullers Bookshop for more info and to RSVP.
Sheryl Gwyther visited us last month as part of the celebrations for the launch of our Undercover Readers Club. She’s back today to talk a bit about how she got the idea for her latest book, Princess Clown. Welcome back, Sheryl!
What gave you the idea for writing Princess Clown?
Princess Clown began with a challenge – to write a chapter book using words that clashed. I chose CLOWN and PRINCESS.
(Musicians have used this same process to choose intriguing, unusual names for their bands. That’s why we have rock bands with names like Led Zeppelin, Guns ‘N Roses, Green Day, Pearl Day and Stone Roses.)
Once I had chosen the words Clown and Princess I asked myself, What if?
What if there was a princess who was different? What if she loved clowning and making people laugh? What if she was the heir to the throne? What if she was in trouble because she can’t stop clowning around? What if her tricks go terribly wrong?
Then before I could say, ABRACADABRA and ALLIBALOO, out sprang Princess Belle and a story was born.
Are you good at any circus skills yourself? Juggling, unicycle riding, back flips, squirting unsuspecting people with your joke flower/buzzing them with a handshake?
I prefer my bike with two wheels so I don’t fall off. I can’t do black flips or somersaults and neither do I have a zingy clown ring like Princess Belle, but I do have a set of three professional juggling balls – a perfect size and weight for my hand.
I’m trying to learn to juggle. So far, I’ve worked up to three throws and a catch, but it’s been difficult to throw that fourth throw. My brain does not like it at all! But I’ll never give up trying – one day I will get there.
Want to try juggling? Then start with some good juggling balls. Here’s a recipe on how to make your own super-cool juggling balls out of balloons and uncooked rice. http://www.abc.net.au/science/surfingscientist/jugglingballs.htm
How do you get inspiration and ideas for your writing?
I get ideas for writing stories from lots of places. Some start with daydreaming, or childhood memories, some from intriguing things I’ve read or heard about, some from combinations of words, a couple even came from dreams. Once I get the idea, I always ask, What if? And that is when the story really begins to form in my imagination.
I like to write a rough outline while the idea is fresh in my brain. Then it’s a good idea to brainstorm – that fills out the characters’ development and also the plot.
While I’m writing the first draft, I play some background music on the CD player. When writing an adventurous part of my stories, I like the soundtrack from The Lord of The Rings – helps to keep the fast pace going. You might find that works for you too.
Check out this link from my blog: Music to Write by? It’s all about what other authors listen to when they write. http://sherylgwyther.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/music-to-write-by/
Do you have any advice for young writers?
The best advice I can give to new writers of any age is:
PRINCESS CLOWN is available from Blake Publishers.
http://sherylgwyther4kids.wordpress.com
http://sherylgwyther.wordpress.com
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Sheryl Gwyther is taking Princess Clown on a blog tour. Where is she going?
06 July Tuesday Dee White Tips on writing chapter books
07 July Wednesday Soup Blog [You’re here!] Where do you get your ideas?
08 July Thursday Robyn Opie Guest blog
09 July Friday Catriona Hoy Author interview
10 July Saturday Kat Apel Win a copy of Princess Clown and get your name in Sheryl’s next book!
11 July Sunday Sheryl Gwyther 4 kids About launching a book
12 July Monday Sandy Fussell Guest blog
13 July Tuesday Sally Murphy Interview: The author’s life
14 July Wednesday Claire Saxby Are you a clown or a princess?
15 July Thursday Mabel Kaplan Workshopping with children
The closing date for entries for The Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards has been extended to 16 July 2010. But even if you aren’t entering the competition, their site has a page of excellent tips for writing poetry. Check it out!
And if you want to enter their competition and you’ll find all the info on their website.
Happy writing!
Sheryl Gwyther will be here on Wednesday 7th as part of her Princess Clown blog tour. Be sure to stop by—she’ll be talking about how she gets her ideas, and she has some great writing tips for kids.
See you then!
If you live in the Pilbara region of WA, you might be interested in this Photo and Story Comp. The winner receives a digital camera!
Write a narrative about your local environment and take photos to accompany your text. Entries close 5pm on the last day of Term 3. You can find out more about the competition here.
Now the ‘Lights Out’ visitors are gone, we thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of the children’s books that they liked reading undercover, and the ones they thought they’d like reading if they were reading after lights out today. So here’s a list! (Some of them might be out of print, but libraries will often have a copy of books that are out of print. Check your school library or your local public library. Ask your librarian!)
What about you? Do you have any books you’d recommend? Tell us in the comments!
Well, the Undercover Readers Club is now officially launched. In case you missed it — we’ve had children’s authors, poets and illustrators visiting the blog to talk about what they used to read undercover when they were growing up.
Tomorrow we’ll post a list of all the books mentioned, in case you’d like to look for them the next time you’re at a library or book shop.
And if you came late to the tour, here’s a list of all our visitors. Thanks for helping us launch the Undercover Readers Club. Hurrah!
~ Rebecca
Authors, poets and illustrators who visited:
Sheryl Gwyther
Aleesah Darlison
Katrina Germein
The Book Chook
Sandy Fussell
Sue Walker
Dee White
Chris Nixon
Kathryn Apel
Jackie Hosking
Hazel Edwards
Wendy Orr
Duncan Ball
Karen Collum
Robyn Opie
Angela Sunde
Today we welcome the last of our ‘Lights Out!’ visitors to our blog. Angela Sunde is here to tell us what she used to read after ‘lights out’ when she was a child. Angela Sunde’s book Pond Magic, is an Aussie Chomp and will be published by Penguin Australia in September 2010.
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As a child I was a little scared of the dark. It’s not surprising really. You see, after lights out, when Mum and Dad were watching TV in 
the lounge room, my brother would slither into my room on his stomach and pop his head up next to my bed with a wicked grin. Then, when my face was as pale as the flannelette sheets tucked under my chin, he would point to the top cupboard above my wardrobe doors (a cupboard I was too small to have ever seen inside) and tell me “A witch lives in there”.
After many interruptions to their evening viewing, Mum and Dad replaced a light bulb on the wall above my bed with a red globe. It was warm and soothing and I could easily see my brother’s bottom as it slunk into the room, sticking up in the air like a shark’s fin (enter Jaws music here).
What the red light globe also allowed me was the pleasure of reading in bed. Every book and comic had a red tinge, but I could read for hours and fall asleep with adventures and words spinning through my head. Mum knew of course. The pile of reading material under my bed must have been a sure giveaway. She warned me I would damage my eyesight and I promised the red light was only there to keep away my fears, not to read.
That was a lie.
I devoured every book in the school library and my cousin’s collection of Enid Blyton’s ‘Famous Five’. A trip to the shops meant a detour to the bookstore, where I purchased the classics: Little Women, Black Beauty, What Katy Did, Heidi, My Friend Flicka and Thunderhead, and read them all by the red light of my room.
A favourite of mine was Betsy in Spite of Herself by Maud Hart Lovelace, the adventures of a young teen in 1907. But my large volume of ‘The Works of Lewis Carroll’ took pride of place on my bookshelf. The illustrations by John Tenniel had me in raptures and one year a friend and I went to a fancy dress party as Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
I never owned a picture book and coveted my cousin’s Green Eggs and Ham. Nowadays if I were caught reading after lights out, it would either be a picture book or a mid grade/YA novel. Adult fiction doesn’t excite me, even though I joined a book club to force myself to read it. It seems the young reader in me is still alive, tucked up in a flannelette sheet, reading under a red light.
© 2010 Angela Sunde
Visit Angela Sunde’s blog for more information about her and Pond Magic!
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Alphabet Soup magazine has been celebrating the launch of Undercover Readers (our new reviewers club for kids)! If you’d like to join the Undercover Readers Club, you’ll find an information pack you can download from the Alphabet Soup website. As part of the celebrations, we had a different children’s author or illustrator visiting Soup Blog each day until 29 June 2010 (that’s today!) to talk about what they used to read after ‘lights out’ when they were growing up. You can read back through the blog posts if you missed any!
The CYA conference is the Children and Young Adult Writers and Illustrators Conference. It’s actually a conference for adults interested in children’s and young adults books and writing them. But now there’s something for kids, too.
The CYA conference will include a kids’ conference, called Hatchlings, aimed at children 8 – 18 years old, who are interested in writing and illustrating, or who want to meet the authors/illustrators at the conference.
There will also be book launches by Paul Collins, Jo Thompson and Aleeseah Darlison and dads are welcome to come for Fathers Day Tea!
Venue: QUT Creative Industries Precinct, Kelvin Grove. Building Z2, Level 3.
Ages: 8 -18
When: 5 September 2010
For more info: http://www.cyaconference.com/
alphabetsoup.net.au 