Sandy Fussell's Blog, page 6

Should Authors Review Books?

6 November, 2016

Lately a few posts around this topic have been appearing on my webosphere horizon. Some say yes and others say no. I’ve got a strong opinion on this topic so I’m keen to add my view to the pile.

Yes and No are both right. From my perspective, point of view, position and experience, the answer is a resounding YES. I’m not writing critical reviews on a specific book. When I review, I have two clear goals – to bring a wonderful children’s books to the attention of parents, teachers, librarians and kids, and to support the Australian children’s literature community of which I am a proud and active member. These goals require me to review as diverse a range of titles and formats as possible.

30 October, 2016

I’ve reviewed books all over the net but currently, my main reviewing gig is the Sunday Telegraph Funday supplement, where the brief is two reviews of approximately 200 words for an Australian children’s book (picture books, junior fiction and non-fiction and the lower reading age end of YA) including a star rating, in line with the Funday’s readership demographic.

I want to raise awareness of Oz kids books and I love that I have the opportunity to bring them to the attention of even a small slice of the Sunday Telegraph’s 1.1 million readership. I think that’s important. opportunities for a print hard-copy review of an Australian children’s book are limited. Even my own window is constrained to two reviews a week.

20 November, 2016

I want to showcase Oz kids books and I love that I have the opportunity to bring them to the attention of even a small slice of the Sunday Telegraph’s 1.1 million readership. I think that’s important. Opportunities for a print hard-copy review of an Australian children’ book are limited. Even my own window is constrained to two reviews a week.

Do I see a conflict of interest? No. I’m not reviewing my books. But what about my author friends and colleagues? And you might have noticed I never write a bad review. Can you trust me? YES. I only get to review two books and there is so much choice, I never choose one I don’t think is at least 4 stars out of five. I want to raise reading awareness, not waste space on a critical negative review. I share reviews across all publishers, the big and the small.

I know I’m on the right track when I get feedback from a reader via social media to say they bought a book I reviewed and recommended for a child. The best feedback of all is if they say the kid loved it and is now reading something new.

Mission accomplished.

Minecrafting a Story Workshop

What could be better than computer games and writing? When it comes to Minecraft, they go together perfectly.

I have heaps of fun at my Minecraft workshops and the kids are always excited to write. This month at Liverpool and Cannes Hill Library both sessions were fully booked and a hopeful group of waiting list kids stood at the door.

I fitted them in, of course. Who can say no to six kids that keen?

I’m still amazed at the consistent quality of the work produced despite the range of ages (once it was from 7 to 14) and range of ability. I think it’s because the Minecraft world is a comfort zone and they feel very confident writing about something they know and love.

The Minecraft world has everything a story needs and my young writers create some amazing word magic on their crafting tables.

If you are interested in booking a Minecraft workshop, contact me here. More information about the workshop can be found here and here.

SCBWI Andrea Pinkney Award

I love first pages. Some people judge a book by its cover and I’ve done that too. But for me, the first page is king.

If the first page is wonderful, I’m hooked and I’ll persevere for a long time even if the book lets me down.

So I was chuffed to receive a Highly Commended in the 2016 SCBWI Conference Andrea Pinkney Award for the Best First Page.

Here’s my beginning. Maybe you will want to read on… (in that case, tell an editor *smile* It’s still a WIP…)

It waited and it slept, until the moon rounded, and the harbour wind brought the scent that woke its hunger. Alert. Aware. Night deepened and yawned, malevolent with anticipation as soft footsteps hurried along the walkway. Its hunger coiled, tensing ready to strike.

The woman looked back as if expecting to see someone behind her. She clutched her jacket tight across her chest and walked even faster towards the safe glow of the street light. Darkness had a way of swallowing everything, except fear.

With cold, black fingers, the wraith reached out to gather her into the shadows, to cover her mouth with its own and suck the scream from her lungs.

 

And so it begins… Book Week Month 2016

It really ought to be called Book Week Month. According to my diary, Book Week extends halfway into September.

It’s a good thing it’s a lot of fun. This was a special beginning to Book Week because it was also a Story Crowd festival with uber-talented Jules Faber and tween-scene-queen Belinda Murrell.

My biggest fail at any school visit is I usually forget to take a photo. But I can be resourceful… so I stole this one off Belinda’s Facebook post.

Me, Jules Faber and Belinda Murrell. Photo: Belinda Murrell

Day 1 began with an hour-and-a-half train trip, followed by a 30 minute wait at the bus stop and an hour long bus ride. To make this happen, I had to get up at 4.30am and be out the door by 5am.

In truth, it’s not all that much more travel time than most of my school visits. When you live on the South Coast, it’s a long way from almost everywhere.

But it’s always worthwhile. This time, the kids at The Pittwater House School made it so.

I talked about Sad, the Dog with K-2 and we swapped pet stories. Fortunately, all their pets were well-loved and even the stick insect had a name.

Year 3 – 4 were surprised to hear that how Pokemon inspired the animal spirits of the Samurai Kids, and what was once ‘just another slide’ now generates an excited groundswell of questions, thanks to Pokemon Go (which is btw why I don’t mind waiting at the bus stop. There are Pokemon everywhere in Sydney).

In all my sessions, I did an exercise on onomatopoeia, using my gong. It’s always fun to make a noise in the library. I suspect Year 5-6, although they probably wouldn’t admit it, had even more fun with this than the Kinders did.

And there was chocolate, too, thanks to the very lovely and welcoming librarians.

Belinda gave me a lift to Manly – which meant I avoided the risk of a second surly bus driver who didn’t want to have to remember to tell me which was my stop – and ended the day on a high note with a ferry trip across the harbour (catching a Wartortle along the way).

Book Week Month is the best.

 

 

99 No More #LoveOzKidLit

99 Authors and Illustrators on Twitter is last week’s news. Now there are 114 (and one correction for Adam Wallace – some other Adam Wallace out there in Twitterville may have been temporarily getting the real Adam Wallace’s fan mail!)

 

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#LoveOzKidLit Authors & Illustrators on Twitter

To celebrate the arrival of #LoveOzYA’s younger sibling #LoveOzKidLit here’s a list of 99 #LoveOzKidLit authors and illustrators on Twitter.

If I’ve accidentally left anyone off - please let me know.  I’m certain I have but I did find a few new names to follow. Tracking everyone down was like catching Pokemon and I know I haven’t managed to ‘catch ‘em all’. There must be at least one hundred!

And if there’s a misspelling – eek! Let me know and I’ll fix that pronto.

Some are more known for their YA. Some are more active then others but I resisted the temptation to sort them with something like Klout score (which can be skewed but just in case you’re wondering who has the highest scores – drum roll… Michael Pryor and Garth Nix) – so without further adieu, in alphabetical order:

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Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival

There is only one word for the Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival and that’s SPECTACULAR.

That one word covers everything from the organisation (the SPECTACULAR Sonia and her team), the kids who attended, the Year 11s who ‘minded’ the authors and illustrators, the launch function, the festival program, my speaker colleagues, the Kinders, the food, the accommodation and oh that Literary Dinner,with glitz, glamour and rock star moments in abundance.

In fact, I need a bigger, brighter, shinier word than SPECTACULAR. bring me my thesaurus! Stephen King said no writer should ever use a thesaurus but then he’s obviously never been to a Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival.

Here are my personal highlights:

WAS (Whitsunday Anglican School) People

I’m embarrassed to admit I can’t remember all their names – but I remember lots of smiles from Sonia and Julie and Kylie and the team. Genevieve in the bookstore, still volunteering, long after her children have left the school and taking the time to knit Sad, the Dog. The lady (was it Ann?) who managed to make gluten free and vegan so gourmet we all wanted to eat those meals. I am now firmly convinced that the children’s literature angels all wear purple WAS T-shirts.

Wednesday Evening Launch

This was a classy affair from Oliver Phommavanh‘s Ninja Turtle Doc Martens (why oh why didn’t I take a photo of those but at least I found a pic on the Internet) to the yummy finger food. Every author was sponsored by a local business and this sense of community was a thread that ran through the festival. My sessions were sponsored by Kip McGrath Maths tutoring which is a perfect fit for Math loving me. Poet and all round excellent entertainer Harry Laing did a great John Marsden impersonation for the panel when the great man himself”s plane was delayed by wild weather. Megan Jacobsen, Amy Kaufmann and Jay Kristoff (who wrote this must-read query letter blog post and btw also wrote some mega books – hanging for a copy of Nevernight) were the other panel members.

Harry Laing’s Teacher Development Session

Funny, clever and a talented poet, Harry had me wishing I had brought a pencil so I could start writing a verb poem and that I had a class to share his poetry with. And at the Literary Dinner, when the music started – that man could move.

Authors and Illustrators

Amazing people and snappy dressers too (recue Oliver’s ninja turtle shoes, David Metzenthen’s salmon loafers and Lesley Gibbes‘ policeman hat). Amy Kaufman shared some amazing stories from her previous job – the one before mega NY Times best-selling author (very smart, big-hearted lady, literature’s gain is a corporate loss). George Ivanoff ruled the social media airwaves (and the kids). John Marsden (Legend. Say no more.) Jay Kristoff, David Metzenthen and Harry Laing single handedly raised the average author height so many cm, I felt petite (that never happens!). Marc McBride and Michael Camilleri brought words to life with wonderful illustrations. Matt Caffoe mashed theatre (more about that to follow), Megan Jacobson talked television and Tim Baker talked surf. Everyone talked stories.

Minecraft Workshop

I’ve given up trying to analyse why it works so well. The writers, the non-writers and even the anti-writers once again thrilled me with the quality of their stories produced in a mere 45 minutes. Minecraft provides such a comfortable and familar story scaffold that kids are free to concentrate on improving their writing. I always feel like a big success after Minecrafting a Story even though I know the magic wasn’t me.

Visiting Kindergarten

I dropped in to see Kindergarten during my break on Day 2, for a short visit to read them Sad, the Dog.  They were such fun, I stayed until I had to leave for my next session. The Kinders told me their stories about pets which was a welcome role reversal. It’s such a special thing to share time with kids on the threshold of reading and storytelling, and a bit tricky too, when their enthusiasm exceeds their mastery of language.

Last Session on Friday  

As any festival presenter knows, the last session is always the hardest. The kids are tired, the author is tired and if it’s Friday…

“Do you think we could finish a little earlier?” the teacher strode up and asked. “Of course,” I said, thinking they were probably all exhausted. Not so. In fact, they’d only come for this one session and despite a strict departure time for their return journey, were determined to get every child’s book signed before they left. 87 copies of White Crane. A rock star moment. Last thing on Friday. Every eye glued, every  kid engaged.

The Literary Dinner

The door opened to reveal a room bathed in fairyland lights, complete with a red carpet. Hollywood eat your heart out.

Matt Caffoe of Mashed Theatre entertained with a mix of Shakespeare and beatboxing. How does that work, you might ask? Really well. Richard Fidler told tales of enlightened and enduring Byzantium, bitter sweet and ironic, given the coup concurrently occurring at the time in Istanbul. I’ve long been a fan of Richard’s Conversations podcasts and his speech didn’t disappoint. Neither did the chocolate fountain. Or the photo booth that brought back Luna Park memories.

If there was a Dancing With the Stars trophy, it would have went to Harry Laing. The award for the biggest party animal would have been collected by George Ivanoff on behalf of the Spearow Pokemon which the papparazzi snapped swimming in his champagne .

The Boardwalk

Saturday morning I got up early and walked along the river. I caught a few Pokemon and listened to the sounds of water birds. It was restful and reflective. The perfect end.

SPECTACULAR, astounding, dazzling, remarkable, sensational, amazing, splenderous …

Paying Forward and Giving Back – NSWWC Kids & YA Festival

At the recent NSW Writers’ Centre Kids and YA festival, Susan Whelan and I presented a seminar on our version of networking.

For us, networking is not about connecting with influencers and self promotion, it’s about Giving Back and Paying Forward, being an active member of a community.

It was thrilling to hear the seminar was booked out – a friend tried to get a ticket on the day but there were none left. Doubly thrilling because we donated the seminar fees to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. All in a days’ work of paying forward and giving back.

Sometimes when we were planning the seminar outline I would muddle up the seminar name and call it Paying Back and Giving Forward. I love the balance here – no matter how you re-arrange the words, it’s still the same thing.

With practical examples, we talked about book reviews, comments on Amazon and blogs, joining organisations and critique groups, volunteering and supporting literacy causes among other things.

We talked about the things members of the literature community can do to help others and how in helping others we help ourselves. It’s good for our mental health and self esteem and while the immediate benefit might not be tangible, the friendships are and ultimately good things happen.

The feedback was wonderful. My favourite was from the writer who confided that we had lifted the tone of her day.

While the morning program had been informative, the message of how hard it was to get published had left her a little down defeated. Our session had been the perfect antidote with its focus on being a proactive and positive member of the children’s literature community.

An Afternoon with Charlotte Wood and Caroline Baum

I have a confession to make.

I don’t usually attend events where the authors write for adults. This was my first one.

The children’s book industry is such a vibrant, busy sector that with juggling family, two part-time jobs, a small business and getting some writing done, there’s very little time for anything else.

So I was secretly excited to be at this event, presented by the Wollongong Writers Festival. I hadn’t read The Natural Way of Things although I’d heard a lot about it (who hasn’t!) and fielded enough trusted recommendations to know I was going to enjoy it. It’s still on my To Buy List so if you haven’t read it either, it’s safe to continue on.

There are no spoilers here. And neither were there any on the afternoon. Caroline Baum did a brilliant job of guiding the conversation without revealing any critical plot details. The friendship between her and Charlotte was self-evident and added to the comfortable, inclusive feel.

The Excelsior Room at Thirroul Library was pleasantly filled. I heard someone say 80 people and I know the event was sold out as a friend tried unsuccessfully to get a ticket on the day.

Charlotte Wood is 4F –  fabulous, funny, feisty and feminist. She’s also fascinating to listen to and articulate about her writing process, yet humble about her achievements.

I was horrified to hear about the girls imprisoned in the old gaol at Hay, and what brought them there, victims of a society ruled by men. Ironically, while I was waiting to hear Charlotte speak, this appeared in my Twitter feed. And although I didn’t realise it then, I felt the ‘intelligent rage’ Charlotte later spoke about.

These men of the 1950s felt a women needed to be spanked to ‘make them grow up’, and ‘teach them who’s the boss’. And if they ‘haven’t got it coming to them’ they should be spanked anyway because ‘it will remind them how well off they are’ and ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’ I felt sick reading it and I feel sick again writing it.

During question time, someone raised the issue of symbolism and Charlotte said it was often unintentional. She described a scene where a white horse appears, a powerful visual promise of escape to freedom. But the horse made its way into the story initially because a white horse would chew the grass at night outside the window of her room in the house she was staying at to write. In this case, the symbolism added itself.

This was  interesting to me. I’ve read many pieces where authors discuss the symbolism readers find. Most say that they didn’t write the symbolism – some say the reader interpretation is wrong, others that the reader is free to find what they want in their reading. A few say they wrote the symbolism on purpose.

I liked Charlotte’s explanation. It was authentic. It made sense. It often happens that way in my own writing.

I didn’t buy the book this time. The line was too long and the To Do List was calling. I’m going book-shopping next week…

How to Lend a Book

Ideally, with enthusiasm and the wild abandon of book-love sharing. It used to be like that for me, until the Catch-22 incident of 1980. As you can tell, I’ve never fully recovered.

Over the years I’ve learned the hard way about all the terrible things that can happen to a book when it leaves home. It can be left on a plane (train, bus or automobile), dropped in a bath, abducted by a stranger or attacked by monkeys.

The solution: A Book Lending Policy.

First I ask myself about the book. Is it replaceable? And if it isn’t, would I be devastated if it came back damaged or worse still, never came back at all?

Then I ask myself about the potential book babysitter. Are they a known book-loving friend?  Or a friend who is not normally a book person but has succumbed to a raving review of my latest favourite read?

Are they one of those people (I know two) where the only thing we have in common is an obsessive love of books and our lives touch irregularly but happily simply because of that?

One set of books in my library is irreplacable. The Chronicles of Narnia is like my long-gone copy of Catch-22 – more than the pages between the covers.

The Chronicles of Narnia was a childhood prize given to a girl whose book world was limited by a very small country school library. C S Lewis opened more than a wardrobe door for me. He opened a hallway of doors and I’ve been running in and out them, slamming them happily behind me, all my life.

Catch-22 was the first book that made me laugh, cry and think – all at once. I studied it in Year 11 and I read it for pleasure over and over again. The margins were crammed with notes – from the girl and the woman she became. I lent it to a friend. My best friend at the time. And when I asked for it back, she said insisted she never had it. I asked her to please look again as I was sure she did because I’d made a diary note saying so. That didn’t go down well although the friendship survived a few more years.

I now warn book borrowers about the diary. It was never about not trusting people. It’s about lending so many books I forget who I lend them to. (Unless it’s Catch-22, which I would never forget and only ever have lent to one person).

So other than Narnia, the book-loving friend can borrow anything. And if you are one of the occasional bump-into book lovers, you can borrow anything as well.

If you are the friend who doesn’t value books but wants to read a particular one I own, I’ll decide based on the book. Once I lent a Julian May book to such a friend who enjoyed it so much he lent it to his friend, who lost it. The book was an early edition where each cover of the books in the series joined together to create a landscape. The replacement book sadly didn’t fit in the middle of the panorama.

BTW I understood about the monkey and appreciated the offer to replace the book. But I decided that as it was the only book I owned that had been to Thailand AND been bitten by a monkey, it had become irreplaceable. It makes me smile and I would still lend that friend every book I own. Except Narnia.