Charlie Archbold's Blog

Raised By Moths on StoryBox HUb

I’m thrilled to share some exciting news: Raised By Moths, is now available on this fantastic platform! StoryBox Hub. ‘Australia’s most celebrated digital literacy resource for every child!’ The storytelling video is amazing and comes with creative writing ideas. I can’t wait for you to experience it.

Read Plus highlights the book’s whimsy: ‘This wonderful book is pure fantasy and brings a sense of joy to the reader with the thoughtful and engaging text. The stunning illustrations add to the imaginative quality of the story and will delight readers, both young and old.’

According to Readings: ‘This is a magical story of the relationship between animals and humans, as well as a whimsical adoption tale. The vivid lights and magical colours of the fun fair are captured beautifully by debut book illustrator Michelle Conn.’ Dive into this beautiful world and let the story’s charm envelop you!

https://storyboxhub.com/stories/raised-by-moths

New Release

The sugarcane Kids and the Empty cage

Welcome to the world of the Sugarcane Kids where the journey is as exhilarating as the destination. Join Andy, Eli and their friends as they seek to solve the disappearance of Gloria the wonder parrot and Anna the massive python.

This action-packed adventure is a both a humourous and thrilling read. With themes of family, freindship and the importance of doing the right things. Perfect for all readers who want adventure, ingenuity, kindness and fun.

Out Now

CBCA Shortlist

So excited that Raised by Moths has been shortlisted by the Children’s Book Council of Australia, 2024. This is a huge honour. Thank you for recognising the amazing illustrations. They illustrate the story so beautifully with magical charm, joy and sensitivity. Creating this book has been such a special journey and if you don’t have a copy you need one

OnE Door Closes But where Do you find the Next one?

A few weeks ago, I decided to leave my job. The freedom monster in me was let loose. No more working for that regular pay check. No more working for a system. No more obligation. I was ready to move on and I did.

I don’t regret it, but it is funny being on the other side of the fence. I have a turtle who spends his whole life trying to scale and break free of his pond enclosure. One day he will. I am sure he will scale the fence and find himself on the other side. But I know him. For a while he will be confused, nervous and low on supplies but he will rally and adapt to his freedom and scavenge for a while.

I am hoping this happens for me. Even if my hallway of possibility is looking devoid of open doors. Was the act of quitting a job without a new position impulsive or rash? Should you wait until you have secured a new position or trust in yourself and the old adage about one door closing and a new one opening? I’m going with the adage, but if you are out in WordPress universe and need a freelancer feel free to knock….

Flowering

The verb to bloom is the process of blossoming, reaching development, flourishing. Flowers bloom where they grow, from seeds that are sown, or seeds that land in a place where they thrive. And yet many of us feel we need to move, or be somewhere different, in order for our creative growth to happen.

Some people pick up their roots, replant and resettle where conditions are better and opportunities brighter. But for many of us, this is not an option, no matter how much we may want it to be. Life makes it hard to go where the grass is greener.

But from the spot where we are planted we can flower just as brightly. When we accept where we are and commit to growth in the place where life has sown us, we are able to blossom. And then, like seeds, we may be blown to new green pastures, or actually prefer to stay.

Poem Time

Causeway

My grandma lived on an island and the only way to reach her cottage was over a long causeway. But every childhood visit was heightened by the expectation of making it across. High tide, bad weather, jellyfish blooms-well not really but in my imagination they swarmed-rendered crossing the causeway impassable as it lay beneath the murk of the sea.

Causeways link two distinct places, island to island, island to mainland, one land mass to another. But unlike bridges they are far more vulnerable to the elements and forces of nature. If the tide was high it was a long wait in the car until the cold grey waters of East Anglia receded enough so we could cross.

Sometimes the links between thoughts and actions are firm and definable like bridges. You can cross back and forth as you please. But sometimes they are like navigating causeways. You have to wait for conditions to be right.

The desire to cross a predictable bridge with swift passage from A to B is strong, well-trodden, easy. But so often these aren’t the roads we face. The times we are in find me waiting for the tide to go down and to be accepting of that. Around me are the flat damp mud flats of the mainland, across the causeway and through the jellyfish is the light of a cottage.

I’ll get there but it’ll take a bit longer than expected. ©

Guest Post From The Wakefield Press Blog. Young Adult Fiction.

 

PUBLISHING IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS: A Wakefield Press diary
Posted on 19 March 2020 ByPoppy Nwosu

Today’s entry comes from Margot Lloyd, our wonderful head of Young Adult publishing. Read on for some very exclusive sneak peeks at some of the great YA books Wakefield Press will be releasing in the coming weeks and months.I’m taking over the Wakefield Press diary today to share some thoughts about publishing young adult books in the time of coronavirus.

The first thing I want to say is: all of this is overwhelming. We’re doing our best at Wakefield to not be swept up in panic, but it’s hard.

It’s also reminded me why I love young adult books so much, because they take us back to those electrifying first feelings of finding ourselves when we’re young.

And that gives YA books – even the brand fresh new ones – a sense of nostalgia, especially for us older readers; a sense of the worth in being good people. A sense of safety, and calm.

So, before I say anything else, I want to strongly recommend you keep your intake of non-bullshit news sources and young adult books high over the coming months.

You’ll need both.

Until a couple of weeks ago, it was – at Wakefield as everywhere – business as normal for us.

We were looking forward to the release of Poppy Nwosu’s vivacious and hilarious teen romance, Taking Down Evelyn Tait, on 1 April.

And the first glowing pre-release reviews were flowing in for Gina Inverarity’s cli-fi fairytale retelling, Snow (presciently exploring how a society copes when everything is shut down), scheduled for release in May.

We’d already been blown away by the support for Lisa Walker’s hilarious and lovable girl detective story, The Girl with the Gold Bikini, released in February, and I had just finished the first edit of a fantasy adventure by Mallee Boys author Charlie Archbold, Indigo Owl, due for release in September.

Normally, I could predict the trajectory of these books, to a certain extent. We’d send them out for reviews, get the good word flowing, have an exuberant (always exuberant!) launch, get the author into radio booths and online print, and the books would fly off the shelves and into readers’ arms.

At that point, I’d check in on reviews and get teary-eyed reading about how much people had fallen in love with the characters, or the witty storytelling, or the message behind the action.

But now the launches have been cancelled, and the reviews, interviews and online excitement have been overwhelmed by endless pandemic updates.

It’s hard to know what happens next.

What I do know is that these books – these precious, wondrous stories – have already made lives better. They’re funny, they’re riveting, they’re sad, they’re uplifting.

They’re written by the pluckiest bunch of Australian and Kiwi authors you could ever hope to meet.

And they deserve, more than anything, to be read.

So I’ve decided to let slip a little of three of them out into the world for free. A taster, if you will, so you can work out which ones to take into the bunker with you.

For the girl detectives among us (Veronica Mars fans, raise your hands), have a peek at The Girl with the Gold Bikini here, and buy the book here.

If quirky and adorable romance is your thing, check out Taking Down Evelyn Tait here and order your copy for a prompt 1 April delivery here.

And finally, for those action adventurers interested in a plucky heroine surviving a post-shutdown world, have a read of Snow here and sign up here to be notified when it’s released.

Here’s to keeping safe, and calm, and finding the worth in being good over the months to come.

 

Support Wakefield Press by buying our beautiful books!  Visit our website or contact us on 08 8352 4455 for more information, or to purchase a book (or three!). We can post your purchase to your doorstep!

Share the Love

Celebrate the people you love because who knows when things might change?[image error]

We can’t help pushing forward with our own wants and desires but we have to make time for love. Love for partners, family, and friends. Whoever makes your heart crack when you think about missing them.

Without giving our love we are just bystanders in life, not really committing, and if you’re not present then you miss out. So, if you’ve been forgetting to tell the people you care about how much and why you love them, do it today. Every day is an opportunity to acknowledge and be grateful for all the love in our lives.

Sage

Okay. This is my first blog in a long time and I’m doing something I don’t usually do and posting without drafting first. This is a bit intense-sort of like public speaking without practicing but if I don’t do it I never will. I probably wouldn’t advise this as a long term public platform strategy because we’ve all witnessed the toe curling awkwardness of an ill planned speech so let’s think of this more like karaoke. After all, we can all forgive a poor but heartfelt rendition of Adele’s, Someone Like You.

I have found it so hard to write. So hard to do something I really enjoy. What’s with that? Am I alone? Are you artists not painting, are you fitness fiends not at the gym, you singers missing choir to watch Netflix, you cooks ordering take away? We are in a funk people. And just for your information funk is being in a bad space, avoiding things out of fear, you get the drift. Funk!

I’ve been avoiding my computer. I’ve been locking it in a cupboard. Not because I’m bonkers but because I’m living overseas and my guest house is not equipped with four star safe security. So I cover it with my undies to keep it and my passport safe. This of course means every day when I go to get fresh pants-and lets be honest sometimes not so fresh-I see it. Staring expectantly up at me, eager for attention like a tiger dog. I ignore it, not because I think it may be rabid but because I don’t know where to start.

But today is the day. Fear, self-doubt, uncertainty, have made me jumpy and the irony is, when I get in such a mindset it is hard to grasp and action the things I know make a difference.

So why post today? Good question. It has to do with another of my great passions-food. There is the most delicious restaurant right down my road. Sage. Fabulous name on so many levels. Gourmet vegan cuisine. And when you order, around a napkin and your utensils is wrapped a little message.

This was mine.

You will get there when you are meant to get there and not one moment sooner. So relax, breathe, and be patient.

It was exactly what I needed. I have been patient and all the time I’ve not been writing I’ve been doing other things. So if you find yourself in the midst of an inner struggle do not underestimate the efforts you make to regroup and the self reliance you gain in the process. When the time is right you will be ready to re-embrace your passions. See I’ve already started a story…

Before you embark on a massive life change you cannot possibly imagine what your life will be like two, three weeks after the event. Where will you be living, how will you get around, what will the weather be like. And this is only the tip of a relocation iceberg. Lurking in the deep blue waters of life change are bigger questions and darker answers. Feelings and emotions, you had absolutely no idea you’d feel. So, as Eliza Stipend sipped her bitter coffee it should come as no surprise she burst into tears. The tears of -what the hell am I doing-gulped out of her. But for Eliza and so many who forge out into the unknown solo there was no one there to give her a hug.

Better post before I edit!