Christine Bongers's Blog, page 16

Dewey eyed at international librarians conference

 

John Marsden, Chris Bongers, Wendy Orr, and David McRobbie

When asked if I'd like to chair a Page to Screen panel with John Marsden, Wendy Orr and David McRobbie in front of 400 local and international librarians, my enthusiastic 'Hell, yeah!' almost blew the eyebrows off conference organisers.

Who wouldn't want to pick the brains of such a trio?

John Marsden is best known for his Tomorrow series of novels, which has sold some three million copies in Australia alone, making it the most successful young adult series ever written in this country. Now, seventeen years after it was first published, Tomorrow, When The War Began has made it onto the big screen, introducing the books to a new audience.

Wendy Orr's fairytale journey onto the red carpet began when one of her children's novels made it onto the LA Times Best Books of 2001. A Hollywood producer borrowed it from the library for her eight-year-old son and fell in love with the story. Seven years later, Nim's Island was released as a Hollywood motion picture starring Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler and Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin.

David McRobbie has adapted his own novels into three television series that have screened in 54 countries, and has also had the BBC adapt his novel See How They Run into a six-part mini-series.

For those who dream of following in their footsteps, read on, for the secret to their success may be as simple (and as difficult) as writing an award-winning, best-selling novel.

Television and movie producers routinely cherry-pick the best seller lists for future screen projects.

Why should they take a chance on an unknown story when Diary of a Wimpy Kid has been on the New York Times bestseller list since 2007?

Why take the risk when there is a ready-made audience of millions of children world-wide clamouring for their favourite book to be made into a movie?

It seems to me that books are now and always will be, portals into new worlds. As children, we learned to read so that we could enter into a thousand places we might never go, and live a thousand lives we might never know.

As writers, we take that journey one step further, creating new worlds for others to enjoy. And if like John Marsden, Wendy Orr and David McRobbie, we become very good at what we do, then our stories might indeed travel, around the globe, and onto the big and small screens, capturing the hearts of a whole new generation of readers.

One last vow

So we're up the coast.

It's another blustery day. The beagle's snoring and the kids are making a pink and yellow toadstool cake covered in edible fairies.

I've finished my jigsaw of Haleakala Volcano, and am demolishing the sudoku when I notice the date on the newspaper.

Sixteen years has taught me not to play cute with the knowledge.

'Wedding anniversary this Friday, sweetie. Where do you want to take me?'

He looks up from the paper. 'Ken's on his own Friday night. I thought maybe we should do s...

Digging in its claws

People love to know where we writers get our ideas.

They seem to think that ideas are elusive, and that we find them in secret places where others never think to look.

The truth is that ideas spring at us from all directions.

Like hungry cats, they clamour for our attention, rubbing up against our legs, jumping onto our laps, and whingeing till they get what they want.

Some inevitably drift off, bored with our lack of response.

Others are more persistent, digging in their claws and refusing to...

Girl's stories vs boy's stories

As a kid, I loved reading Zane Grey westerns and Jack London adventures

I'd ride horses bareback and fight boys with sticks, then retire to my room with my uber-Barbie (the one with the swivel waist and the bendable knees).

I devoured Jane Eyre, Ann of Green Gables and Little Women with the same avid obsession as Reach for the Sky, the true story of Douglas Bader, the legless World War II fighter pilot.

In my dreams I was Black Canary from the Justice League of America comics, but it was Green L...

Big weeks keep on rollin'

Feels like I been everywhere, man – Biloela, Rockhampton, Bracken Ridge, Toowoomba, Newmarket, Springfield, Ascot, and Sunshine Coast (for an online festival)… I barely had time for a breather after Book Week and now Brisbane Writers Festival is upon us.

Word Play, the kick-ass program for kids and lovers of youth literature kicks off on Wednesday with a host of international, award-winning, and best-selling authors and illustrators including Kate Forsyth, Morris Gleitzman, John Danalis...

Big weeks keep on rollin'n

Feels like I been everywhere, man – Biloela, Rockhampton, Bracken Ridge, Toowoomba, Newmarket, Springfield, Ascot, and Sunshine Coast (for an online festival)… I barely had time for a breather after Book Week and now Brisbane Writers Festival is upon us.

Word Play, the kick-ass program for kids and lovers of youth literature kicks off on Wednesday with a host of international, award-winning, and best-selling authors and illustrators including Kate Forsyth, Morris Gleitzman, John Danalis...

Eek, it's Book Week!

This year's  Book Week theme takes us Across the Story Bridge, (and yes I did conquer that demon fear of heights, after a communal neck rub and surprise de-lousing, courtesy of the naughty John Danalis).

Greg Rogers, pictured here working the kinks out of Narelle Oliver, went on to win Picture Book of the Year for The Hero of Little Street. Narelle's Fox and Fine Feathers was an Honour Book in the same category.  For a complete list of CBCA Book of the Year Awards, click here.

The good folk...

I'll be back

You can take the kid out of the country… but you can bet your RayBan Predator Wrap black sunglasses that she'll be back.

I've pulled out the big guns, for next week's visit to my old stomping grounds in Central Queensland.

Look for me on August 17, back in Biloela, where I'll be launching Henry Hoey Hobson to a hometown crowd at my old alma mater, Biloela State High.

My junior debating coach, Mrs Meisner, will be there, telling tales out of school about what a ratbag model student I was, back...

What am I – woman or wuss?

We writers are a sadistic lot.

We know that true character is revealed under pressure, so we force our protagonists to confront their deepest fear, then we crush them, just to see what they're made of.

Well, what goes round, comes round… I'm about to find out if there's any iron in my own filings.

On August 13, look for me amongst the rigging of Brisbane's Story Bridge, where I'll be joining a shortlist of CBCA Notable Authors to promote this year's Book Week theme, Across the Story Bridge.

I...

Out of the literary ghetto

Australian author Garry Disher once observed that the Australian literary community tends to ghetto-ise children's writers, herding them into separate programs at writers' festivals, and giving them little coverage in the mass media.

He's published more than forty books, across a range of genres, including crime thrillers, literary novels, short-story collections, novels for adolescents and children, and writers' handbooks.

I can't help but think how pleased he'd be with The Australian...