Deb Fitzpatrick's Blog, page 2

Giving thanks

As we head into a new school year and requests for school visits start to roll in, I’ve been reflecting on the incredible curiosity and generosity of those in the Australian education system and library services. These communities of people foster in others their love of books, writing and illustration, and the creative process behind […]

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Stimulation, not silence

It’s fair to say that most people think writing is a solo affair: writer, computer, room, coffee. Silence, and thought. No interruptions. And this model is true for some. But it doesn’t work for many writers, and I’m one of them. I need stimulation, including interruptions when I want them. I need to see other […]

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The resolution

Lovely old friends from Melbourne visited us this Christmas, and as we approached the new year, we looked back at some of the resolutions Tara* had made over recent years. They went something like this:  Get your shit together Get shit done Get rid of shit. We were mulling on what 2019’s resolution could be. […]

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A Maze of Story

I’m really delighted to announce I’m a patron of A Maze of Story, a small non-profit organisation that provides creative writing programs for primary school children who might not ordinarily have access to such enrichment. I’m in the very privileged position of being able to go to schools regularly and meet kids, teachers and librarians and […]

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Interview about editing & writing

I had heaps of fun talking with Margaret River Press about editing Charles Hall’s forthcoming debut novel, Summer’s Gone, and writing my first adult novel, set in Margaret River and Gracetown in the late 1990s, called The Break. Check it out!

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Living vicariously

As a child, I often pictured myself in khaki, ranging through the Australian bush helping to protect our native animals. I’d hold the little creatures tenderly, measure them, note their sex, check for pregnancy in females, record the data, and then kindly, lovingly, release them back into the world. Well I would have. I would […]

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Spectacular new book trailer!

When The Spectacular Spencer Gray came out last month, I knew I had to get in touch with an old colleague. I wanted to ask the young filmmaker who made the book trailer for The Amazing Spencer Gray to turn her hand to the task again, this time for Spectacular. The result? Well, today the book trailer […]

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Early reviews for The Spectacular Spencer Gray are in!

Early reviews for The Spectacular Spencer Gray are coming in and it’s hard not to be delighted. I’m including a few snippets here for those interested. Thank you to readers and reviewers alike and I look forward to seeing quite a few of you, along with your wonderful librarians and teachers, during Children’s Book Week! […]

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My seventeen-year-old self returns for a visit

Last year I had the enormous pleasure of meeting up with my favourite high school teacher ever – my English teacher from Year 12. It had been nearly 30 years since I sat, entranced, in her classroom at a suburban state high school in Perth. I was running creative writing workshops at another WA high […]

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The power of family

Families really fascinate me. So much of my writing, looking back on it, has been about family.

Family teaches, controls, contains, cushions, protects, lures and repels us — all at the same time. It nurtures and carves us, in all the best, and sometimes the worst, ways.

As a parent, I am very aware of the everyday — and every-year! — challenges we face in raising our kids. Regularly, the task seems bigger than I have the skills for. Sometimes, it flows and feels good for everyone. But often it doesn’t, and I second-guess myself and become anxious about whether or not I’m doing a decent job of preparing these young things for their own time in the world. I suspect quite a few of us experience these sorts of feelings. I’m really grateful for the wonderful dad my husband is, and for the supportive — and often hilarious — conversations I have with other parents in the schoolyard on this topic. I’m so grateful to my kids’ teachers, who help to guide them in far more than what’s listed in the curriculum.

Yesterday after class, our school principal was having a chat with me and Master 11 about his day. She picked him up on how many times he was using the word ‘like’ in his conversation. I’d been observing this habit (through gritted teeth) but hadn’t wanted to correct him on it, since I’m onto him about so many other things … putting his dirty clothes in the wash, saying thank you to people who have done him a good turn, blowing his nose …! I now feel able to follow up on this small but important thing. Just another of the many things all parents are juggling every day.

I’m going to keep exploring families in my writing — their relationships and dynamics, struggles and joys. And as I do, I’ll take a moment to reflect on the fact that, when I’m writing, I can control everything that happens to my characters, even the hard stuff. I can make sure they have insight when they need to, or back off when that would be advisable. I can also write about their lack of insight, or their lack of grace. And while sometimes this is painful, always they are characters. Not my children. So much harder.

Being a writer is wonderful.