Busy Times (Or Why I have been a bit quiet)

Apart from my regular Monday Quotes, this blog has been a bit quiet of late. This is because, offline, my life has been frantically busy. This is what I have done in the past few months:

• Submitted my completed PhD thesis for assessment.

• Celebrated the release of two new books – Looking Up and Sage Cookson’s Singapore Sensation.

• Became a Doctor – yes, the thesis has been accepted and I am now allowed to add ‘Doctor’ to the front of my name. My thesis is titled Belonging: Finding a Place In and For Children’s Poetry

• Visited dozens of schools and libraries and spoken to thousands of kids (and their teachers and librarians).

• Finalised edits on the sixth Sage Cookson book: Sage Cookson’s Christmas Ghost, due out in November.

• Prepared for the release of book 5, Sage Cookson’s Literary Launch, which is released tomorrow.

• Presented on a panel bout writing children’s poetry at the Queensland Poetry Festival.

• Started work on Book 7 and 8, coming in 2018

• Started work on another project, hopefully coming in 2019

• Written poems, and drafted a new picturebook.

• Made notes for about a jillion other books I want to write, after I’ve finished the current batch.

I am writing this post sitting at the Brisbane Airport, on my way home from three wonderful days at Kirwan Primary School in Townsville. Tomorrow I will be home, and back at my desk, as well as visiting my dolphins.

I love my life!