So 2019 is over and 2020 is well underway leaving me waiting slightly impatiently for school to go back so I can plan my writing year! Where was I out and about for the last few months? As well as attending the last Meetup group, a local creative writing group of all genres, our own group Coast Write started by a friend and I, had its last meeting for the year at a beautiful new café/wine bar in our local area. Since starting the group a year ago we have discovered and connected with some amazing people here on the coast, including proof readers, editors, teacher-librarians, self-publishers, non-fiction writers, memoir writers, illustrators and others who are starting out in various areas, keen to network. If you are on the Central Coast NSW and want to come along, you can join the group via my facebook page here. On an almost smoke free Sunday I headed to the city for the annual SCBWI Christmas get together at Woollahra library for the second year in a row. It was, yet again, a fun-filled afternoon celebrating the talent of the Australian industry with some moving and informative presentations by Margete Lamond and Oliver Phommavanh, and of course a good chat afterwards and a chance to meet more kid-liters! I think we can safely say Australia is lucky to have children’s literature in such very caring hands. 2019 of course was a highlight for me personally. With two short stories and a poem published in the Creative Kids Tales anthology, it was such a humbling experience to see my words in print. There were multiple launches around the country and the book spread far and wide, even overseas! Thanks to Georgie Donaghey for her incredible work compiling this edition, and to all the people who supported me through this process, and who bought the book! We received some lovely feedback from kids and also moved a couple of people to tears - let's hope they were good ones! Motivated by the adrenalin of actually being in print, I attended a writing retreat with a group of amazing authors who really know their stuff when it comes to author business. We spent the weekend getting as many words as possible on the page, even when in our pyjamas! 2019 also saw me visiting schools for Books In Homes. Thanks to Julie Ditrich and Peter Large for allowing me the opportunity to interact with the children and see their faces light up as they investigate their book bags. My second assembly at Woodberry Public was a wonderful experience. What a great group of students and teachers. I particularly enjoyed reading one students work, a long piece he had been working on with great enjoyment and was excited to share with me! In November I had a wonderful evening at the Australian Society of Authors seeing Tom Keneally receive the ASA medal. Benjamin Law gave a wonderful talk about the importance of stories in the margins and of course another great opportunity to meet more inspiring people! Throughout the journey, Creative Kids Tales has been such a fantastic resource for my writing journey, as has the facebook group the Duck Pond. If you are an aspiring author don't hesitate to click on the links and check out these fantastic groups. You can also check out my CKT year in review here: https://www.creativekidstales.com.au/about-ckt/our-years-in-review/2808-a-year-in-review-2019 I can't wait to see what 2020 has in store. Happy Writing!
0 Comments
|
"You’ve always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself."
|