It's BOOK WEEK!!!
The best time of year to be a children's author. :)
It is August and that means… BOOK WEEK!!!!
By the time this lands in your inbox, I will be partway through day 1 of 5 days straight presenting at different schools across Brisbane. I suspect my throat will be a little dry by the end of the week, but my heart will be full. It is a wonderful time of year to be a children’s author, sharing books, creativity and stories with young readers and writers.
There are lots of events planned across Australia to celebrate the magic of reading. Keep an eye out for events and activities at your local school and library!
The year is flying by — so quickly, in fact, I neglected to write my “monthly” newsletter last month (oops…) BUT, never fear, I’m planning TWO issues in the next two weeks!!
Yep, that’s right. TWO issues! I’ll have new books to share, so thought I’d use the opportunity to delve into some different writing topics. (More on that at the end of the newsletter…)
PETAA Young Writers Program
Last Friday I spent the morning reading and giving feedback on some wonderful Year 3-6 students’ writing. It was part of the PETAA Young Writers Program, an initiative that connects Victorian schools with children’s authors. Earlier this term I spent two days running creative writing workshops with students in Manor Lakes, guiding them through the process of creating characters and plotting a short story. The kids were then invited to work on a creative writing piece over a few weeks, and submit it to me (via their teachers) for feedback. They created such lovely and interesting stories! I think we might have some future authors down in Manor Lakes. :)
The PETAA Young Writers Program is a fantastic initiative, delivered free of charge to government schools in Victoria. If you’re a teacher / school leader in Victoria, be sure to check it out!
Events
Being Book Week / Month / Term also means lots of fantastic festivals, the first of which was the wonderful Story Arts Festival in Ipswich, a few weeks ago. This is a biennial festival that connects students in South East Queensland with authors from across Australia. I spoke with groups of Prep-Year 4 students, at venues across Ipswich City and Woodlands at Marburg. Woodlands, which includes a historic 1890s “mansion”, was THE perfect place to be dressed in 1900s-style dress.
In the next month I’ll also be speaking at Storyfest South West in St George and Storyfest Central Queensland in Emerald. Later this year I’ll have a trip to Mt Isa as part of a CBCA author tour, and will also be heading to lovely Adelaide for Once Upon a Festival. If you’re in the area, be sure to check out these festivals. I’d love to see you there!
On Writing
A few months back, I was invited to speak about my experience writing children’s series, with the wonderful Brisbane children’s writers and illustrators group, Write Links. I’m usually invited to speak to groups of kids, so it was a nice change to present to an audience of adults. (For once, nobody asked me how old I was, or used question time to enquire if they could go to the toilet. :) ) I spoke about “5 things I’ve Learned about Writing Series”. It was a fun session!
While there, I took the opportunity to ask the group for topics they’d be interested to read about in my author newsletter. I now have a lovely selection of topics, two of which I’ll talk about in my next two issues.
There were lots of great questions…
But this one’s my favourite…
If you have any topics you’d like to add to the mix for me to cover in future newsletters, comment below or get in touch via my website. :)
Until next time, happy reading, writing and creating!
Charlotte