Works-in-progress, KidLitVic and Crystal Kite!

It's all too much. I have to get my head out of the clouds and my feet on the ground!

Still coming down from our beautiful May Gibbs event with the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature, the memory-making has continued this past week with some very happy news and an overwhelming trip to Melbourne and a slew of delightful happenings and encounters. Where will I begin??

Right. Let's start here...

Ask Tania: How do I make the most out of writing festivals and conferences?

Dear Tania, 
I'm so excited to be going to the KidLit Conference in Melbourne this May, but I'm also nervous. I'm having a manuscript assessment with a publisher, too. How can I make the most out of the conference, and do you have any tips when dealing with the publisher?
Stace

Hi, Stace,

So exciting you're off to KidLit this year; I'll be there, too! It's going to be wonderful, and can I just say what a brilliant decision it was for you to book in for this. Attending conferences and festivals will really fast-track any creator's career, so this is great news.

Festivals and conferences can be overwhelming. Combine stacks of passionate people with creative ideas and passion on tap, bundle it up with a barrel full of nerves, especially when it comes to meeting publishers, and it can all become a little fraught.

Thankfully, kids' book industry folk are warm, inclusive, fabulous people (and if you meet the rare braggart who is not, smile politely and find someone else to talk to!) and you'll have the most gorgeous time chatting with people you've either met online, know of or meet for the first time.

Here are my tips for a really productive and successful time as a festival or conference delegate. I'll follow this up with tips on meeting publishers.

Have a great time, and see you there!

Tx

1. TALK TO PEOPLE. Don’t stick with who you know—stretch yourself and meet new people. You never know where it will lead professionally—and you might just make a new friend or begin an exciting collaboration.

2. CARRY COLLATERAL. Festivals are a priceless opportunity to make contacts. Take everyone’s business card and offer your own (I keep mine in the back of the festival pass which hangs around your neck). Take your books or works with you but only haul them out if appropriate. Show and tell is fun, is it not?

Goulburn Reader Writer Festival this weekend!

The Goulburn Reader Writer Festival is on this weekend--12 and 13 November--an inaugural event that's absolutely jam-packed with fun for families. 

On Saturday 12, I'll be doing a book reading with other fab authors, Edwina Wyatt and Danielle McDonald, in the Goulburn Library courtyard at 12.30pm--see here for details.

Then I'll be on a panel discussion with George Ivanoff and Danielle McDonald at 1.30pm. We'll be talking about the magic of reading to kids. See more here.

There's also a full day of events on Sunday. It promises to be a fabulous weekend--hope to see you there!

How to be a Successful Writing Festival or Conference Delegate

AFCC, Singapore, June 2015

Here are my tips for a really strong, productive and successful time as a festival or conference delegate.

1. TALK TO PEOPLE. Don’t stick with who you know—stretch yourself and meet new people. You never know where it will lead professionally—and you might just make a new friend or begin an exciting collaboration.

2. BE INCLUSIVE. Most festival delegates are either on their own or know few people. Look out for that ‘lost soul’ who knows no one and invite them to join you for breakfast. Step back and give them a place in your circle. Introduce them to others. Ask them about themselves. Be kind, not excluding.

3. SUPPORT OTHERS. If you can, drop into the sessions of friends or colleagues. Not only is it supportive, it’s important to remember that your greatest industry ally is your colleague.

4. CARRY COLLATERAL. Festivals are a priceless opportunity to make contacts. Take everyone’s business card and offer your own (I keep mine in the back of the festival pass which hangs around your neck).

Asian Festival of Children's Content, Singapore - WRAP-UP

It's been a while since I was last in Singapore and the city continues to stun with its beauty and warmth and food and heat. Travelling for the Asian Festival of Children's Content (my first visit to the festival), I arrived in Singapore on the evening of Tuesday 2 June. The prettiness is everywhere!

My lovely friend, author Sarah Mounsey, collected me from the airport and dropped me at my hotel. It had been a long day, so I collapsed into bed pretty quickly, even with the siren song of the Singapore lights outside.

The view from my room

On Wednesday 3 June, I registered for the festival and met some people including organiser-extraordinaire, Alycia Teo. The theme for 2015 was China, and the entryway to the festival proper had a marvellous set up featuring Chinese creators.

SCBWI Sydney Conference 2014 - WRAP UP!

Um, wow.

That is all.

But seriously--wow. My first SCBWI conference was truly overwhelming, exciting, fulfilling and beyond inspiring. What an incredible five-day experience, from my workshop through to a Bruce Whatley masterclass ... my head is still spinning.

I'm still trying to come down to earth and deal with all I've learned, and the connections I've made and the chronic inspiration hammering at the inside of my head, so here is a [very] light rundown on my incredible SCBWI experience.

Please remember this is my personal blog and is a personal account. If you want a formal, official summary with more specific detail--head to the SCBWI blog for more intensive breakdowns of the many, many and varied sessions. Also check out #SCBWIAusNz14 on Facebook and Twitter.

Day One - Saturday 12 July 

My family and I left Canberra just before 6am and arrived at the Australian Society of Authors offices in Ultimo, greeted by the wonderful Laurine Croasdale who helped coordinate the day--a workshop in conjunction with the SCBWI Sydney conference.

Boy, does the ASA do things with style. A stunning set-up, beautifully coordinated, immaculate catering, lots of warmth and a great feel amongst participants.

This was a new workshop for me--only the second time running it--Blogging for Authors and Illustrators--and it was such a pleasure to present it to a group of such talented, well-established creators, from illustrators to authors, editors, nutritionists, broadcasters and chair-lovers (Colin!). The sense of humour and warmth was so well-appreciated and the day was so enriched by the group's full participation.

It was also glorious to finally meet several of my very special virtual friends. Firstly, from the 52-Week Illustration Challenge - Natalie Daniel (far right, who has become Challenge admin) and Leonie Cheetham (second from left, who recently became one of my interns) - both the most gorgeous people who brought much to the day. Also finally met the wonderful Yvonne Mes (second from right) and Rebecca Sheraton (taking photo, alas!) both talented author/illustrators. Just such a joy to connect with them and to have them add invaluably to the workshop.

A surprise delegate was Ursula Kolbe, educator, creator, author of Children's Imagination, who turned up unannounced, much to my delight. Ursula featured my daughter in the aforementioned book, and we had a wonderful time getting to know each other.

I hope to be running more ASA workshops next year, so watch my EVENTS page for newbies.

That afternoon, we checked into the gorgeous Hughenden Hotel in Woollhara, owned by SCBWI Aus East/NZ Regional Advisor, author and goddess Susanne Gervay, and home to the SCBWI Sydney 2014 Conference.

Day Two - Sunday 13 July

We started the day with a lovely slow morning wandering Woollhara with the family (me and my daughter Ella, left, with the Woollhara Hotel in the background--this is where many of us hung out during the conference!).

I then had my publisher critique session for one of my picture books--it was so fantastic and I just loved all the editor had to say. The sessions were so popular, they stretched over several days and the feedback and responses people were receiving was so fabulous.

Susanne Gervay with Frané Lessac

The conference proper began at 3pm with the illustrious Susanne Gervay introducing Co-Chair of the International Board Chis Cheng, the SCBWI regional advisors and illustrator coordinators, and the roving reporter team, headed by talented friend Sheryl Gwyther. We also heard from seriously hands-on Conference organisers Frané Lessac and Deb Abela.

CBCA Conference - 16 to 18 May - Discovering National Treasures!

Don't miss out on this amazing CBCA Conference--Discovering National Treasures. The line-up is truly stellar and I'm so very excited about these two-and-a-half days of literary feasting. Only five weeks away. Hope to see you there!

SCBWI's ACT Chapter Launches in Canberra

Top: Sarah Steed, David Murphy, Phil Kavanagh, Harry Laing, Grace Bryant, Tracey Hawkins, Deb Abela. Bottom: Leanne Barrett, moi, Gina Newton, Jennifer Bradley, Pauline Deeves

Last night was my kind of night--a bunch of children's book-addicts gathering together to natter, nibble and talk books, writing, illustrating, literacy and the brand new ACT Chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Deb and Tracey lead the way

Let's just say, it's about time! The group may be small (so far) but it's already dynamic, with real movers and shakers [read: people impassioned by books and know their stuff!].

Attended by author and assistant regional advisor for SCBWI NSW and the ACT,  Deborah Abela (who is in town for her May Gibbs Fellowship), the meeting was opened by local SCBWI coordinator Tracey Hawkins, who spoke about her hopes for the local chapter, and the exciting SCBWI Sydney Conference in July.

Deb updated everyone on the brilliant new SCBWI site and also spoke of the LA and New York SCBWI Conferences. We then discussed our hopes and dreams for our local chapter, which was incredibly inspiring. Oh--and we did a lot of laughing.

SCWBI is definitely a warm, inclusive, level playing field of both big industry players and newbies. It's an amazing way to network, share, learn and hone your craft. You can learn more about SCWBI Australia/NZ right here. We like to have a lot of fun - it's worth joining!

Writers Unleashed! Wrap-Up

On 16/17 July, I had the funnest weekend at the Writers Unleashed Festival in Sydney (Sutherland Shire). It was a weekend of literary splendor, facilitated by a superb, dedicated (and small!) team headed by the amazing Jodie Wells-Slowgrove.

On day one, I had the pleasure of catching up with writerly friends such as Tracey Hawkins, Paul Collins and Meredith Costain (above) and also Sharon McGuinness, Mo Johnson, David Murphy, Buzz Words' Vicki Stanton, Wai Chim, Nina Lim and many others. I also met some fabulous people I've only ever known via Kids' Book Review or in the online industry marketplace. 

There were two or three concurrent sessions over both days of the festival, with a stellar line-up of talent. My only problem was working out which session to attend.

My first choice was Susanne Gervay who spoke on writing authentic stories, regaling us with some incredibly moving tales--many of them inspiration for her beautiful books.

Next was a picture book master class with Libby Gleeson, who encouraged us to pen some words of our own before discussing picture book constructs and then answering questions. She also treated us to a fabulous reading of her gorgeous picture book Banjo and Ruby Red.

Emma Quay (pronounce Kway) took the second picture book master class session, in which she took us through a Powerpoint presentation of her work and how she constructs her books. Being a massive Quay fan, this was a fascinating journey.

In the lunch break, the lovely Lizbeth Klein launched her latest fantasy novel - Firelight of Heaven, with a cast of elfin characters taking on roles from the book.

After lunch, I guffawed my way through the first part of Tim Ferguson's Writing Comedy presentation, which was eye-opening and loads of fun. What a dynamic, life-filled, brilliant man. (Sshhhh--secret. He's writing some YA fiction.)

Next was YA mastermind James Roy with an entertaining chat about his processes and writing for this particular market--Tapping the YA brain. I want to tap James' brain.

The day finished off with a catch-up with friends--here I am with the lovely Tracey Hawkins (above), a fellow Canberran author ...

... and the evening was spent with my dear friend and past Kids' Book Review partner, Kelly Morton. We had never met! but she is everything I expected--and much, much more. We shared a bottle of bubbles, a great meal and lots of laughter.

What better way to start day two than with the fabulous Kate Forsyth? Here she is talking about fairytales, and stunning us with her incredibly deep and far-reaching knowledge on classic tales and storytelling.

Kate also told us that if she doesn’t write for a while, she gets cranky and frustrated and is awful to be around, and I thought ‘Kate is me’ (I should be so lucky).

At morning tea, the ever-supportive Jodie Wells-Slowgrove insisted I join the other authors to sign books--what a pleasure to do this alongside Kate, Sharon McGuinness and Lizbeth Klein. I was very spoiled. This signing was followed by
a session with author Dianne Blacklock on writing contemporary women’s fiction, which I found very interesting.

My favourite session of the entire weekend was next-–Kate Forsyth on Building your Profile Through Social Media. Now, I teach this topic so thought ‘what could I possibly learn?’ Well, I learned SO much. I absolutely loved, too, how Kate taught listeners that social media is all about building relationships and trust, ie: NOT selling books. I couldn't have agreed more.

Kate's approach to social media is really fascinating and well-considered. She talked of the A + H + I divided by SP formula (see image below), where A=authority, H=helpfulness, I=intimacy and SP=self-promotion.

I shall try to explain what this means! If you do 8 tweets in one day that are educational or enlightening through your own authority on a topic, are helpful to others in some way or offer your audience some kind of intimacy—friendship, warmth, openness—you have a saturation/respect power of 8.

If you then do 2 tweets that are fully self-promotional, you must divide your figure by 2. This leaves you with a positive audience response of just 4—or half what you started out with.

Kate likened flagrant self-promotion to being at a party. If you would hesitate to stand up on a chair and scream at the top of your  lungs 'this is my book! buy me! buy me!' then you probably shouldn't tweet something similar. Authors who scream, who hammer social media constantly, who beg people to like their posts or visit their site or buy their book, quickly lose respect and a positive audience response.

I love how Kate covered this. I've always said Good Work Sells Itself, and that word-of-mouth is the most powerful, most swift and most book-selling tool in existence. To garner word-of-mouth, your work not only needs to be fabulous, you need to be respected.

Enough said.

The last session I attended was an amazing editor panel ‘What We’re Looking for in Adult Fiction’ with Emma Rafferty from Pan Macmillan, Beverley Cousins from Random House and Roberta Ivers from Simon and Schuster Australia.

All three women spoke of the publishing process, the way manuscripts are chosen and what their companies are producing. Fascinating.

On my way home to Canberra, I managed to grab the lovely Jodie for a quick squeeze (below). This is a woman who should be very proud of what she and her gorgeous team have achieved. The Writers Unleashed Festival was a well-run, quality production with a sensational, warm atmosphere and lots of amazing delegates as well as presenters.

I'm so there next year. Well done, gals!

Dinosaurs Love Cheese! Jackie French and Nina Rycroft at Civic Library

The kids and I had a lovely afternoon last week, visiting Civic Library and listening to the superlative Jackie French talk about her gorgeous picture book Dinosaurs Love Cheese. The event was part of the Festival of Australian Children's literature, running in Canberra until 15 November.

Illustrator Nina Rycroft also spoke about her illustration process, and it was such a treat to have a sneak peek at her original drafts, and to see an entire double page spread come to life--from first sketch to final--via a stop motion video.

Jackie and Nina were in town to celebrate of the opening of a superb exhibition, curated by Sara Rapp, on Dinosaurs Love Cheese--which features dozens upon dozens of original drafts and in-process drawings, as well as final images.

The exhibition also features books by both creators, and fun activities for the kids, presented in a beautiful atmosphere on the mezzanine level at Civic Library, Canberra.

Belle Alderman, Director of the Festival, opens proceedings

Jackie delights us with her words

CBCA National President Angela Briant officially opens the exhibition

illustrator Nina Rycroft treats us to her work

Nina and Jackie

Do drop by before 30 October, if you can, to see this superb curation of work, and check out the upcoming Festival events, continuing on until 15 November ... more info below.

See more here. #showcasefest

bob graham shines at exhibition opening

Imagine . . . if you were invited to see a living legend open his very own picture book exhibition at Civic Library, and that legend was Bob Graham and he turned out to be every bit as warm and gorgeous and gracious as you knew he would be and he even signed some books for you and did some glorious little pictures for you, too?

This very thing happened today at another glorious Boundless Festival of Australian Children's Literature event {#boundlesskids} here in the centre of Canberra.

The lovely Belle Alderman {the genius behind this festival and Emeritus Professor of Children's Literature Director Lu Rees Archives of Australian Children's Literature}, opened proceedings.

Belle introduced us to Vanessa Little, Director of Libraries ACT and then to Professor Stephen Parker, Vice Chancellor, University of Canberra, who warmed us with a recorded rendition of his childhood voice {complete with divine Midlands accent}, 'rating' authors he had recently read, and showing how the children's book bug can bite and take hold at a very young age, and influence an entire lifetime.  

It was then time for Bob Graham to speak about his work and his adoration for children's books. It was also exciting to hear him speak of his inspiration and about upcoming picture book Silver Buttons, due out next year.

The National Library of Australia were on hand with copies of Bob's books. There was a rather mighty queue to purchase and have books signed, and no wonder. I already have many of Bob's books but couldn't resist snaffling some more - which Bob most kindly signed to my kids - and yes, to me, big kid that I am. :)

The exhibition featuring Bob's work is a beautifully-crafted creation, playing host to original artwork, drafts, correspondence and other stunning treasures. The display will be at Civic Library as part of the Boundless Festival line-up - so do pop into the library if you can, for a peek at this rare treat. The exhibition will run until 17 November, along with exhibitions at libraries around Canberra. Check the Festival's programme for more.

In the meantime, have a peek at what's in store for your visit . . .

Belle Alderman is interviewed

And here I am with the man himself; do I look a bit happy? Don't miss this truly wonderful exhibition.