Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

The good thing about Christmas parties, apart from the special food and wine, is that I often get to talk to people I have worked with during the year. Of course we talk as part of our work, but the conversations are brief, organisational or reflective of the work itself. Chatting at Christmas gatherings I find that I know very little about my work mates as people.

This week I had a long and very interesting conversation with a designer who works on the Spare Parts Puppet Theatre team. Although she has just come back from working in Sweden, she grew up in Queensland. Separated as we are by our enormous island continent we nevertheless have a lot in common with Queenslanders when it comes to the battle for recognition of our talents.

After chatting for quite some time, however, we agreed that isolation can work in our favour. She feels that, here in the West, we have developed a distinctly West Australian voice. She was not talking about an accent, or even the different names they use for things like rockmelon (cantaloupe) and bathers (cosies), but about a particular way of viewing the world, which gives our stories a unique and distinctive flavour. Queenslanders, especially those who come from the tropical north, see the world very differently. Their stories are ‘water based’. Even when Queenslanders come from the remote inland they are never far from significant rivers. While we do have waterways here in the West they are few and far between. Even our humour is drier, she says.

So here’s to being different. Let’s celebrate what we have and turn it into an asset.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Elaine Forrestal in Paris, without her luggage. Don’t ask what is under the overcoat.

The Runaway Suitcase is pure fiction. Or is it?

While the extraordinary Clara, my goldfields girl from Coolgardie in the 1890s, is looking for a home, I am writing a Chapter book for early to middle graders. Mostly told from the point of view of Elodie’s new suitcase, this is a tale of lost luggage that most people, including todays jet setting children, can relate to. Either they have had the experience themselves, or someone they know has told them their horror story of standing in a deserted airport staring, in disbelief, at the almost empty carousel, watching the few remaining pieces of luggage going past time and again and refusing to believe that yours will not magically appear on the next round. The sinking feeling in your chest grows heavier with each turn of the carousel until finally it shudders to a halt and you lose all hope. Your suitcase has not arrived and now what do you do?  Even when the official behind the lost luggage counter assures you that, these days, they can find and deliver your luggage to your non-home address within 24 hours.  But how will you survive without it? Even 24 hours sounds like an interminably long time when you had been looking forward to having a proper shower, with your own toiletries, and changing into fresh clothes after a long-haul flight. Suddenly you are alone with only the clothes you stand up in. And how is their courier going to find you in a farmhouse in the French countryside that doesn’t have a street address? It’s only identifying characteristics are a house name and the largest pine tree in the area standing at the place where you turn-off the road. Mobile phones can help – if you speak French. And what about the baggage handlers strike? That’s a different story. Or is it?

Sometimes the only thing to do is write about these traumatic experience. This one has all the elements of mystery, suspense, heightened emotion, that make a good story. But how do you make these facts sound like fiction? How do you give this experience a story shape?

Naturally there is no one answer to these questions. It is a case of playing around with ideas, combining several different experiences, doing the necessary research into airport procedures, finding believable characters. It helps if at lease one of those characters can  provide a quirky point of view. After that come the usual tasks of reading and re-reading your story, getting to know your characters, editing and perhaps changing the order of events to heighten the suspense. For me the re-shaping of those real events into an interesting, engaging and entertaining story is the fun part. Who knows if this one will ever be published? But I am enjoying the challenge and the change of pace from my recent historical fictions.

I hope your Christmas shopping includes lots of books for friends and family.

SCBWI Australia West members at the launch of To See the World

The Backyard Book Fair on Saturday was a huge success! Thanks to thorough and thoughtful  organisation by the SCBWI Australia West team and staff of the State Library of WA who worked tirelessly behind the scenes and managed to fill the two hundred seat Theatre at the Alexander Library for this new take on the previous Books from Your Backyard event.

At first I was a bit daunted by the idea of having only ten minutes in which to present any thing meaningful and interesting based on one of my newly re-released Eden Glassie Mysteries. But in the end, after multiple drafts of my talk, I didn’t even need all of my allocated time. Having prepared a couple of related activities helped. The Find Axle task, which was based on a mud-map of Eden Glassie, really seemed to catch on with the five to ten year old audience. I offered a free copy of the book as a prize for the first person to successfully find Axle, which meant that the kids had to bring their maps back to me. This gave me a chance to talk to them individually about Axle and the story of Deep Water. Once the prize had been claimed I signed the back of a postcard showing all the Eden Glassie covers for each of the other kids who had participated.

One of the things that worked really well with this new format for the Backyard Book Fair was that, because there were seats in the Theatre for everyone, the adults stayed with their children throughout the presentations by by the various authors and illustrators. In the past the space on the Mezzanine Floor of the Library didn’t lend itself to this. Children were encouraged to go to the front and sit on the bean bags for each individual session, then leave so that the next lot of children cold take their place. Adults tended to gathered at the back and talk among themselves. This meant that younger children, especially, tended to bob up and down to check on their adults. Or, in some cases, left the presentation altogether, which was disruptive for the presenter and didn’t encourage others in the group to stay focused.

Another thing that helped with this new format was that the breaks for morning tea and the Illustrators’ Challenge were strategically timed to suit children’s attention spans. During these breaks the craft tables were well used and kept the young people occupied while the adults bought books and caught up with each other.

Well done Kelly, James and Cristy for being the movers and shakers. And a big ‘thank you’ to all the volunteers who kept everything running smoothly in the Foyer while we were busy doing our thing inside the Theatre.