Happy New Year

After a lovely week with family and beach, it’s time now to get back to my writing…

2014 was an exciting year with the launch of Annie’s Snails, CBCA shortlistings for Granny Grommet and Me and Light Horse Boy, winning the WA Premier’s Award as well as me attending 100 year ANZAC commemorations in Albany and the Cocos Islands. I enjoyed re-visiting favourite schools and had fun discovering kindred spirits at new schools and libraries.

2015 looks like being another busy year with school sessions booked in WA and the eastern states. The build up to ‘The Giants’ in Perth already feels huge and I can’t wait to see how that evolves…

In the meantime, it’s head down and pen up as I focus on writing the second novel for my PhD. The story is called The Dog with Four Names and it’s set in north-west WA during WW2. The first 15,000 words are written with notes and framework in place for the remaining 20,000. The story links to my dissertation (Animal characters as Windows to History in Australian Children’s Literature) and is told from the POV of a small dog. My research revolves around events in 1942.

Writing through an anthropomorphic voice is difficult. Finding the right ‘tone’ for my dog character to be able to express feelings and to be a ‘window to history’ (without sounding silly) has been very challenging. I’ve returned to classic children’s stories such as Black Beauty, Watership Down, Call of the Wild and Charlotte’s Web for inspiration and will post again soon with an update and more details. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the warm weather and are able to walk on a beach or through a park in the milder early mornings and evening.