A post featuring Light Horse Boy and three other horse-themed Anzac titles can be found on my website Animals who Talk. I hope you enjoy it.
Teaching notes and links for my WWI ‘Light’ series can be found here.
Anzac Stories
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Tag Archives: Anzac
Librarian Superheroes
Librarians are superheroes. All year they inspire a love of reading and research by making their libraries dynamic and exciting places to visit. Then in Children’s Bookweek they shift into Overdrive. My visit to Bunbury Catholic College today took things a step further …
with Colleen Edwards
The students have been studying Lighthouse Girl as well as partner titles, Light Horse Boy and In the Lamplight. So library staff, Colleen Edwards, Sharon Castelli and Sue Connelly made a lighthouse, as you do 🙂 As well as three book-themed story nooks, one for each ‘light’ title. Visiting the BCC library was like stepping into a professionally curated WWI museum with my books as the focus. It was fabulous. I felt so honoured.
Colleen, Sharon, Sue and other BCC teachers have helped students weave English and History studies, creating beautiful displays as well as carefully researched journals and poster. I loved the way they used books as a springboard to deeper research on topics such as the Purple Poppy and wartime sport.
There was an In the Lamplight nook, a Lighthouse Girl nook and a Light Horse Boy nook. 
The students were inspired by the ‘above and beyond’ staff creativity. They had great questions, were curious about all kinds of issues associated with WWI and had a deep understanding of wartime Australia and beyond. When I thought things could not possible get better the sessions ended with two students presenting me with a lighthouse, the prototype of the larger one. There are chocolates hidden inside and it even flashes!
Thank you Bunbury Catholic College for an epic day. xx
with Pippa and Natalia
Yikes, we found more artwork …
Brian Simmonds and I are both spring- cleaning, and we’ve found fifteen more images for the November sale. Anyone who has already contacted me to express interest should have received an email with these images by now. Please advise if you haven’t.
Free pick-up delivery is possible for Albany and Perth.
Large concept sketches for In the Lamplight $100
Large Concept sketches for Lighthouse Girl $100.
What’s in a Name?
If it’s a book title, a lot!
For a year or so, I’ve been struggling with finding the right title for my almost completed manuscript, a companion title for Lighthouse Girl and Light Horse Boy. For continuity reasons I wanted the word ‘light’ somewhere in the title. We aren’t meant to judge a book by it’s cover, but research indicates that many of us do.
This story has been on the back-burner since 2011 when I visited the Anzac cemetery in the UK village of Harefield to research another idea (more about that journey in future posts). Ideas bubbled away as I completed other projects and then last year, at last, I was able to give this story dedicated time (thank you Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries). While the manuscript was a work-in-progress I initially referred to it as Quarantine Rose; a shocker of a title which I knew would never be the one. I couldn’t change my central character’s name because Rose is an overlap character with Light Horse Boy. For a while the title shifted to Rose on No Man’s Land, linking the story to a popular WWI song. However Rose works in a hospital not on the battlefield.
As the manuscript took shape I knew I needed a better title. At the annual SCBWI Rottnest retreat, fellow author Norman Jorgensen came up with the evocative Light from a Broken Lantern, however as the story progressed, there was more hope than brokenness. Sorry Norm!
Sometimes the right title appears at the same time as the first story idea. Other titles involve weeks of compiling lists and thesaurus trawling. Lighthouse Girl for a long while was Postcards from Breaksea, or simply Postcards. Then about two years into the four year writing process, the current tile settled. For Light Horse Boy, the final title was always the one.
With my going-to-print deadline quickly approaching, this month I sent out a cry for help. Thank you friends and family, writer group peers, bookgroupies and others who answered my call. You offered so many great suggestions. Even the cheeky suggestions from family were useful, as they sparked other ideas using the words light, shadow and darkness.
Meanwhile Fremantle Press have been market-testing one of the options on our short-list of title choices and I am pleased to finally announce that the title has been decided. The book will be called In the Lamplight. Tentative release date is April 2018. I hope readers will enjoy this new addition to the ‘light’ series. Thanks again to all the wonderful title-hunters for your kind suggestions…
Capel Library Anzac Evening
Last week, Susan Dalgleish and her team at the Shire of Capel Library organised a terrific Anzac event in conjunction with the Capel RSL. It was attended by a wide cross-section of the local population. Planning began last November with the amazing Lesley Jackes at an author event in Albany commemorating the Departure of the 1st AIF (see previous post).
Susan and the Capel Library staff are passionate about history and literacy. They created interesting displays and an inspirational program that began with local group, ‘The Wednesday Girls’ singing songs from the WW1 era to set the mood. Daniel McDonald from the 10th Light Horse arrived in full kit and brought along a life-size horse which was also kitted out with WW1 equipment. It’s always fascinating to see how much gear those strong Walers carried.
Members of the Capel RSL sub-branch including Vice President Alan Kelly Parker were on hand to answer questions and give introductions. We also heard a fascinating account of April Jenkins’ WW1 archaeological work in Jordan. I was very touched by Light Horse Boy book review readings by Jordi and Fraser Milner and also their mother, Naomi. Thanks guys.
The library boasted an impressive collection of WW1 postcards, books and mementos – many of which I coveted (especially those stirrups) !
Thanks to the library and RSL for a great event, and also for my gifts; a beautiful scarf, book and Anzac biscuits. Thanks to Georgie Carter for her help with book sales (way more than we expected) and to Tracey Doyle for hosting me so well at Capel Primary. Finally a big thank you to students Lily and Bradley for all your help. Meeting you both was a highlight! Keep reading and writing…
Back to Breaksea Island – after 9 years…
It’s been nine years since I visited Breaksea Island in the very early days of my research for Lighthouse Girl. So much has happened since then…
When I last went out, the only way onto the island was via a swing 
ladder, then a hike from the jetty up to the lighthouse and cottages (just like Fay would have done to meet the monthly supply boat). Back in 2006, very little was known about Fay’s early life, but going to the island gave me a strong feeling for how things ‘might’ have been when she signalled to departing troops in 1914. After that first research trip, Lighthouse Girl took another three years to research and write.
Now there is a helicopter service to Breaksea, which makes things much easier! I was excited to go back to Breaksea with the team from Channel 9’s Destination WA to film a segment that will go to air on Sunday 16th April at 5.30pm on WIN and Channel 9 with presenter Tod Johnston.
The Albany weather was at its wild and woolly best. I didn’t think we’d be able to fly, but pilot Rainor of Skyhook Helicopters has nerves of steel. He is an amazing pilot. After multiple flybys of the helipad; which gave us great views of the cottages and lighthouse, Rainor decided it was safer to put us down on a granite slab further down the island.
The following clip shows how windy it was when we arrived. Forty knots plus.
We walked up the hill to the lighthouse, battling the wind to explore the ruin of the original lighthouse and the sturdy second lighthouse (now solar powered). After taking lots of photographs, fighting wind and rain to do an interview, we went down the hill to the restored lighthouse keeper’s cottages.
When I was at Breaksea in 2006 we camped overnight. I slept in a swag in the far room of the far cottage. I’ll probably never know which house Fay and her father lived in, but as I lay there listening to birds squawking in their burrows at night, I had such a strong sense of Fay having a link to the room I slept in. I had the same feeling this time.
I loved being in the cottage which might have been Fay’s, looking out the windows to views of Bald Head and the wild Southern Ocean, imagining again how her life might have been. Thanks to Keir Tunbridge for the photo of me in that room. 
And also for this one of me and the lighthouse.
Thanks also to the intrepid team from Guru Productions for organising the trip. I can’t wait to see the complete story on Destination WA.
diannewolfer 