The Shark Caller – Dianne Wolfer

Award season

It’s been a very long while between blog posts, apologies!

The good news is that I’ve been busy writing and have some exciting projects in the pipeline. More about those soon.

In the meantime, I’m thrilled to share that Scout and the Rescue Dogs has been honoured with a Children’s Book Council of Australia shortlisting. For those not working in KidLit, it’s a huge and wonderful thing.

In the buildup to Children’s Book Week, schools across Australia make amazing library displays that will include Scout. Young ‘shadow judges‘ will discuss the stories, choose their own winners, and do fun activities based on each book.

But that’s not all… Scout and the Rescue Dogs has also been shortlisted for the West Australian Young Readers’ Book Awards. And, one of my favourites, Granny Grommet and Me, is back.

Fremantle Press has brightened the cover and published this story about surfing grannies in a smaller format that’s perfect for small hands. Since it was last in print, there are dozens more Granny Grommets braving the surf in Kinjarling Albany, and dozens more young grommets as well. Check out some of the clips and photos of the real GGs on this page.

Between all this excitement, I’ve been writing and editing, and early next year, I’ll have three new titles coming out. Two picture books, each with an amazing illustrator, and a biography/novel about an inspirational Australian. I’ll be posting about them soon.

In other news, I’ve jumped on board Shepherd, a great site where authors recommend five books linked to a topic. My first list is called The Best Books with an Important Octopus Character. It’s inspired, of course, by the octopus characters in my novel The Shark Caller. One is a giant gatekeeper, and the other is Izzy’s frightening adversary. Browsing Shepherd is addictive, in that one link leads to another and another and another … I’ve added so many titles to my reading stack!

Well, back to the editing for me. My next post will focus on Anzac books and activities. All the best for now.

Lock-down Activities

Dear Lockdowners, many authors have free activities, book-trailers, and fun information on their websites, along with teaching notes and downloadables. Earlier this year the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators WA (SCBWI) compiled a resources page that will keep you busy for hours.

Author, Nadia King‘s lovely Pippa likes to dress up as the flying doctor.

There are activity links on my website for all ages; turn a button on a page into a monster, or rocket or eye of a shark. Draw patterns on snail shells, or make snail cutouts into pop stick puppets. Find out about WW1 nurses and Spanish Influenza, or wartime animal mascots, here or at the Australian War Memorial. Write a postcard home from the war or listen to two podcasts about lighthouse girl, Fay’s life. Check out the great links on this Aussie STEM Stars site. Dress up your dog with seven different names, and send me a photo 😉 Explore anthropomorphism on my Animals Who Talk website or draw someone with a marsupial in their bra!

And there’s more … Earlier this year, the team from CBCA WA created library holiday presentations, and for a limited time, they will all be online. There are eight sessions by WA creatives for different age groups. Here’s mine and here are the short introductions to all eight. I hope you enjoy them and fingers crossed for a short lockdown…

World Octopus Day & Entangled Ideas

There is alchemy in the business of writing. Authors are often asked where their ideas come from. Divine inspiration, shells on a beach, talk-back radio … Sometimes I can pinpoint a moment, more often a story grows from linked moments of wonder or interest. As ideas come together and bubble, a manuscript grows, and sometimes, with luck, this mash turns into a book. Some moments that sparked The Shark Caller involved diving on reefs in PNG’s New Britain area as well as snorkeling in Marovo Lagoon (Solomon Islands) and WA’s Greens Pool.

Greens Pool was especially significant as it became (in my mind) the fictitious ‘Abalone Cove’.

In the opening scene of The Shark Caller a teenage boy dies in mysterious circumstances at Abalone Cove. A blue-ringed octopus is involved. I once saw a blue-ring in Greens Pool; just a surprised flash before it turned sandy brown and crept away. Greens Pool is a magical place to swim. When I lived in Denmark my regular loop involved a long lap, from a rock that sometimes hid a wobbegong to the far end where a Gloomy Octopus lived under a large rock. Her garden of shells gave away the entrance. These shark and octopus encounters swirled around in my imagination, along with the evocative rocks that guard Greens Pool. I added PNG diving experiences, environmental worries and my own sense of communities being linked by oceans. This all gave me a strong sense of setting to draw on during the long writing process.

If you’d like to read more about The Shark Caller, here is a post from last World Octopus Day.

The Shark Caller – students’ artwork

What a wonderful thing it is to receive artwork inspired by one of my books.

Kelby Murray is a Year 5 teacher at Bunbury Cathedral Grammar who has been reading The Shark Caller with her Year 5 class. Some of her students created beautiful drawings, inspired by different scenes in the novel.

Molly drew the villagers having a discussion and also the evocative scene later in the story where Izzy summons her courage to swim back to the boat. This is exactly how I imagined the boat would look from below. Grace drew Izzy diving through the cave. In the larger original, you can notice finer details and see how Izzy’s toe webbing is growing back, what clever crafting …

The writing process can be solitary and it’s lovely to see how readers imagine these scenes. Thank you Kelby, Grace and Molly for sending your artwork. Your pictures make me smile every time I look at them.

Happy World Octopus Day!

shark-book-uncorrected

To honour the villainous characters in The Shark Caller I felt that a short post was needed celebrating these amazing cephalopods.

As well as having three hearts, octopus are super-intelligent. They can solve mazes and are able to contort their muscly bodies to escape through tiny crevices. Octopi are also clever camouflagers. Some are small and highly venomous, like blue-ringed Pyrena in my story, others like the Pacific Octopus are enormous. My favourite fun fact about octopus is that their blood is blue.

Here’s an extract from The Shark Caller. It’s when Izzy meets a Giant Octopus.

The massive octopus flicks a tentacle, thick as my neck. It slaps the wall beside me. I give in to the terror clutching my throat and my scream ricochets over dripping rock. the octopus slurps and a deep rasping voice fills my mind.

No others can hear. We are the only ones …

My scream turns into sobs.

Your noise will bring shadow creatures.

Dreadful images fill my mind. I steady my breath, forcing myself to face the octopus. its tentacle arms curl as I try to stop trembling.

Happy World Octopus Day 🙂

AATE/ALEA National Conference (Perth)

Pre-conference events begin tomorrow and I’m super-excited to be joining educators from across Australia and the world to share conversations about the 2018 theme, the Art of English: Language, Literature, Literacy. My hands-on workshop tomorrow will focus on Creating Creative Writers: Teachers as writers, and we’ll see how much we can create in two and a half hours … Then my Monday keynote focuses on my favourite topic of all time, Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature; bring on the sharks, octopi and dog characters!

Looking forward to meeting teachers, librarians and children’s book industry colleagues.

Exciting ‘Shark Caller’ News!

I’m thrilled to announce that film rights for The Shark Caller (Penguin Random House 2016) have been optioned to New Zealand production company Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions (follow their website link for naming explanation ;-).

Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton are producers and creatives that have been at the forefront of some of New Zealand’s most innovative content for television and the web. Passionate about telling Maori and Pasifika stories, their company created the wonderful TV series Find Me a Maori Bride and more recently, the award-winning film Waru. Kerry and Kiel’s say their goal “is to tell stories unique to Aotearoa and the Pacific and that reach local and international audiences. Our passion is innovative culturally relevant and diverse content with multi-ethnic and indigenous stories, characters, cast and creatives that celebrate diversity.”

The director for the film will be Veialu Aila-Unsworth whose animated short film Blue Willow was selected for Berlinale and screened in 26 film festivals. Veialu says she was “so excited when Kerry and Kiel contacted me about this project: chances like this do not come very often. For me, working on The Shark Caller with Kerry is a rare and wonderful opportunity to promote our shared heritage, to give a voice to our culture, to promote strong female lead roles both in front of the camera and behind, and to tell a beautiful family story that is deeply unique to our homeland.”

I share Veialu’s passion for strong female characters and am so excited to begin this creative journey with Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions. I can’t wait to see how Kerry, Kiel, Veialu and the team bring my characters (both human and marine) to life. Thank you to my agent Clive Newman and Penguin Random House Australia for facilitating this cross-Tasman partnership. And to Publisher Zoe Walton for her enthusiasm and the following kind words.

“I’m over the moon that Dianne Wolfer’s The Shark Caller has been optioned by Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions. It will make the most amazing film, with its visually spectacular ocean world combined with the heartwarming story of a girl learning about her family’s traditions and bravely stepping up to take on a dangerous but important challenge. Izzy’s story is in good hands with Kerry, Kiel and Veialu.”

More details next year 🙂

Summer Reading #1

book

Last week (on Dianne Wolfer – Author) I posted a photo of my first batch of summer reads. I’m making good progress and have already finished Kate Constable’s New Guinea Moon which I very much enjoyed. The story has satisfying and unexpected twists. It’s marketed at a YA audience but like so many teen novels is just as enjoyable for adults. I’m drawn to books with PNG settings; three of my own works unfold there (The Shark Caller is set in the New Ireland Province and Photographs in the Mud is set along the Kokoda Track in 1942). The backdrop for New Guinea Moon is in the Highlands, pre-independence, a time when things are changing for both Nationals and expat Australians. Kate grew up in PNG and her use of local language and culture rings true.

My next read was fun. I have several ideas bubbling for emerging readers and so have been reading titles from the hugely successful I Can Read! series. Think Berenstain Bears, Fancy Nancy and Flat Stanley. Danny and the Dinosaur – Too Tall is a great example of a concise book with exciting characters and a compelling, exciting plot. How on earth does Syd Hoff weave this magic in 32 pages? Stories with depth that appear ‘simple’ are hard to create – editing, shaping, editing …

Michael Morpungo’s books make me cry. They are so good. I love animal characters and Morpungo is a Master of creating stories with powerful links between animals and humans and thought-provoking moments in history. After re-reading his poignant and lovely I Believe in Unicorns, I’ve been visiting Michael Morpungo’s website. I knew he was a prolific writer and I loved Shadow (set in Afghanistan), but there are so many others that look enticing. Perhaps I’ll spend summer reading all his animal novels… I’ve also just noticed that this month he’s releasing Lucky Button. After the synchronicity of the War Horse movie being released just before the launch of Light Horse Boy, I’m glad my Nanna’s Button Tin came out in June.

I’ll be posting more Summer reading blogs over the next few months. My Want-to-Read book tower is tall but I always love hearing recommendations …

International Shark Week – Reef Adventures

Happy International Shark Week!

I’m fortunate to be celebrating the occasion on a Pacific island, taking a week’s break before August; a month of Festival/Library/School visits and Bookshop events (more details next post).

Snorkelling here everyday reminds me how observing the busy minutiae of life on a coral reef inspired my novel The Shark Caller. So much is happening on even the smallest reef. Tiny fish, bright coloured, striped, spotted and plain, dart under rocks, hide in anemone or between coral scaffolding, while larger fish chase them or snuffle through sand or chew coral. Meanwhile the slower sea slugs and starfish make interesting patterns in the sand.

snorkelling trimmed

The island we are visiting is a sanctuary for turtles and sea snakes. Swimming with the former is a bucket-list delight. I’m trying to get used to the latter. Overcoming fear of strange creatures is something Izzy needed to do in Shark Caller to complete her quest. Like Izzy, I often find that adventure involves duality, it’s one of the themes that interested me during the long writing process of this book. The Shark Caller plot explores twin bonds and aspects of our shadow sides. It’s about light/darkness as well seeing degrees of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ within characters (and ourselves). And as I snorkel, I still wonder why creatures like octopus and sea snakes spook me whilst I seek out other (also strange) creatures like turtles.

The lagoon here seems too shallow for sharks (certainly no mako…), however yesterday I did see another creature from the story. From the vantage point of the jetty at low tide, I watched three different octopus, none as scary as Pyrena thank goodness although one was largish… I find octopus exquisitely creepy as they writhe across the sea floor uncurling their arms then suddenly jetting away when they’re disturbed. They’re intelligent and noble in their own weird way, but I prefer to have space between us.

Swimming above gaps under rocky overhangs reminds me of another aspect of the story, imagined passages to ocean vents and otherworldly creatures. I don’t think this lagoon hides underwater tunnels, but I guess you never know!

When I began writing this blog I found a long ago shark post which I forgot to publish. I drafted it soon after the release of The Shark Caller, as the first reviews began to arrive – always an exciting moment when they’re positive. I smiled when I read the opening line of the very first review by Joy Lawn in Books +Publishing:

The Shark Caller breaks new ground in junior YA fiction.

And was honoured to receive the following praise from living legend Hazel Edwards OAM (author of the famed Hippo on Roof books) in Goodreads:

This is the best book for the 10-12 ish age group that I have read this year. Highly commended for adults too. And it’s a pleasure to savour the language.

Author Heather Waugh‘s comment was rather octopus-like: ‘it lured me in and held me. It’s been a while since I’ve read magic realism, and I sank back into it like a comfy couch.’

But my favourite review came from primary student Lila, who says:

Dad, Mum and I have just finished your book Shark Caller and we all loved it. Mum and Dad loved it so much they had to read it after I went to bed, and Dad couldn’t put it down so he accidentally stayed up ’til 1:30am reading it! My favourite part was reaching Sephone after escaping Pyrena and onwards. For me the most tense part was in the Cavern with Pyrena and escaping her. I also loved the words especially solwara, puripuri and tumbuna.

Happy Shark Week everyone, may you also find clear waters in which to celebrate with some friendly marine creatures.

WAYRBA 2017

untitled

The West Australian Young Readers WAYRBA have announced their three shortlists and I’m thrilled that The Shark Caller is included amongst the 16 titles in the 2016 Older Readers’ category. I’m in good company; the list features six international books, nine from Australia and one fellow West Australian title; Norm Jorgensen’s fun The Smuggler’s Curse. There are also lists for Younger Readers and Picture Books with terrific Australian titles on both.

Being shortlisted for a children’s choice award is a wonderful thing. Committed teachers and librarians make up many judging panels, but when the power to choose is handed over to kids it makes being selected such an honour. Young readers make honest critics. As part of the judging process they’re asked to read titles on the lists and evaluate them as ‘terrific’, ‘good’, ‘okay’ or ‘awful.’ Fingers crossed that my ‘Shark’ doesn’t receive too many of the latter!

For WA creators there are still challenges involved in bringing a book to the attention of readers – there are so many other great books from interstate and overseas. The annual WAYRBA lists help ensure that Australian settings such as ‘Abalone Cove’ (Greens Pool) and Broome, which appear in The Shark Caller, reach a wider readership. Thank you to the organising committee for their hard work behind the scenes and teachers, please help your students access the WAYRBA titles, encourage them to vote – and to be gentle with the ‘awful’ slips…

Ring out the old…

2016 has been a whirl, with so many highlights, as well as the challenge of balancing study, writing and work commitments.

With just a few tweaks left to finalise my PhD research (Crafting Animal Characters in Children’s Literature), I look forward to working on several new projects over summer and launching a new book in 2017, but first I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to the schools, festivals and libraries that hosted me in 2016. Here are some of the highlights:

The inaugural 7 Rooms 7 Stories Writers Festival in Busselton was fabulous and I’m thrilled to have been invited back in 2017. Boasting a sparkly new name ‘Between the Lines’ this festival is sponsored by Dymocks Busselton and will be held in March at Mary MacKillop College.
A few weeks after 7 stories, and further south, I enjoyed mixing with local creators and interstate visitors at Great Southern Grammar’s Literature Festival.
Meeting readers during school visits and returning to schools I’ve previously visited is especially rewarding. In the first half of the year that included St Stephen’s, St Mark’s and Lakeside SHS (Perth) as well as St Josephs College in Albany…
Travelling to Wickham in the Pilbara, celebrating Granny Grommet and Me being part of Better Beginnings Recommended Reads for 4s & 5s was fun.
So was revisiting NSW’s Riverina. Thank you Albury and Lavington Libraries for organising school visits last May.
Each Winter brings the excitement and anticipation of the SCBWI WA Rottnest Retreat. This year was as fabulous as ever, spending time reading, writing and workshopping with friends as well as being inspired by visiting legends Erica Wagner and Craig Smith. Thanks to the SCBWI organisers…
July brought the long-anticipated launch of The Shark Caller, a YA novel that was ‘in-production’ for about ten years. Some books take longer than others! To celebrate there were two launches; one at the Albany Surf Club and the other at Perth’s fabulous Aquarium (AQWA). Both were wonderful evenings.

Mailee and Sasha from The Literature Centre

Between these two launches, my sister, Karen and I went on a road trip/writers tour of Esperance and the Goldfields region where I enjoyed meeting students at Esperance SHS, Esperance Anglican Community School and Kalgoorlie’s John Paul College.

The second half of the year is when things get busy for children’s authors and 2016 winners & r up2 was no exception. The excitement began with Albany Library and Penguin Random House helping to organise a Shark Caller Haiku Competition. The entries were delightful and I met with the winners to enjoy a milkshake meeting.

Then it was Bookweek. Thank you Iona, Newman, Mel Maria, PLC, Southlands Albany and Brighton Primary. As well as Rio Tinto for organising a full day trip to Paraburdoo …
In September I was honoured to join Maria Gill, Aleesah Darlison and Neridah McMullin on a panel session at the Australia/NZ SCBWI Conference in Sydney and a follow-up event at The Children’s Bookshop in Beecroft with my panel buddies as well as Hazel Edwards , Penny Morrison, Emma Allen and John Heffernan. Thank you to the amazing Susanne Gervay for organising these events and the lovely Deb Abela for offering me her spare room 🙂
Being in Sydney also gave me the opportunity to spend the day with Penguin Random House publicist, Zoe Bechara visiting local bookshops to talk about The Shark Caller.
After flying back to WA, it was into the car and straight on to Toodyay for a session at the Avon Valley Writers Festival.
Then in October (and November) it was time to celebrate Fremantle Press’s 40th birthday. What a fabulous milestone for an independent publisher!
In October I also enjoyed an amazing week in Bunbury and Busselton as part of The Literature Centre’s Talented Young Writers’ Programme facilitated by one of the Centre’s motivating Education Officers, Beck Blaxell. Each year the TYWP programme reaches hundreds of budding creators, giving them unique opportunities to develop their skills. It was a pleasure to work with these highly committed high school students.
One 2016 regret was having to cancel sessions at Bremer Bay Primary due to urgent family illness. Thankfully my Mum is now okay and I hope to visit Bremer early 2017.

light horse girl So that was my 2016. Thank you again to all of the schools, festivals and libraries that hosted me this year. After the adventures above, my 2017 resolution was going to be to slow down and enjoy each moment… however with some exciting events coming up, this might be a challenge!

More about that in the next post. In the meantime, I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Shark Launch #1 Albany:

The countdown to Launch #1 began with my sister flying in from the east. The Shark Caller is dedicated to three people and Karen is one of them. And last week, Karen surprised me with the most amazing gift; a shark carved from obsidian. If you read the book you will understand why this is such a precious gift. Over the past few years I’ve trawled the Internet for obsidian and never came close to finding anything like this.

For many children’s authors and illustrators, August is the busiest time of the year with Bookweek school and library visits spilling over into the rest of the month. For me, 2016 is busier than usual with two book launches to celebrate the release of The Shark Caller with Penguin Random House and a mini book tour of Esperance and Kalgoorlie.

Launch 1 was held at the Albany Surf Club, supported by Albany Public Library and Paperbark Merchants. It was a wonderful evening and here are some photos of the event.

A shoal of Sharks

… or a shiver of sharks. Or just a school of sharks.

Either way, my first box load of The Shark Caller arrived today. After so many years and hundreds of drafts, it’s become a book.

shark cover

It’s not actually on bookshop shelves yet, but has officially reached the ‘pre-order’ status, so that shouldn’t be too far away. So exciting…

AQWA Story Readings

This week I’ve been meeting young readers at the WA Aquarium for story-time.

We’ve been reading Granny Grommet and Me in front of a tank that’s home to some of the sea creatures that appear in the story. Lilian spotted angel fish in the tank and in the book!

Young book lovers also knew the names of sea stars, leafy sea dragons and many other marine animals.

I’ll be reading again tomorrow at 11.45, so please come and say hello if you are planning a trip top AQWA.

For middle and upper primary teachers and students, I’ll be back again on July 29th to read from The Shark Caller on the same day it will be launched.

My favourite sea creature so far, was this friendly ray in sick bay.

ssd