Writer’s Cramp – oops, Camp!
It’s been a busy few weeks for writers. The weather, all rainy and a little bit misty and the wind blowing with a colder breath – all good stuff for writing it seems. I’ve started my new novel, I think. I’m never sure until the hairs on my arms go all prickly and I feel wickedly excited by the way the words are falling on the page – or the screen as it happens at this stage. I’ve already done the notebook stuff with arrows and maps of the way my characters will move together. Its going to be a ghost story – and its going to feature Oliver Briskett, the detective dog who has already appeared in Grave Catastrophe. I’m liking it so far but I had to talk about it with a friend to really get it going. I had all the ingredients and all the ideas happening but sometimes I need someone else to help me find the key that will unlock the way into the story. In this case it was my good mate Brian who works with Children’s literature – it took a while but he finally asked the question that made me think of the answer that led me to the key.
I’ve been busy working away in schools again and my last school was at Rochedale in Queensland. What a great place – all bushy and snuggled up close to Brisbane. And what great writers I met there. Everyone keen and busy and full of ideas and ways to get stories happening. They’d already had one day with Simon Higgins who’d shown everyone how to unlock some great stuff – I was green with envy at some of the lovely sentences that were produced. My day was about stringing the story together and we did heaps. One of the nice things about writers is the way the go off on a tangent and produce something unexpected. Kiarna produced the poem that she sent to me – it was a surprise and I could see that she was completely caught up with her images. You’ll love it – have a read.
One of the ways that you can publish your work – and the work that was being produced at Rochedale would certainly suit publication – is to send a copy of your best work to ‘Oz Kids In Print’ – check out their website www.ozkids.com.au for all the details.
I have a new family of wrens in my yard this week – all happily searching out nibblies in the wet grass. There’s also a bush turkey – they perch in the trees like some overgrown, evil budgerigar, waiting until I go inside and then they swoop down and dig up the herbs. Grrrrr….down with turkeys!
And some bad news – Kiana’s poem that was happily sitting on my desktop was just eaten by the delete button. Kiana is going to send it through again, I hope … can’t believe that it happened so quickly but I guess the lesson is: ALWAYS SAVE A COPY!!!!!! Eeeeeeek (sorry Kiana).
Till next time when the poem will be here and I will be able to lift my head from the shame of sending a lovely poem to the place of deleted objects (they probably all sit around like odd socks waiting for someone to claim then).
Nette Hilton