Publishing and Donkeys

Last weekend I went to a publishing seminar run by Jill Marshall of Pear Jam Books.  The day was chocka-block full of information about mainstream publishing, eBook publishing, audio books, printing and illustration.  Jill was honest about the ups and downs of the process she'd gone through with mainstream publishers and her personal experience of eBook publishing. 

The right gang will smooth the road
 to publishing success

Publishing a book is no easy journey, no matter what method you choose.  It's a bumpy ride on a stubborn donkey, round corners and up hills and sometimes you just have to get off and throw a wobbly or two.

But if you surround yourself with other travellers, who've taken the road before, who will cheer you on and give the donkey a good whack on the backside every now and again, maybe you won't fall off.

At the end of the course someone asked Jill what she thought about writing groups.  She said, if you choose the right one, they can be a great.

Definitely!  I belong to three!  I'm not even that much of a social butterfly and relish a good six hour stretch of writing all by myself as much as the next aspiring author, but these groups offer a sanity check.  There's personal experience, expert knowledge and industry know how to be had over a cuppa and bickies.  Get amongst it!

Tim Wilson speaks

Had an entertaining afternoon at a Friends of the Library event today, listening to Tim Wilson talk about his life and times.  He's an interesting man.  One part self-effacing, two parts super-confident.  Perhaps the last part summed up best by his Mum in the audience - he always lands on his feet.  Nine lives?

I liked the way he explained much of his success as a series of random events.  Because so often life is like that.  If I hadn't been in this place, at that time, nothing would have happened...

He's written a book and a collection of short stories.  'Their Faces Were Shining' interests me. I've spent the last year reading dystopian YA novels, so it will be great to read a grown up version.

Especially after listening to the author's account of chasing news stories across the USA.  Hurricane Katrina, mass murders... real experiences with the look and feel of the end times.

Picture Book Progress

Next week my pal Tracy Martin, expert digital artist and scrapbooking expert are having a meeting to talk about the picture book I'm creating.  I'm hoping both the characters and the backgrounds can be a mix of hand drawn images and digital enhancement.

I sent Tracy a trial sketch of one of the characters and asked her to have a go at making her clothes look fluffy.  This is the picture she sent back. (left) This is only step one but it looks awesome.  Plus, we'll probably choose something way more fluffy - thinking candyfloss - to girly it up a bit.  Just being able to visualise these things is so helpful.

I'm waiting on Jill Marshall to send back an appraisal of the rhyming text I've written, so hoping to get that soon!

The Phantom Paragrapher: ICLM - Guest Post: Lee Murray + WIN AN AUTOGRAPHED...

The 'genre' chick lit needs a makeover.  It's International Chick Lit Month and blogger Paula Phillips asked a local Bay of Plenty author to explore what it means to be a chick lit writer.

Read self-confessed 'girly fluff' writer Lee Murray's take on this hot topic in the latest blog at The Phantom Paragrapher. 

There's a copy of her book 'Dash of Reality' from Oceanbooks to be won if you can come up with a better name for chick lit!

The Phantom Paragrapher: ICLM - Guest Post: Lee Murray + WIN AN AUTOGRAPHED...: As we near the end of May , I would like to say a huge Thank You to all the authors and chick-lit lovers who have sent me Guest Pos...

Dragons, Deeds and Dialogue Writing Workshop

Junior Fiction writer and friend Lee Murray is running a creative writing workshop on Friday 22 June.

Dragons, Deeds & Dialogue is a day of practical exercise, discussion and helpful advice on writing stories for junior readers.  You can share your work in progress and get positive feedback, tips on writing for this readership and an introudction to some of the tools and techniques that writers use.

Lee is a prize winning author.  Her junior fiction novel Battle of the Birds is a great kiwi read.

Details: Dragons, Deeds & Dialogue Writing Junior Fiction
Friday 22nd June 2012, 10am-4pm, Eric Bridgman Room, Rotorua Arts Village
Fee: $55, limited to 15, bookings essential
All enquiries to nzsabop@gmail.com or ph 07 578 5757

Writing, writing, writing

Creative Writing Projects

Picture book:

I had a lot of fun recently completing Jill Marshall's picture book writing course.  I now have text for a picture book and am embarking on some illustration.  I've been inspired by the wonderful world of Lauren Child - think Charlie and Lola.  What an amazing writer and illustrator she is.  Am looking at putting my own illustrations on to a digital background using Photoshop. Must say Photoshop is awesome fun, especially when at this stage I'm only using the free trial version along with help from my handy kindle version of the adobe 'how to' book.


The Chubbly-fluff
by Jan Goldie

I've road tested the text at the Tauranga Writers group and with my ladies writing group also.  They seem to think the illustrations are up to scratch too.  Finally, I've sent the text back to Jill for assessment. It will be interesting to hear her comments and see if they line up with the critique I've received from the gals!

Chapter book: Brave and True

Using the picture book as my procrastination project has done wonders for my stalled chapter book 'Brave and True'.  It's been on hold now for about three months while I've sorted out my health.  But thanks to wonderful writers Lee Murray and Helen Towgood, I am now battling through the tricky bits and kicking that writer's block out of the paddock.  (Feel like crossing my fingers or saying 'jinx' like I used to at school.  Writer's block is such a fickle creature.)

Non-fiction Writing Projects
With my piece on Dame Evelyn Stokes finally finished and off to be loaded on the Tauranga Memories section of their website, I'm happy to be starting on more web content writing for AFS student exchange. AFS is reorganising their website to include information about all the chapters that make up the kiwi part of their organisation. A large part of the AFS experience is run by volunteers.

So here's to writing as a job, writing for creativity's sake and writing because you simply must.

Oceanbooks Inaugral AGM and Memories of Tauranga

Oceanbooks
I attended the first ever Annual General Meeting of the local publishing cooperative Oceanbooks over the weekend.

There was a massive turn out with shareholders and interested locals keen to learn more about Oceanbooks' progress.

It's amazing what a small group of determined individuals can achieve when they put their minds to it. Oceanbooks is going from strength to strength and continues to attract interest.  Read The Phantom Paragrapher (Paula Phillips') blog.

www.shutterstock.com

Library Literary Lovelies
The Tauranga library website puts a wealth of information at our fingertips.  It supplies links to all the various catalogues and indexes you need to start researching an enormous variety of subjects.

Amongst the facts is a collection of personal experiences and story telling in the form of a kete of memories penned by Tauranga locals:
http://library.tauranga.govt.nz/local-history/memories-a-plenty/tauranga-memories.aspx

New Zealand showcased in Germany
With so much writing talent in our region, it's no wonder three Tauranga Writers Group authors have had their books selected for the Frankfurt Book Fair this year.  New Zealand is the guest nation, a once in a lifetime honour. Read more about this amazing opportunity for the NZ literary community.

Writing Courses Online - 'Write Good Stuff'

Online creative writing courses can be a great way to learn more skills.  Especially when you are trying to balance work and family.

The first course I tried online was Focus on Fiction, run out of Waiariki Technical Institute. It provided chunks of information on a weekly basis.  There was a chance to be in contact with other writers on the course if you wanted feedback and a substantial amount of feedback from the tutor.

Recently I've taken two more through Jill Marshall's 'Write Good Stuff'.  The first was an introduction to writing novels for children/junior fiction.  The second taught me the ins and outs of picture book writing.

I've tried many times to write a picture book.  It's a lot harder than it appears!  I started Jill Marshall's lessons with a fun idea though.  It really helped to have that idea to work on as I made my way through the course.

Jill Marshall is a writer of the well known Jane Blonde series, a publisher at Pear Jam books and a huge supporter of authors in New Zealand.  Besides running the online courses, she offers assessments and mentoring opportunities.  Look her up.

Baa Baa Smart Sheep & Two Little Bugs

Photo from Dreamboat books blog

I just love the selection of homegrown books from up and coming creators and publishers Mark and Rowan Sommerset of Dreamboat Books.

You can buy their picture books online at www.dreamboatbooks.com/shop and you'll see they have free delivery to NZ and Australia just now.

Have a read of their story. Such an inspiring journey, coupled with some serious hard work. Kudos.

Their blog has the most hilarious kids' letter on it too. How awesome to get that sort of feedback!

Exciting New Writing Competition for Secondary School Students

Some good friends of mine who belong to the Tauranga Writers group, both great writers themselves, have created a website for young NZ writers.
Joining together with Oceanbooks, Tauranga Writers and Pear Jam Books, they've also masterminded a young writers short story competition:

Write Off Line

Tauranga Writers’ NZ Secondary School annual writing competition

 Conditions of Writing Competition

Create an original piece of writing (short story, essay or poem) using the following sentence as the theme, title or as a line anywhere in the piece of writing: ‘You Don’t Understand ...’

Your piece of writing must be no more than 1000words and must be received by 12am (midnight) on Friday 29^th June 2012 (last day of Term Two for most NZ secondary students).

To be eligible for this competition all participants must:

*   be currently enrolled in a yr9 – yr13  New Zealand Secondary School or the NZ correspondence school.

*   be between the ages of 12 and 18 years old.

To find out more go to www.youngNZWriters.weebly.com/competitions