Dragonkeeper Trilogy | Posted by Carole on Tuesday 2 February 2010
I recently received my author copies of the Japanese edition of Dragon Moon. The Japanese covers for the Dragonkeeper series are all lovely. You can see the Dragon Moon cover here.
There are also black and white drawings inside the books—some at the beginning, and a small drawing at the beginning of each chapter, each one different and relevant to the chapter. They are really lovely, but I don’t even know the name of the illustrator.
Here are some examples from Dragon Moon.
Dragonkeeper Trilogy, News | Posted by Carole on Wednesday 20 January 2010
I just got a certificate in the post telling me that Garden of the Purple Dragon won the 2009 KROC Award for Best Fiction for Older Readers, which is terrific. (The KROCs are the Children’s Choice Awards in the Northern Territory). So thanks to all those readers who voted for the book, and I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help eat the crocodile ice-cream cake which must have been yummy.
dragons | Posted by Carole on Saturday 9 January 2010
There is a new page on my website. It is called Carole’s Dragon Tour of Melbourne. It is a walk around the city of Melbourne, Australia to view our dragons. Melbourne has quite a few dragons, and I’ve been thinking for a while that I wanted to let more people know about them and devise a walking tour of them. I’d done some research (of course), but it wasn’t until I went to London earlier this year and came across the City of London Dragon Photo Safari by Jim Batty that I got really enthusiastic about it. Here are my favourite dragons from the London walk.
When I got back home, I was inspired to finish my Melbourne Dragon Tour. It is much more modest than the London one, but if you are in Melbourne and have a couple of hours to spare, why not have a look at Melbourne’s diverse dragons? There is a link in the menu bar or click here.
Many thanks to my Webmaster, Chris Miles, for making it look beautiful and coping with my endless fiddly changes.
Writing | Posted by Carole on Wednesday 23 December 2009
This is the fifth in a series of blogs about the way I write a book.
So the day after I sent in my second draft, I got sick. That gives you some idea of the intensity of working on that draft. Fortunately, the third draft is a lot easier. I got back comments on the second draft from my publisher and my editor, and took in the changes that they requested. I think I have got the structure right and fixed the major issues that they had with the first draft, so at this stage it’s tinkering—making things clearer, adding detail, taking out unnecessary bits.
After that, I read it through again…and take in my own changes. It astonishes me that even after so many readings, there is still a lot of red ink on the copy I am reading through, as I reword sentences, and reorder paragraphs. I’m sure other writers don’t need to do as much rewriting as I do. I’m sure there are writers who can write perfect sentences from the word go, but that isn’t how it is for me.
At this stage I think about subplots and make sure that they are complete. Also have I followed through on the themes I have worked into the story?
With the book I am writing at the moment, it was only at this late stage that we finalised the title (it’s called Sugar, Sugar). For me, it’s only really when the book is finished that I get firm ideas about what the title should be. This one was particularly difficult.
I send the amended file back to the publisher. Meanwhile, other people are getting involved. Black dog books staff have sent off a design brief to the designers, and they are working on the cover and internal design. Someone else is drawing a map. (I love maps. Just about every book I’ve ever written contains at least one map.)
It’s past the point of no return for the story as a whole. Now I can relax…for a while.
Writing | Posted by Carole on Wednesday 18 November 2009
This is the fourth in a series of blogs about the way I write books. It’s been a while since I wrote the last one…that’s because I’ve been writing a second draft!
So after I send off my first draft to my publisher, he reads it, my editor reads it. And they write their comments on the manuscript (Andrew does it by hand on a printed copy, Karen does it electronically). That’s called a marked-up copy. They tell me what’s working, and what’s not. They say things like “How is your character feeling about what just happened?” or “I need more info about the place where this scene is taking place”. Usually every page has comments on it. Sometimes events aren’t clear enough. Sometimes I’ve spelled it out in too much detail and left nothing up to the reader’s imagination. In the book I’m writing, no one like the style of short sentences that I’d used.
So then I have to start work on the second draft, considering all these comments and changing things to correct the problems. Now, this can be a rewarding process. You can feel it improving. However, you haven’t got all the time in the world. People are often surprised when I say I have deadlines. They imagine that professional authors just take as long as they like to write a book. That isn’t the case. A publisher has to publish a number of books each year—20, 50, 200. They have to have a publication schedule to spread them out over the year, otherwise the manuscripts might all come in together and their staff would be working day and night at one stage and then sitting twiddling their thumbs at another. The first draft can be a bit more flexible timewise, but sooner or later the book is on the production schedule for the following year and there are deadlines for every stage.
I had a pretty tight deadline for the second draft (I’d had a month off to go overseas)—about 10 weeks. As this is my first Young Adult book, it is very important, and most of the other staff at black dog read the first draft and gave me written comments. Just to be on the safe side, I got my daughter Lili to read it too. I ended up with a lot of comments, and at times it was overwhelming. At times I thought “there’s too much that people aren’t happy with.” But I kept on working through it chapter by chapter, resolving the issues, making sure the reader could understand the character’s motivation.
The last chapters are always the most underdone, so I did a lot of rewriting there. I have five characters and I wanted to bring all their stories together in a satisfying way at the end. Without it being too neat and tied with a bow.
Then once again I read it though and mark changes in red. Things that I’m still having trouble resolving, I mark with a highlighter and put aside. I take in all the changes, page by page. I think about the subplots, and just look at the beats of those stories in isolation, as separate little stories, to see if there is enough, or too much. There might be more detail I have to find out, so I have to do more research.
Then I print it out again. This time I read it out aloud. This is not only about the story, it’s also about the way the words, the sentences, the paragraphs flow. There’s only so much I can read aloud at one time without zoning out, so with this book I did about five or six chapters a day. Again marking up changes. Reading in the morning, and taking in the changes in the afternoon.
I got to the day it had to be handed in (last Friday) and I was at the stage where I couldn’t bear to look at it for a moment longer. So I sent it off. Big relief.
News | Posted by Carole on Thursday 29 October 2009
On Tuesday I went up to Sydney for two award ceremonies. The first was the KOALA Awards (the NSW children’s choice awards) which were held at the Parramatta Town Hall. I’m very pleased to say that Garden of the Purple Dragon won the award for older readers! Honour books were Give Peas a Chance by Morris Gleitzman and the Ranger’s Apprentice Series by John Flanagan. You can see the winners of the other categories here.
(Above) This is Alyssa Brugman and I at the Awards. (Below) My KOALA winner’s mug.
The second awards ceremony was the NSW Premier’s History Awards. My book The Night We Made the Flag was shortlisted. I didn’t win that one, the winner was Anthony Hill for his book Captain Cook’s Apprentice.
Congratulations to all the winners.
History, News | Posted by Carole on Monday 12 October 2009
I’m pleased to tell you that my picture book The Night We Made the Flag: A Eureka Story, illustrated by Sebastian Ciaffaglione, has been shortlisted for the 2009 NSW Premier’s Young People’s History Prize. The judges said it was “very powerful” and that it highlights the importance of women in Australian history, which is very pleasing. They also said that Sebastian’s illustrations “magically convey the journey from dusk through the long tiring night to a mulitcoloured dawn”.
The other shortlisted books are:
- The Lighthouse Girl by Dianne Wolfer
- Captain Cook’s Apprentice by Anthony Hill
- Krakatoa Lighthouse by Alan Baillie
The winner of the prize will be announced on Tues 27th October.
You can read all the Judges’ Reports here.
News | Posted by Carole on Monday 28 September 2009
Next Saturday I will be at the Angus & Robertson bookshop in Melbourne as part of the Kids’ Fun Day to celebrate the launch of the new Angus & Robertson Kids’ Top 50 list. I’ll be doing a reading and signing books. If any one has books they’d like me to sign or if you just want to say hello, I’d love to see you there. They want kids to come dressed as their favourite characters from books. It’s an all-day event, but here are the details of when I’ll be there:
Date: Saturday 3 October
Time: 12.30
Place: 360 Bourke Street, that’s on the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth Streets
For more info: phone 03 9670 8861 or go to the Angus & Robertson website
Climate Change | Posted by Carole on Tuesday 15 September 2009
I spent Sunday protesting outside the Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria. According to Environment Victoria it is Australia’s dirtiest power station, producing 17,000,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases every year. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) goes one step further and says it’s one of the worst in the world.
Here are members of my climate change group, Yarra Climate Action Now (YCAN), braving the rain at the protest. Victorians might remember the Victorian Government’s Black Balloons Campaign to encourage households to reduce their greenhouse gas output. They said the average household produces 12 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year, enough to fill 240,000 balloons. Sounds pretty shocking doesn’t it?
We calculated that the Hazelwood Power Station produces 65,000 balloons of greenhouse gas PER MINUTE. After the protest, we realised we made a mistake. It should be 650,000 ballons per minute!
Instead of planning to close down this old and outdated power station, the government has instead decided to extend its life to 2031. YCAN thinks Hazelwood should be closed down and the government should be investing in renewable energy production (ie solar, wind and geothermal power).
News | Posted by Carole on Monday 7 September 2009
Tomorrow I am off to Brisbane, where I am speaking at the Brisbane Writers Festival, word play 2009 for young readers, writers and illustrators.
I have three sessions speaking to students in the flesh and one online session. I’m looking forward to it. I hope to see some of my Queensland-based readers there.
