Book Week

News | Posted by Carole on Wednesday 23 August 2006

It’s Children’s Book Week. That’s the time of year when authors like myself get to go out of the house, blinking in the sunshine like moles (couldn’t think of an Australian blinking animal. All our burrowing creatures are semi-nocturnal I think. Perhaps I could have said wombat).

Yesterday I visited Sunbury West Primary School. It was a terrific session. The kids had all read Dragonkeeper. I showed them a Powerpoint presentation of things that had inspired me while I was writing the book (no one fell asleep). Then they all asked lots of terrific questions. It was great.

School visits aren’t always like that. Sometimes teachers book me and don’t actually tell the kids anything about me. That’s hard. You’re faced with 50 (or worse 200) bored kids who would rather chat amongst themselves. There are some authors who can get up in front of a group like that and basically do a stand-up comedy session. They tell jokes and read hilarious bits from their books (mainly male authors, there’s a heap of them). I can’t do that (not too many hilarious bits for a start). Often I’m just starting to win them over when the bell rings.

Anyway, Sunbury West wasn’t like that at all.

I have more schools this week, and I’m judging a short story competition.

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Warm Feet

Writing | Posted by Carole on Saturday 5 August 2006

I had a good week this week. Despite many interruptions and diversions, I still wrote my self-imposed quota of words, worked out several plot dilemmas and found that two story strands unexpectedly linked together. And I think I have a title for the third Dragonkeeper book. (Not quite ready to tell anybody what it is yet.) All very satisfying.

I give credit for this creative week to my new Ugg boots. I have resisted slippers for a long time. I don’t think I’ve had a pair since I was 9. They seemed to me to be the epitome of old age. And I was trying to pretend I wasn’t getting old. So I have sat at the computer all winter (and it’s been a long one this year in Melbourne) with icy feet. I tried bedsocks, two pairs of socks, a rug wrapped around my feet. I even tried to train the dog to lie under my desk as a foot warmer. Nothing worked.

On Tuesday afternoon I couldn’t stand it any longer. I rang my sister-in-law, found out where she bought hers and drove round there immediately. My feet have been toasty warm ever since. And I’m sure it has increased my creative output. As a bonus I can congratulate myself on helping the economy by buying Australian.

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