So what does a writer do when they have a tight deadline and a book due by Christmas? They take the afternoon off and make Christmas puddings, of course! Lili and I make puddings every year. It’s fun. I do the weighing, Lili likes to do the mixing…with her hands. It’s very gooey. Unfortunately, while [...]
Those of you who have read any of my Dragonkeeper books will know that the leaves, fruit and bark of the chinaberry tree are one of the few things that Chinese dragons don’t like. It poisons them. This information was recorded in an ancient Chinese book called the Er Ya Yi, written about 1000 years [...]
The Italian edition of Dragonkeeper—La Custode del Drago—has just been published. It’s up there on the publisher’s homepage along with Fay Weldon’s latest book, which is very exciting. They liked the new Australian cover so much that they decided to use it too.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
I’m pleased to announce that the UK edition of Dragon Dawn will be released on 4 June. Here is the UK cover. Pretty cool isn’t it? Just to remind you, Dragon Dawn is a prequel to the Dragon Keeper Trilogy. It is set 100 years before Dragon Keeper when Danzi was younger and more sprightly, [...]
I recently received an email from a reader in the US. She was taking issue with the Chinese language puzzles that feature in Dragon Moon. She was learning Chinese and she thought I had got something wrong. I realised that her confusion was because the illustrations of the map that Ping follows don’t appear in [...]
It’s been such a long time since I’ve done a post, I’ve just about forgotten how to do it. I’ve got a couple of ideas for ongoing posts but first up I wanted to show everyone the lovely cover for the Japanese edition of Garden of the Purple Dragon. It is so sweet. Look for [...]
Since Dragon Moon was published, I’ve had quite a lot of emails and blog comments asking me to write a fourth Dragonkeeper book. I always say the same thing. It’s not going to happen. I don’t want to write a fourth book. After all her adventures, I think Ping should have a nice quiet life. [...]
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BibliOdyssey
Fabulous blog of historical illustrations
Centre for Youth Literature: Writer in Residence Blog
A different writer blogs each month
Lili Wilkinson
My daughter’s blog
Andrew’s Black Dog Blog
My publisher’s blog
Yarra Climate Action Now
My local climate action group (of which I am a member)
Earthsign
The thoughtful and informed climate change blog of a fellow YCAN member
