A week of thank yous

This week I’ve visited three schools who have been taking part in #NZReadaloud and reading The Bold Ship Phenomenal: Selwyn Ridge in Welcome Bay in Tauranga, Knighton in Hamilton, and Marist in Mt Albert in Auckland.

Look at all these amazing thank you cards that the students kindly made for me. 

The jar in the middle is full of messages-in-a-jar (rather than a bottle). So cool!

It’s me who needs to be thanking the teachers for inviting me, and the kids for being so interesting and interested. I really enjoyed hearing their ideas about the story; in particular, where the ship had gone and what was sunk beneath the buoy. Some of them even offered to write the next book for me!

Here’s some close-ups of a few of the wonderful cards.

       

One of my favourite thank you messages was from Theo who said: “I enjoyed how the story was kind of dull then BAM! At chapter 28, PLOT TWIST.”

Chapter 28! That’s two-thirds of the way through the book! I’m so sorry Theo that you had to wait so long for it to get exciting. I promise in my next book I’ll put a plot twist much nearer to the start. 

Octopus in a rock pool

Recently, at the rock pools in Tairua, I had an amazing encounter. Octopi! Two of them, in the same rock pool.

That in itself is worthy of note: to find not one, but two beautiful octopi on the same day. But what happened next was even more amazing. One of the octopi, the larger one, raised its head to the surface of the rock pool and spoke…    

So here I am, an octopus in a rock pool.

It is not, to be fair, the most flash rock pool I’ve been in.

For a start, there are the shrimps: whiskery, flibberty creatures that pester an animal when he’s trying to hide. The anemones too, wink, stare.

Yet, in the absence of a larger claim to occupation, a seal say or an eel, I fancy I may call it my own.

What is that you say? You consider a rock pool not the safest place for an octopus to reside.

On the contrary! Note the abundance of nook and crevasse; perfect for containing a body soft as an over-ripe fruit. A fluid body, lithe and unencumbered by meddlesome bones.

You disagree? Claim a soft body can be disadvantage, in the presence of, say, a spear.

Oh, I see, you have one there.

Ah, yes, and here it is. You brandish it before you like a toasting fork over hot coals.  

Yes, yes, that is close enough; I assure you, I see your point.

Perhaps that is the downfall, after all, of a rock pool – no immediate means of escape.

Although containment can, itself, be offset by the proximity of the sea.

Yes, that’s right, the sea.

We are, after all, talking of a temporary inland outpost; the connection to the mother water remains.

You snigger, yet I would not expect you to understand, land lubber as you are, with your parcels and packages of tidily allotted ground. With the sea we take a broader view: connection rather than fence. Pool to sea to tributary, animal to animal, it is all as one.

Take, for example, my large friend here.

 Where? There. See there, where he rears behind you

Yes, indeed, he is an orca. Note the black and white warrior markings, the musculature of the sides.

Good idea, drop the spear, you’ll find it serves you little use now.

Now then, as I was saying…

So here I am, an octopus in a rock pool.       

Junior fiction finalists: New Zealand Children's Book awards 2016

A photo from the 2016 New Zealand Children's Book Awards ceremony, held at Circa Theatre in Wellington on 8 August 2016.

 

 

These are the finalists for the junior fiction category: Jane Bloomfield, me, Stacy Gregg, Kate De Goldi, and David Hill. Kate won our category with her novel, From the Cutting of Barney Kettle.


The photo reminds me what a fabulous time I (and my boys) had on the night, meeting all these New Zealand authors we admire so much. For me, that was prize enough!

Thanks to Matt Bialostocki who took the photo.

Joy and books at school visits

It's the season for school visits and I've had several fabulous ones recently, with more scheduled for next month.

The wonderful photos below were taken during my visit to Te Mata School, when I was kidnapped by this cut-throat band of pirates. The whole school had dressed up for the occasion - what a treat!

 

One dedicated teacher (Tanya) at Bankwood School in Hamilton created this Glogster for her class to use in preparation for my visit. By the time I got there, the kids knew more about me and my books than I did. I really appreciated that effort.




Tanya says she's happy to share the Glogster for other teachers and librarians to use. You can download it here, and when I update my website (shortly) I'll include it on the school visits page as well.

Bold Ship shortlisted for the New Zealand Children's Book Awards

 

I'm so excited that The Bold Ship Phenomenal has been shortlisted for the 2016 New Zealand Children's Book Awards.

There are four other shortlisted titles in the junior fiction category. I've read most of them (and will set about reading the other) and am honoured to be listed alongside them.

• David Hill - Enemy Camp
• Kate De Goldi - From the Cutting Room of Barney Kettle
• Jane Bloomfield - Lily Max: Satin, Scissors, Frock
• Stacy Gregg - The Girl Who Rode the Wind.

 

 

 

 

The awards ceremony is in August, and I'm feeling star-struck already. Many of the shortlisted authors from across all of the categories are my writing heroes.
 
Here's the awards shortlist.

And here's the judges' report.

And here are the lovely folk from Smartwork Creative who designed the book.



Three of the shortlisted books are their handy work, so they have every reason to feel pleased with themselves!

 

There's a witches' cauldron on our beach

 

There’s a witches’ cauldron on Ngarunui Beach.

Have you seen it?

Three dinosaur eggs lie inside, smooth as stone.

 

Enormous nobbled creatures have populated the beach.

They wallow in their shingly sea.

Are they waiting? Will they rise?  

 

 

See the eye, the claw, the gristle spine, the grinding jaw.

 

The tide makes whales of the sandbanks

Grey backs breach and bask

Swimming for the hills.

 

Lone stone posts dot the shore

Like gnomes hats

They wig-wag in the breeze.

 

Footprints, imprints, tail slide, broom whisk

There’s a witches’ cauldron on Ngarunui Beach

Dare you see it?

Don’t fall in it!  

Wooden Arms on stage

Ben built me my own whare manaaki tangata.

 

Here it is in action at the Waikato Show last weekend, where, along with Judi Billcliff and friends, I staged my first ever production of Wooden Arms.

It was so much fun, but thank goodness that Judi, who's a drama teacher and performance poet for kids, was there to help! Check out her Rainbow Poetry website and Rainbow Poetry Facebook page to see Judi in action.

One of the good things about being an author is that it pushes you outside your comfort zone. Being on a stage is definitely outside mine!

But now that I've got my whare, Judi's going to give me some drama tips, then I'll use the Wooden Arms performance at school visits.

Bookshelf envy

Last year I had shed envy (for Dawn McMillan’s writing hut overlooking the Thames coast). Now I have bookshelf envy.

I have just finished reading Annie Proulx’s memoir Bird Cloud, about the years she spent building what she hoped would be her ‘final home’ at the base of 400 foot cliffs next to the North Platte River in the midst of the Wyoming prairies.

I had been looking forward to the read, as I enjoy nature writing that weaves together elements of the human and natural worlds, and I knew that Proulx had chosen the site for her home partially due to the abundance of wildlife she had spotted.

The book did not disappoint, as it contains some fantastic descriptions of Wyoming birdlife, as viewed by Proulx as she tries to bring to life her housing dream. I found it an odd juxtaposition of elements though; at times, it was as if she had collected a handful of bright coloured pebbles, chosen because they interested her, then tossed them down to see how they would fall. The connections between the various stones was not always obvious (or perhaps even there).

As a result, some strands I skimmed over (the chunks of local Wyoming history for example), whereas others have remained to mind.

Foremost among these is the bookshelves. Proulx says early on in the book that when thinking of her future house, a fundamental requirement was that there should be bookshelves for thousands of books. Imagine that!

In our very crowded, rather small house there are lots of children, lots of clutter, minimal space and thousands of books. Unfortunately there is nowhere adequate to put them.

I have always considered books the ultimate furnishing. I think a wall full of books lends warmth and texture to a room. By comparison, minimalist houses where books are not displayed always feel bereft to me. But when you have too many books for the spaces where books can comfortably sit, it becomes a problem. It is, I imagine, a bit like having too many cats; every time you turn around you trip over one.

So I have bookshelf envy. And I was thrilled when I found these lovely photos of Proulx’s library on the website of the architect who designed the site.

 

 

 Source: Harry Teague Architects

Here is how Proulx describes her writing space on page 52 of the book:

“It has taken me half a lifetime to understand that my habits and work do not tally with clean minimalism. By default, complexity and clutter are my style, and I move from projects and paper piles on one table to different projects and paper piles on other big tables. Books are open on every surface next to bins of papers to be filed. Boxes of old photographs, manuscript drafts, correspondence and receipts crowd shelves and floor. Incoming and outgoing mail piles up. This is not a svelte, minimalist look. One large room was what I thought I needed for the tables, file cabinets, map case, desks, shelves for books, office supplies, book accessioning station and bill-paying desk.’

Sounds divine doesn’t it?

Here, by way of comparison, is one of the bookshelves in our living room. You can see the problem!  For a start, there's no longer anywhere to balance a cup of tea...

 

Book and egg giveaway

What is it about egg-shaped chocolate that makes it taste so much better?

To celebrate the arrival of Easter eggs in the shops (one of my favourite times of year), I'm running a giveaway on my author Facebook page.

All you have to do is comment on the post with the name of a friend, and you could both win this pack. Giveaway closes 4 March.

Happy end of 2015

I think it's as important to celebrate the year that's just past (or if it hasn't been happy, to at least acknowledge it), as it is to look forward to the new one.

2015 has been fun (and hard work) for me, launching a fledgling publishing company - Flat Bed Press - and a new children's novel - The Bold Ship Phenomenal.

I also always enjoy the turn of the year, as a chance to look forward with anticipation to the next one and to plan. I love to consider and get excited about the writing projects I have scheduled.

2016 for me will be another novel in the junior fiction series I am working on at the moment. It will also, hopefully, be a polished draft of the novel for adults I have been working on seemingly for ever. There's also a picture book in the publishing pipeline.

To celebrate both end and beginning, I'm running a book giveaway on Goodreads for the first two weeks of the year. All you have to do to enter is click the button (on the Goodreads site). Then wait and see...a bit like waiting to see what the New Year will actually bring.

I hope yours has its fair share of adventure and joy!

Bold Ship Phenomenal listed as best Christmas buy

I'm chuffed that my book, The Bold Ship Phenomenal, was listed by The New Zealand Herald's Canvas magazine as one of the best books to buy for young readers this Christmas.

I'm doubly chuffed to be sandwiched between JK Rowling and the Thunderbirds. Hopefully some of their success will rub off. Bold Ships are go...

Enjoy a good scare? Author Sue Copsey tells us about her latest spooky story for kids...

I have just finished reading Sue Copsey's fabulous ghost story for kids - The Ghosts of Tarawera (Treehouse Books, 2015).

The Ghosts of Tarawera is book two in a planned series of New Zealand-based ghost stories for junior fiction and young adult readers (the first was The Ghost of Young Nick's Head (Pear Jam books, 2011)).

It's a wonderful, wonderful story, and a gripping read, which builds on and adds to the well-known ghostly appearances that preceded the Mount Tarawera eruption of 1886.

I've written a review of the book, which you can read on Goodreads (along with numerous four and five star reviews by other appreciative readers).

Sue kindly agreed to answer some questions about how she came to write the book, and what she has planned next - here's what she said. For more information, check out her website: www.suecopsey.com

Interview with Sue

The Ghosts of Tarawera draws on the famous New Zealand legend about the ghostly waka that appeared before the Mount Tarawera eruption. What was it that drew you to this story? 

I well remember the first time I read about this legend. I was editing a school textbook about the Taupo Volcanic Zone, and in amongst all this serious science there it was, as reported at the time (1886) by many tourists as well as local Maori. I was drawn to the story because there were so many witnesses:  two groups of Europeans in sightseeing boats, as well as villagers on the lake shore. The sightseers reported seeing an impressive war canoe – nothing spooky about it – but the Maori realised it was supernatural as there hadn’t been a waka of that type in the area in living memory. Local Maori also recognised it as an omen of disaster, and 11 days later were proved right when Mt Tarawera erupted. I reckon Lake Tarawera’s phantom waka, which legend says will reappear if the mountain reawakens, is far more credible than the Loch Ness monster, and look which is more famous. That’s just wrong!

Your story is very evocative of the landscapes around Lake Rotomahana and Rotorua. Did you spend much time there while you were writing the book?

I’ve been to this part of the North Island many times, so I had a good feel for it. I love the mix of forest, lakes, hills, Maori culture and weird and wonderful volcanic features. You can feel you’ve slipped back in time, to when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

But also, Google Earth was my friend. While I was writing the book I had it almost permanently open as I zoomed in and out of satellite images looking for how the children would get across and around Lake Rotomahana before and during the eruption. When I’d finished, I hauled the family down to a bach near Mt Tarawera, and revisited the Buried Village, went on a boat trip on Lake Rotomahana, and kayaked on Lake Tarawera, making sure it all felt right, especially the atmosphere – I wanted the reader to feel they were really there, and recognise it if they visited.

What was the hardest part of the story to write, and why?

Writing the story was easy, it more or less wrote itself! But I was worried about getting the science right. I love popular science but wasn’t very good at it at school. Show me a physics equation and I feel a bit faint. I wanted to include lots of interesting facts about volcanoes and Mt Tarawera (I call it ‘education by stealth’), and to be absolutely sure I got it right, I asked GNS Science, who monitor NZ’s volcanoes and earthquakes, to check the manuscript for me. And so began the best correspondence I’ve ever had with an expert. Cornel de Ronde, who led the team that explored the lake floor at Rotomahana, contacted me, saying he loved how I was weaving all this geology into my adventure story, as he’s passionate about science education in schools. He was quite accepting of a few, ahem, liberties I took with the geology of the area in order to keep Joe, Eddie, Anastasia and Beckie alive. ‘They’d certainly die in an eruption such as you describe,’ he said. ‘But this is a moot point – it is a story, after all.’

What spooky tales did you enjoy as a child?

I liked the ‘true’ ones. Every village in Britain, where I grew up, had its spooks, and I had a book that listed just about every haunted house in the country. Thinking back, I must have been a weird child to have on holiday. Wherever we travelled in England, my twin loves of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five, and local folklore meant that I was always searching for secret passages and ghosts.

Have you ever seen a ghost?

Honestly, I don’t know – but something odd happened that makes me strongly suspect I have. It was my wedding night (seriously – no chortling please) and Michael and I were staying in a turret room in a Victorian hotel near my home town of Rugby. I was in bed and Michael was in the bathroom. In one wall was a small door which, without warning, flew open. A figure was silhouetted in the doorway, bright light behind. Then it slammed shut again. A bit like those sightseers with the phantom waka, I didn’t think this was anything supernatural, I just assumed someone had got lost in the hotel’s maze of corridors and ended up at our room by mistake. When Michael reappeared, I told him what had happened and asked him to move a table in front of the door. He did so, looking at me oddly – he thought I’d probably been half asleep (and yes, a few glasses of champagne had been imbibed).

Next morning we opened this little door to see a fire escape leading out onto the turret roof. So how could anyone have been out there, and why had there been a bright light behind them? Could this have been something spooky?

Feeling a bit silly, I asked the receptionist if the hotel had any ghostly residents, only to learn that there were several (most usually a coach and horses, a headless man, and a hand), and that people were constantly reporting strange occurences. Seems the hotel was, and still is, notorious for its ghosts – and we had no idea before that night.

This is your second novel about New Zealand ghosts. Is there another one on the horizon? And if so, can you give us a hint about the ghosts involved?

Yes indeed! Peeping over the horizon is The Ghosts of Moonlight Creek. I wanted to set my next ghost story in one of New Zealand’s old goldmining settlements, and discovered the wonderfully named Moonlight, near Queenstown. Anastasia’s movie director father is filming a fantasy movie down there and invites Joe, Eddie, Beckie and Anastasia to the movie set as a treat after their scare at Mt Tarawera. However, they soon discover filming is being held up by unexplained incidents, and the crew are beginning to call it a cursed film. I’m about a quarter of the way through and can’t wait to find out what happens!

Wooden Arms houses

Everywhere I go, I see Wooden Arms houses. Homes and buildings that have been used, inhabited, perhaps cherished, and now have been left behind.

I love these places – the stain of story that they carry in the grain of their wooden walls, the hollow in the tread of their step, the sign that once heralded both destination and function, but now only signifies loss. Absence.  

I’m also becoming increasingly aware that they are passing. Ghosts of buildings, a feature of any road trip landscape, but fading, literally, before our eyes. Wood. Tin. The rain will disperse them all.

These ones I snapped at Mangaweka recently. If you had the inclination you could buy four shops for a bargain price. I wish I had cause to uproot my family to Mangaweka. Think of the stories you would inherent. The ghosts that would creep from the corners at night, each with their history to tell. Priceless! 

 

 

 

This one is in a valley near where I live. I like to think the shuttered windows mean someone means to return to it someday. Or maybe they're still inside - one window is slightly ajar!

 

Room 8 is GREAT!

Look at this wonderful blog post by the kids in Room 8 at Pukete School. Thanks guys, I had such a nice time...


Room 8 is GREAT!: Author Visit! As a part of our Inquiry into books, ...: Author Visit! As a part of our Inquiry into books, we had a visit from a New Zealand author Sarah Johnson. We read her story Wooden Arm...

 

 

Here's the picture collage they sent me afterwards. So cool!

 

Tui Allen has loaded this review about my book on Goodreads. Tui is an author in her own right, and our local New Zealand Society of Authors delegate, so it means a lot to me that she liked it so much. Thanks Tui.

Rollicking but Meaningful Kiwi Novel for Kids

This is a rollicking good yarn on one level but so much more than that. It has something important to say to its audience, beyond the adventure itself.
I found it un-put-down-able and read until almost midnight to finish. I'm an adult, so not even part of the target audience.
The beginning was irresistibly captivating. The romance of a ship in a bottle especially one found as flotsam (or was it jetsam perhaps? Had some power SENT that bottle to Malachi?) I was encouraged to wonder about that by the author's intriguing decision to simply reverse the usual order of those two words. Jetsam and flotsam.
The story is about Malachi and his dad who are grieving the loss of Malachi's mother. Neither are functioning to their full capacity and neither were over it yet, but Malachi reaches out for adventure and new beginnings with the help and guidance of the action that takes place among the crew of the pirate ship playing out their own story inside the bottle.
It's a story with a message of conservation. Malachi's own voyage as a stowaway on a land-based "pirate ship" takes him into a world where the prisoners he rescues are precious NZ wildlife doomed otherwise to be stolen and sold.
The story ends with powerful glimmers of hope for the future for Malachi and his dad. I love a story that shows growth in the characters as this one does. With its strong links to the sea, and its theme of the wildlife of New Zealand this is a true Kiwi story. Where else in the world do kids get to wander along an empty ocean beach on their way to school in the morning?
The book is a beautiful product. Very child-proof. I tested it. The cover design is fresh and inspiring and there is an added bonus of charming greyscale chapter-head motif drawings.
All NZ school libraries should buy multiple copies at once and it should sell internationally to give the world a glimpse of NZ.

A launch, a festival and a trio of reviews

What a week!
On Saturday I launched my latest children's book (twice) at the Word Café writers and readers festival: once for adults and once for children. Both events were wonderful.

Here's the cake that my lovely friend Zoe made for the celebrations.

 

And here's my equally lovely friend Dawn MacMillan entertaining the kids like the true professional she is.

And here's me looking very pleased with myself.

 

 

Since then my book has had three great reviews online.

• One by Tui Allen on Goodreads.
• One by Barbara Murison on her blog: Around the bookshops.
• And this one by Kaia on Amazon...

"I really recommend this book because it had a lot of describing words that made me get a picture in my mind of what was happening. I like the adventure throughout the book, it made me really exited for what happened next. I would recommend it to people who have a liking for adventure."

  

Thanks Kaia. I'm so pleased that my very first review came all the way from Sweden. The Bold Ship has already travelled a long way!

They're here...

Advance copies of my new book, The Bold Ship Phenomenal.
Are those pirates' footsteps I see beyond them?
The rest of the shipment arrives at the end of this month. Watch this space!

Conversations in self-publishing for the serially challenged 5: crunching the numbers

 

The Bold Ship Phenomenal is safely out of my hands – in China being printed – so I thought I would look at the thorny question of costs.

When I decided to publish the story myself, one of my publishing ‘values’, as it were, was that the book had to be a top-class production. This was important to me, not only because I trained in publishing, but because this was my product: I had to stand by it for as long as it endured in the world, and I wanted to be proud of it.

I’ve done my best, and with the help of all the talented professionals who’ve played their part in getting the book to this stage, I think we’ve got a great result. But of course all this help costs, and what became clear very early on (in fact, before I even started, when I did my first rough budget) is that I was unlikely to ever make any money on it. Luckily that was never one of my aims.

I’ve listed the costs I’ve incurred below, so that anyone setting out on this route can see the type of expenses involved, and where they might be able to save on costs by finding a cheaper option or doing it themselves (something I haven’t been very good at).

The figures given are rough – both to protect my suppliers’ modesty, and to reflect the range of prices I was quoted for particular tasks (which on occasion, varied widely).

This list is not the end of the expenses, there is still warehousing, and promotion, and GST and other taxes, and bad debtors (assuming I make any sales) to contend with. But these are the bulk of the up-front costs, and I hope you’ll find them useful. Figures exclude GST.

·        Editing – $600

·        Proofreading – $250

·        Illustration – $1200

·        Design – $2000

·        Printing – $4000

·        Freight – $500 (very roughly, as this part of the process is still to come)         

→Total so far = $9400, which for 1500 books, means that $6.26 per book is production costs.

For a $20 book, where the bookseller takes 40% ($8), and the distributor 25% ($5), and the GST accounts for 15% ($3), you can see the quandary.

Except that it’s not a quandary, if you want to see your book in print. And looking purely at the dollar side of things overlooks the non-monetary gains, one of which has undoubtedly been the enormous help and support I have received from all the book professionals involved: worth every cent!     

It’s a first – twice

I’ve had two pleasant surprises and two firsts in one week.

First (of the firsts) is this online listing for The Bold Ship Phenomenal on Nationwide Book Distributors website.  They’re distributing the book for me, and they’re taking trade pre-orders now.

 

The second first is The Bold Ship Phenomenal’s first review. This is what Sue Copsey says about it on her blog.

“…The Bold Ship Phenomenal, due out later this year, made me cry as I edited it. It’s not a sad book though – the make-you-cry bit is just a small part. The rest is a page-turning adventure with a ship in a bottle as its star, and a strong nature theme. It’s classically New Zealand, but everyone, everywhere will love it. Take my word for it!”

 

Thanks Sue, although I hope there wasn’t too much crying going on (it’s not meant to be sad – well just a smidgen).

So what with two surprises and confirmation that printing is underway in China, it’s been a pretty exciting week all round. The Bold Ship Phenomenal, as a book, rather than a story, is beginning to feel real.