It has been a busy week, finishing training manuals for my Hong Kong sessions and marking final assignments from students (23 picture book texts and 19 short stories, as well as the 75 poems the week before). But I have had a lot of fun taking my exchange writer/teacher, Meg Files, to places around Melbourne. On Saturday I drove her over the Westgate Bridge - a pity that it was so foggy that we couldn't see the bay or the city at all, and then when we were nearly into the city the buildings loomed out of the greyness like ghosts.
Yesterday I took her to Healesville Sanctuary which is out of Melbourne (north-east). A freezing day, since it had started snowing on the mountains, and a little rain but not enough to ruin our fun. The photo above is, of course, a koala, and close inspection reveals its baby underneath its front (somewhere - the baby crawled all over the place while Mum was trying to eat gum leaves).
We saw kangaroos, wallabies, lots of birds, a very speedy Tasmanian Devil that raced around and around its enclosure, dingos, , platypuses, an echidna, and a birds of prey show with falcons and an osprey. And my favourite, a wombat, who was asleep in a hollow. Lots of snakes too but none I was allowed to touch.
I am still reading the memoir - so tired at the moment that two chapters and the eyelids droop.
Wrote a long essay/opinion piece on Saturday about the mid-list author in children's publishing in Australia, but I doubt I will publish it as I think it would make me very unpopular at the moment! Sometimes I think authors are being pushed further and further into the SANH hole as time goes on (that's the Seen And Not Heard hole). Complaints, no matter how justified you feel they might be, are definitely not welcomed.
The reactions to Frank Moorhouse's articles (entitled "What the Hell is Wrong with Australian Writing?", published in the Weekend Australian newspaper recently) have been quite tame. Maybe because after the third part was printed, it became apparent that he wasn't prepared to draw any productive or helpful conclusions, or even make any substantial comments of his own. It was as if he threw in a whole pile of statistics and ideas and observations and said, Here - you work it out.
In the meantime, a children's book publisher at Black Dog Books has started a blog of his own, and has stirred up a few people already. I will follow that one with interest.

I'm trying another image post. This is the cover of my new children's fantasy novel in the Quentaris series (www.quentaris.com) - "Pirates of Quentaris".
New update/post below as separate entry.

My exchange teacher, Meg Files, has landed, safe and sound. I arrived at the airport to discover that four international flights had all come in within 20 minutes of each other. The trouble with Melbourne Airport arrivals is that there are four doors that people can emerge from, and they are spaced about 12 feet apart. And of course, I didn't have my glasses with me so the strategy of standing down one end and scanning all four doors at once wasn't going to work (I save my glasses for night time and TV when I'm tired, refusing to give in!). After 40 minutes I was starting to get worried that I'd missed her but she did emerge five minutes later. Phew!
I took her to the staff house and after much fiddling with heating units and her new laptop, and taking her to the supermarket for food (the house has a kitchen and all the requirements to be self-contained), I left her to sleep, if she could.
Dinner Saturday night was Indian (local restaurant that has maintained its quality - yummy food and not too expensive) and great conversations about writing, teaching, books, US politics and Australian politics (known around these suburbs as sucking up to Bush) and a whole lot of other stuff - three other teachers came along to welcome Meg, which was great.
Today it seemed like my whole day was going to be swallowed yet again by chores, such as cleaning the new oven, testing the new oven (which proceeded to burn my cookies), preparing for class, and thinking about how I should finish scrubbing the kitchen ceiling and clean the fridge.
Instead, I spat the housework dummy around 2pm and sat down to write the first draft of the children's book (emergent reader chapter book) that has been growing in my head for the past three weeks. It's times like these that I bless the internet. Twice I got stuck in plot details and both times the internet gave me enough information to get past the blockage and keep writing. Sometimes not knowing some factual details can really hold you up. Will the story go this way or that? Well ... it depends on this piece of information that I don't know yet.
So I quickly researched both magician's tricks and clown's tricks (just enough to keep me going on the draft) and by 5.30pm the draft was finished. I'll do further research later to make sure I've got my facts correct, but it was great to be able to just keep the words coming.
If it sounds like that was a draft that came way too easy, these days it's how I write. Sometimes I have lots of full days to focus on novels, which is what I need. But this was supposed to be around 2000 words, and I had been plotting and devising and revising in my head for several weeks. It's a skill I learned a few years ago when I realised that actual hard writing time was going to be limited so, by golly, when I sat down at the keyboard, I'd better have something ready to go.
A small chapter book or short story can work itself up in my brain over a few weeks, bubble and ferment, and when the hours are available, away it goes.
Reading has been fevered. I started the new Mark Billingham last week and after about 50 pages I thought, This is pretty slow. But it did pick up and became a book I kept having to read at every opportunity (over breakfast cereal, over a sandwich, in bed when the eyes were drooping), so I finally finished it at 11.30pm one night, not being able to leave the last three chapters for the next day. Title? "Buried". Not the best of his books, but a good read!
Have just started "All the Fishes Come Home to Roost", which is a memoir by Rachel Manija Brown. Meg brought it from Tucson for me as I couldn't get it here. I'm not overly keen on memoirs (the depressing dreariness of "Angela's Ashes" got too much for me) but she was a student of Meg's at Pima College and I love to see what students achieve.
By the way, for those in Australia, Frank Moorhouse has published a 3-part article in the Weekend Australian newspaper discussing "What the hell is wrong with Australian fiction writing?" or something like that. Parts 1 and 2 seemed to be leading towards him blaming writing courses for all the terrible fiction writing around, but in Part 3 he kind of backed off. What is wrong with Australian fiction writing? (this is literary fiction here, not genre fiction which is doing very well, thank you). Well, dare I say it but it's just too safe. And nice. And meaningless.
I have found two novels in the last 4 years have been worth reading - "The Dressmaker" by Rosalie Ham (her second novel was safe and boring) and "Everyman's Guide to Scientific Living" by Carrie Tiffany.
I'm probably extremely biased though. I don't read enough of it. I did a radio show on writers and books for 7 years, and I read more boring fiction then than I care to remember. It put me off in a big way. That's probably a shame, and I should make more use of my public library. But let's be honest - if you had a choice between a rather boring, stylised, no-plot literary novel and a cracking good crime novel that kept you on the edge of your seat - what would you choose?
I'm over force-feeding myself fiction that's supposed to be "good for me". Probably why I read so much YA and middle grade fiction too. They are usually really good reads!

This is an experiment - I have just uploaded a photo to see if I can finally get that function to work. We'll see when I publish! The photo is of some Australian bush at Lancefield.
I'm madly writing course manuals at the moment - not very creative, but then the thought of travelling to Hong Kong to present them is a great incentive. I'm looking forward to it, and wondering if the shopping will be as good as they say it is.
Have my Lonely Planet guide in hand, and my colleague, Sue, and I have registered our new business. TextConnection - writing/editing/training.
At the moment the website material is hosted by me on my site, with URL forwarding from www.textconnection.net
Have done very little fiction writing recently, apart from working on a picture book. I am planning out a new chapter book, and have been trying to find time to write a first draft. No luck yet.
Meg Files arrives from Arizona on Saturday - she is my exchange person, a terrific writer and teacher from Pima College. My two weeks there last year was great, and I am looking forward to "hosting" her here.
End of semester assignments will be flooding in this week and next. Kitchen renovations move on - at least I have cabinets, running water and (in a couple of hours) fully functioning power. In the meantime I spend my spare minutes up a stepladder, washing the ceiling and walls ready for painting.
Reading? I manage a few pages at night before my eyes give up. Another Lee Child from the library, and then a serial murder mystery where the FBI agents are psychic. I thought it would be stupid but it was quite a good read!

There's nothing like house renovations to make you realise how much space you actually have - and how much junk. Having to move everything out of my kitchen means the computer room (spare bedroom that attracts junk at the best of times)is full of boxes and bags of food, kitchen implements, pots, all the phone books and recipe books, and the toolbox. The lounge room has the fridge and microwave and more food. As my husband said the other day, we are getting plenty of exercise, walking to and fro, fetching things and forgetting what we went for.
Then today I read an article in the Age about dumpster diving, people who call themselves freegans, and get all their food from the dumpsters out the back of supermarkets. I do know how much perfectly good food gets thrown out, but this article was astounding. Made me look at the groceries stacked around me right now and wonder if we really need all that food!
I am very pleased to announce that my friend from Chatauqua, Brian Anderson, has his first children's book out - Zack Proton and the Red Giant - published by Simon & Schuster. It's illustrated by Doug Holgate who is actually Australian. I'll be ordering my copy today! Try out Brian's website too - www.zackproton.com - it's hilarious.
Yesterday I bought a new Sharon Creech children's novel, "Replay". It's very interesting to see how she uses present tense and plays with time and imagination jumps. The voice of the book is light on top and thoughtfully deep underneath.
Only 2 weeks now until Meg Files arrives. She is my exchange person from Tucson. If you've read my blog for a while, you might remember my visit to Pima College in Tucson last September. Now it's Meg's turn to come here and I am so looking forward to it and seeing her again. We'll get to talk books and writing for 2 weeks!

This weekend I have been at a local event, the Willamstown Literary Festival. It's great to take part in, or be in the audience (I did both) of a smaller event. The Melbourne Writers' Festival has big name writers but you only get to see them on stage in the distance, and they are often reading prepared speeches and seem vastly removed.
A small festival allows you to really engage with the speakers and you also don't feel such a fool when you ask questions!
Yesterday at the festival Paul Collins and I launched our Quentaris novels, No. 21 and 22 in the series. I got to dress up as a pirate (albeit a restrained pirate, with a skull and crossbones Bandaid on my eyebrow) and teach the audience how to talk 'proper' - lots of Arrrrrrrrrs and Avasts and Aye ayes. And I threw chocolate gold coins and lollies in an old-fashioned lolly scramble. What great fun - and I did explain that pirates didn't understand public liability insurance before I threw them.
I also made a cake like a pirate flag, complete with skull and crossbones made out of white chocolate. If I could master the art of posting a photo on this blog (no luck so far) I could put up a photo. In the meantime you might have to visit my website News page, when I finish reformatting. Andy Griffiths did a good job of the launch, and we sold about 70 books between us. That's a healthy number!
Today I was the speaker in a session on Writing for Children, then sat in on a session about "The Death of Australian Publishing". Very interesting, and the focus was on literary fiction, which seems to have been dying in Australia for some time. Half the number of novels are now being published compared to ten years ago. Makes a person glad not to be writing lit fiction (but the yearning is still there! probably why I still write short stories. It's like hanging around the margins).
In the meantime, I love kid's books, and I love meeting kids at the launch and giving them large slices of my chocolate pirate flag cake.

Back in Melbourne and of course we have lots and lots of snow on the mountains (which aren't that close to the city but you would think we were sitting on top of them) and the temperature didn't even make it to 15C today. Brrrrrr. It was a fight to get close to the heater tonight as two cats took up prime positions and would not be moved.
Third day of the conference was as engaging and interesting as the first two. I had thought that Michelle Paver had pulled out, but in a session that was titled Book to Film (and had her name on it) she appeared and proceeded to keep everyone on the edge of their seats. Not an easy thing to do by just talking, but she told lots of stories about her research, including one about meeting a bear by a stream and nearly dying of fright, and another about horse riding in Northern Europe (didn't catch the name of the place) and eating raw seal liver and blubber.
She also told some very funny stories about her obsession as a child with the Stone Age, and how she slept on fake fur on the floor for 3 years and skinned a rabbit in her garage. Her mother must have been very understanding! It certainly explains why her books (Wolf Brother, Spirit Walker etc) are so wonderful at evoking life in the Stone Age. But it's also her writing style - very strong verbs, short sentences, great drama and tension - and her main character that makes her books a terrific read. I loved Wolf Brother and am reading Spirit Walker right now. Her books are being made into a film (by Ridley Scott) but that wasn't actually the topic.
Doug MacLeod and John Misto combined to create a very funny session on writing for film and TV, and the session on merchandising was amazingly informative. The changes in technology they expect over the next 10 years mean although we will still have books, there will be so many other options for how we use "content" that writers need to start thinking ahead. It's vital that we keep control of our content (our stories) and it confirms what I have thought about copyright. It is all the author has to sell, and even if you think you won't sell it (i.e. get published and paid for it), you don't actually know that. You just might not have approached the right market.
The conference ended with a debate - That the Film is always better than the Book - and of course the Book won, but the debaters were very funny all the same.
Some other interesting notes from sessions - in one on picture books, a speaker pointed out that picture books teach young children visual literacy, and the adult's job is to unlock the story for the child.
David Lloyd said when he reads a pb text to Helen Oxenbury, if she laughs then he knows she will agree to illustrate it.
Now back to normal life - kitchen renovations, planning permits, teaching, prep of class notes, reading, paying bills and all that stuff that gets in the way of writing! I have three picture books to work on, and have just joined an online picture book critique group (all ex-Chatauqua people) so hope we can all be useful to each other.

Children’s Book Council Conference – Sydney
Arrive in Sydney and discover there is still sunshine in the world! Melbourne is grey in the mornings now, and cold and wet. Found the hotel and it’s good – not flashy and not as noisy as I thought. The Vulcan. I am on the slightly-below-ground floor which means if I have the window open, I can see people’s legs going past.
First day of the conference and the queues are enormous. It doesn’t help when Meredith and I have stood in the wrong queue for half an hour before we get close enough to realise we should have been in A-K.
Into the auditorium for the opening session and I am glad I brought my glasses as the stage is a very long way away. We begin with an Aboriginal speaker and didgeridoo music which is interesting and eerie. One session with Helen Oxenbury and her publisher, David Lloyd, was very funny and very British. Helen speaks in measured, slow tones which makes it even funnier. David reminds me of how important it is to read your picture books with gusto and verve.
Day One ends with a cocktail party where there were copious amounts of wine and champagne and only enough food to feed a couple of peckish chickens. Many many complaints are heard the next day about paying $35 for chips and pretzels! And a few sore heads from drinking too much on an empty stomach. The food overall has been pathetic.
Day Two included a poetry session, a session on animals in picture books (which was disappointing because I was hoping for a discussion on anthropomorphism), and Leigh Hobbs and Shaun Tan talking about illustrating and what goes into it. It was great to get the other point of view on picture books. The other session I enjoyed on Day one was Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton talking about their collaboration.
We missed out on dinner with agent and others due to poor coordination of movements. Instead we lobbed off to the Asian restaurant near our hotel and had another terrific bowl of laksa.
The book fair has been interesting – a lot of smaller publishers, some I hadn’t heard of, and a huge range of books. Makes me feel overwhelmed, actually. All those books, more and more coming out all the time. How on earth are my books supposed to compete? And all these new writers, along with all the old ones. Certainly puts you in your place!
Day three program is about books and film. I'm not sure how interested I am in all of this, so will take something to read and might find a spot in the sunshine to read with a good cup of coffee. One of the very nice things has been Pan Macmillan's launches where the books are FREE! Amazing.

THE END. As in, this draft is done, finished, complete. For now. Soon I will print it out and, after I think I've created a bit of distance between me and it, we will get together again and I'll see what I think.
That is the hardest part - to be able to stand back from the work and eye it critically, seeing what still needs to be fixed, polished, rewritten. For me, it's often little plot holes that I don't see, which is where another writer/editor is useful. So that is planned for next week.
In the meantime, I have several other projects in front of me. A short story that I am looking at expanding into a novella (because it's a story with an ending that says there are many things that could happen to these people, and besides, there is a competition on right now for novellas and I love a deadline); another short story that is unfinished and it got out of control and needs a re-think; three picture books in various drafts that need a lot more work. Other things that I would love to write if only I had time. Oh yes, and six classes to prepare because I am off to the Children's Book Council conference next week and there will be no time to prep anything when I get back because someone is coming to start ripping out my kitchen and I have to pack up all my stuff.
Last night I saw on TV the first of the new series of Rebus (from the Ian Rankin novels). I know plenty of people thought John McCallum was not the right actor for Rebus in the first series, but Ken Stott is worse. Too jolly by far! And fancies himself as a ladies man - which Rebus is not. Still, this is what happens when books are made into TV or movies - you either go with the interpretation and changes or you don't. 'Charlotte's Web' is due to be released sometime soon. We'll see then what everyone thinks of that version.
One thing that I am finding interesting at the moment is the way some writers are using either their blogs or their websites to 'publish' their writing. There is an ongoing debate about copyright in this digital age, and the Australian government is looking at copyright laws again this week. We also have another case of what is being called accidental plagiarism (the Sloppy Firsts book etc). I am beginning to think I am very old-fashioned about all this, but to me, a book is a book (I also include journals and magazines here) and authors are selling publication rights. That is all we have to sell to make a living. It's a widget. People who invent new widgets take out patents, and then they get to sell their widget as an exclusive (yes, until a rip-off merchant copies it - that's illegal too).
If I have invented a widget story, that I hope to sell, there is no way I am going to show everyone what it is and make it available before I have sold it. Anything published on my website has already been published or sold before.
As I said, maybe I am being old-fashioned about this, but the bottom line is: if I want to try and make a living as a writer, what else do I have to sell?

The Delete key has been hot this week, taking out huge chunks of the last three chapters of my novel. Two whole characters - gone in an instant. All their dialogue, their interaction with the main character - gone. They became irrelevant, a sidetrack that I should have taken out before, but until I got nearer to the end and had made decisions about previous bits, they stayed ... just in case. Now they've gone to the Land of Unused and Unwanted Characters. Or, if you want to be clever, the Land of Unnecessary Characters, Animals and Subplots. Feed them all to LUCAS. Hmmmm.
Today I will be venturing into more new words, working my way towards the last paragraph (which remains unchanged, like any final destination - it's funny how you know exactly where the story will finish, but there are so many ways to get there).
Before then, I need to go to the gym to work out the horrible twisted mess my neck and shoulders are in, created by hunching over the laptop, digging in the garden and then sleeply badly.
I finished the Inspector Anders book. Very interesting. I learnt more about the Italian mafia and corrupt Italian politicians and bureaucrats than I thought possible. I did like the mc, Anders, but then a maverick is hard to dislike. Good mavericks in fiction always do the things you long to do yourself, if only...
Now I am reading Lee Childs. Jack Reacher is another maverick, a very clever one, and his confidence and expertise make him very engaging. A character who creates surprises in the plot, twists and turns that keep you reading. A great lesson in how to keep the reader turning the pages through character as much as plot, which is why I love good crime novels. They so often have these terrific characters that propel the story along - think Harry Bosch, Rebus - even Stephanie Plum.
On the other hand, I am writing at least one poem each day at the moment, after a drought of a couple of months. By drought, I mean I might write a poem occasionally but don't feel the urge to do any more. That often comes after completing a collection, or in this case, a verse novel. My brain seems to need a break and this time I had moved on to short stories.
My short fiction class recently studied the two Robert Olen Butler stories that he has included in "From Where You Dream". He has a "bad" story, written many years ago, and then the published story - which actually bear little relation to each other apart from the basic material that the ideas came from. In other words, the published story is not in any way a rewrite. What I liked was the change in subtlety - the first story had none, the second story was full of layers and subtle but telling lines and details.
I have an idea for a short story, which emerged from an exercise I gave them on Secrets, but have no time to write it yet. And an idea for another story that I fear might become a novel. Oh dear. I will have to make notes on both and save them up.

The joys and surprises of rewriting. My big analysis project (scene by scene) was useful but this week I have reached 'crunch time' - the point at which I have made major changes in the plot that will reverberate right through to the finishing line. Hopefully resulting in a much better ending.
It's like that cliche of throwing a rock into a pond - the ripples get wider and wider. So even small changes to a character gradually get bigger as the novel goes on. When I reach the point of writing completely new words (and deleting pages and pages of old words), I start to feel like I am really rewriting, really improving and strengthening what's there, rather than just fiddling around the edges.
I'm down to the last 30 pages and, of those, more than half will be deleted and new words written. The feeling of blocking huge amounts of text and hitting Delete is scary, but I know I still have a hard copy. Better to be safe than sorry! But I think I'm going in the right direction.
I signed up this week for the Knopf Poem a Day, and the first poem I received was an amazing piece from Sharon Olds. I was also able to click on the link and hear a recording of her reading the poem. Added to that, I bought a Sharon Olds book yesterday 'The Unswept Room' which promises to be wonderful. Reading good poems nearly always inspires me to write more. While I have found little new on the writing guides shelves at Borders lately, yesterday I discovered a great book on reading and writing poetry called 'A Poet's Companion: a guide to the pleasures of writing poetry' by Addonizio and Laux, and after reading the first chapter, wrote three poems last night. Now that's a good sparker book!
I did finish the book I talked about before (A Ship Made of Paper)and didn't change my opinion - the other characters in the book were good, but the main character was a pain and I was glad he didn't have a happy ending.
Am currently about 40 pages into 'The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders' - a crime novel set in Italy. It's OK, but not holding me enough to stop me diving into the library today and borrowing two Lee Childs that I hadn't read.

I am pondering the unlikeable main character - how do you get away with it? I'm still perservering with "A Ship Made of Paper", only because the author uses other point-of-view characters which provide some relief. But I still find the main character is just awful - self-indulgent, over-emotional and pretentious. I doubt that the author intended me to feel this way. Or maybe he did?
I have written a couple of things (short stories, mostly) where readers have commented that the main character was unlikeable. When I say readers, I mean editors who have given this as a reason for rejection. I guess we really want to love those characters and to care about what happens to them. Kids want this as much as any adult reader, but I think adult readers are more forgiving, more aware of the grey areas. But more than anything, the m.c. we care about is going to lead to the best-selling book.
I think also this begins with the writer caring about their characters. And not just caring as in "I made this person up for my story and I like them", but more like "I have spent weeks and months with this character, I gave them all these problems and I really want them to win through". Books written quickly may not have enough character depth because the writer hasn't gone deep enough.
It's a problem with student novels and stories that I read and assess. Often they are writing this novel or story because it's required for class, and although we do lots of character development stuff, it's up to them to create characters they love and stories they want and need to tell. Student writers who can "wow" me with things written quickly and for class are rare. I would guess that 95% of students never finish the novel they start for their class.
I have a middle grade novel that I have been working on for over two years, and I still don't feel as if I have really got to grips with the main character. This has come from beginning the novel with an idea based on setting, and then developing a character to live in and engage with it. It's not the way I usually do it, and it has caused me immense problems, trying to work out where the story (i.e. what the character does and why) really lies.
I love sassy YA, where the voice is funny and sarcastic and wry and ironic - but it's hard to write this without sounding whiny and depressing. And that brings me back to the book I am reading. I suppose I will finish it now to see if he gets his just desserts. And it even has an endorsement by Anne Tyler on the front.
I remind myself that I can learn from books I dislike as much as those I love!

Two days of rewriting, with classes wedged in between. I received an email from a writer friend who has also been teaching and will soon have the 3 months of the US summer break to write. Then he hopes that he can continue as his wife will have a great new job, so he will be home writing. Wow.
I am up to Chapter 11, with about 60 pages to go. Lots of comments from my two readers, plus various notes to myself about threads, foreshadowing, plot holes etc. I just have to keep it all in my head, keep it going, while trying to run my day-to-day life. I see now why people use those software programs to keep track of all that stuff, but I'm not sure I would get any benefit. At least my brain is doing the job OK so far...
This weekend is quarterly tax time again. Yuck. Now that is something there should be a program for, or a busy little elf who does it for me.
There was a bargain book table at my shopping centre last week and I picked up a $5 special, hoping I'd found a gem by accident. But I'm struggling with it, and I decided last night it's because I don't like the main character. He is just too self-centred and pretentious, and his angst over being in love with a woman not his partner is tedious rather than engaging. I'll give it another 10 or 15 pages, but if it doesn't improve, out it goes.

Where has the time gone? Two weeks since I posted here! Arrgghh. Classes started again after the Games finally finished, and it was like starting the whole year again. Now I have assignments to mark already.
An item in the Publisher's Weekly email newsletter made me pull out my stamps and cover letters and set the printer on High Speed. At Bologna Children's Book Fair, pirate books were the hot item. I mentioned in the last post that it's easy to get the feeling you are missing the boat. Well, when I read that item, I felt like the pirate ship had set sail without me and if I didn't get in my longboat and row like hell, all I'd see would be sails in the sunset. How's that for stretching a metaphor?
Seriously though, after the initial panic subsided, I decided I really did have to put my novel out there as a partial and work hard on finishing the rewrite. So that is what I have done. Has the rewrite proceeded apace? Not yet. But I know the first three chapters are vastly improved and ready to be seen, and the rewrite is more than half done.
In the meantime the renovations began, and the planning permit paperwork loomed. But I know where the priority lies, ultimately, so it will be nose to the laptop this weekend.
Received my copy of "Lasting: Poems on Aging" edited by Meg Files last week. Some wonderful poems about all aspects of growing old, and lots of humorous or wry poems too to make a balance.
Read Jonathan Kellerman's new novel "Gone" - a good read, but not a top notch suspense experience. Seemed to be an awful lot of dialogue between Alex and Milo, working out the case, rather than action. So rather slow but interesting.
Am reading Robert Crais' new book "The Two Minute Rule" - not an Elvis Cole novel but also a good read without being startling.
Yes, I have been buying books again. Just can't help it when favourite writers bring out a new one. Tried two new writers from the library but one was pretty awful.
I plan to buy the "Firebirds Rising" anthology for a friend's birthday - best collection of fantasy stories I've read in a long time.

Miss Snark's blog has been particularly snarky recently - and therefore most enjoyable. I'd love to start a Nitwit of the Week award but I think too many people would hate me for it. She does a fine job on her own. The clear information on the world of agents and publishing is so valuable. I imagine if she is stopping nitwits from annoying agents and publishers, they all thank her too.
The one thing that keeps coming up over and over is - make the writing great. Then originality and voice come a close second. And don't be in a hurry to get your book out there if it isn't ready.
I would've thought, after 8 years of rewriting, that my historical novel was getting close. I hope. It's so hard to hold back and work on a new draft when you see other similar books being published. 'No,' you cry, 'don't flood the market with them. Wait for mine!'
That's where the urge to get the manuscript out comes from. When you see publishers publishing books that you know are the beginning of a wave and you have probably missed it, you feel this unavoidable panic. The only solution is to tell yourself that if the novel isn't working well enough, sending it out will just cost you a large amount of money and time, and discourage you. That's what I say to my panicking self anyway.
One of my chapter books, accepted months ago, has been rescheduled for 2008. As it is the third in a series, and the second came out 12 months ago ...
I reworked five chapters of the historical novel while I was away, and need to keep at it. My writer friend, who loves revision and hates first drafts, can't understand my urge to put it aside and start something new. But that first draft excitement is addictive.
Just been to the shops and found the new Robert Crais and the new Jonathan Kellerman. My bribe to get me back into teaching and preparation and marking. If I finish all of that, and am ready for classes on Monday, I can start the JK. Or should I start the RC first? Decisions, decisions.
I have actually been reading short stories again. My niece very kindly gave me her copy of Ann Patchett's short stories - 'Mendicino' - and although the first few were a bit 'so what', they are improving. Her novel, 'The Dive From Clausen's Pier', was terrific.
Are the Commonwealth Games over yet? Unfortunately not. But it does give one a large amount of time to read instead!

The year has come to a halt, thanks to the Commonwealth Games. I am staying with my sister and out of Melbourne; classes are on two weeks holidays; the sun is shining and my laptop is humming.
The internet is everywhere. I'm able to keep up with my online class while I am away and also do my emails and read Miss Snark. But not having my research books and notes and the library handy does feel a bit weird. I brought the historical novel with me and finally, yesterday, I finished analysing the scenes and plot/character arcs. Now I know what Hemingway meant when he said he rewrote the ending of one of his books 49 times. After a lot of thinking and planning yesterday, I have changed the last quarter of the book yet again. It's all about motivation and action. Many times I can see the tension is too low, action too minimal, characters not involving enough, motivations too flimsy. I do hope all this work is helpful when it comes to rewriting. When I get away from the notes and tackle the words on the page, often I get bogged down in the sentences. I wish there was a way to have two "eyes" on the work at once - one for standing back and being clear and concise about what is going on and the other to focus on the actual writing.
Doing lots of reading - the great thing about time off - and just finished Mark Billingham's latest (UK crime). Am now reading a Jefferson Parker (US crime). The feel of each book is so different. Sometimes I think a lot of US crime writers don't get very close to their main characters. I feel distant from them. In the Parker book, his mc is a woman who has a two year old son, and it feels at times as if the writer just uses the son to show her other, more vulnerable side, but it seems a bit contrived. On the other hand, Michael Connelly and Robert Crais do intense mc stuff really well.
I hate it when I go to a bookshop and there are twenty shelves of books and I can't find a single one I want to read. Visited two bookshops yesterday (both secondhand, which explains a lot as I always think that the really good books are the ones people tend to keep rather than sell) but couldn't find a thing I wanted, apart from a very interesting short story collection - stories about childhood, edited by Lorrie Moore.
Today I will divide my time between rewriting, making a cake and going to the gym (the gym is to work out the kinks and knots from hunching over the laptop).
And to think I could have been fishing ... no wind today.

Due to the Commonwealth Games here in Melbourne, we have had three weeks of classes and now we have two weeks holiday. The second half of this semester is going to be very loo-oo--oonnng. (That's the sound of teachers and students moaning). I am glad that Meg Files is going to be our guest writer/teacher at the beginning of June. This will be the second half of our teacher exchange.
This week has been full of bits. Bits of paperwork, bits of writing, outlines and sketches. I am going to spend as much of my two weeks holidays as possible working on the historical novel. Few distractions, apart from some fishing if the weather is good, and partying (a significant birthday has arrived for me and I intend to party until it leaves me alone and picks on someone else).
Time also to type up my picture book drafts and look at what I have. And to read. I have the urge to bury myself in reading again, instead of dipping in and out of my book when I have time.
I have now got into the habit of having a book to read at the gym (the cycle and treadmill are incredibly boring without a book) and am choosing things I can pick up and put down when I go, books that don't require a huge amount of concentration but are entertaining. Last week's was a Gary Paulsen novel, set in the 1930s. This week is Nicci Gerard. Funny how we choose books depending on our mood and mindset. I remember it took me a very long time to read "The God of Small Things" - I felt I was waiting for the right time, so I'd enjoy it. And I did.
I received the contract this week for my book "The Too-tight Tutu" to be published in Spanish by a Mexican publisher. Now I want to find out what too-tight tutu is in Spanish. Yes, this is a children's book! Not a memoir as such.

I've just been to a book launch for a picture book - "Doodledum Dancing" by Meredith Costain, illustrated by Pamela Allen. If you are familiar with pbs in this part of the world, you'd know Pamela Allen's work. I still have my copy of "Who Sank the Boat?". But the best thing about this book is Meredith's poems. Long live poems for kids!!! It's aimed at littlies, from say 2 to 4, and is a real read-aloud, have-lots-of-fun book. Of course, my favourite poem is the pirate one.
My writing this week continues on the small theme - 250 word articles and stories. For some reason, I am continuing to also write new picture books, and completely rewrote an old one. It must be because I am teaching picture book writing again this year and reading all those pbs is inspiring me. Read small, think small, write small.
The rewrite was interesting. I had been thinking about this particular story, along the lines of "Darn thing, how come I've rewritten it a zillion times and it still isn't right?" Then one night I got a new line for it - not at the beginning but about a third of the way through - and kept writing, and came up with a whole new concept for the story. And I stopped myself from going back and referring to the previous draft because I didn't want to fall back into the old version.
Of course then I had to turn around and rewrite the first third. I haven't dared look at it since. Haven't even typed it up from my fevered scrawl. But I keep thinking about it, tucking it away in my brain for another simmer. Soon ... soon I will type it up. I even have a brand new title, which is great because the old title was too similar to two other pbs out there.
One of my students asked this week, "What do you mean when you say a story 'isn't right'? How do you know?" That's hard to answer, and maybe comes from experience - reading, writing and critiquing. You just know. It's close, but it doesn't create fireworks when you read it. And a pb has to create some kind of fireworks for everyone who reads it - child, parent and, of course, publisher/editor.
In the meantime, I continue to diagram scenes from the historical novel and ask those crucial character and plot arc questions. My writing group is using a new workshop method (new for them, created by my fabulous writer friend, Tracey, for teaching in her class). It uses de Bono's 6 hats, and has been a great shot-in-the-arm for our workshopping. I have now given them some pages of the novel to pull apart. It should be fun. Excruciating fun.

I've found a great new stress reliever - it's called a mulching machine. After cutting down what seemed like a mountain of bouganvillea plant (complete with giant thorns that snagged me every minute or so) I was able to feed a lot of it into this machine that chewed it up into little bits. Never mind that I now have mulch for my pitiful garden (I'm afraid gardening comes way down the list from writing, teaching and reading), I got rid of my bad mood via a great amount of vicious, thorny plant fed without mercy into a munching machine.
Seems like a great remedy for one too many rejection letters too! although we won't mention that the plant got me back with a huge thorn stuck in my finger which took me three tries to get out. Ouch.
Still working on the novel (historical middle grade) and after two critiques, I've now started on an analysis of my own. Specifically, chapter by chapter, I am working out: 1) what happens in each scene, 2) what the purpose of the scene is, 3) does it move the story forward?, 4) what are the character motivations in the scene, 5) how does this scene fit into the overall story/character arc.
See, ARC is one of those words that I'd never heard of up until about 4 years ago, when a critique person (not an editor or agent) at a SCBWI conference in LA tore the first 40 pages apart and kept rabbitting on about ARC. Character arc, plot arc, 'why don't I get a clear sense of this character's arc from Chapter One? Seeing as how it was the first time I'd heard the term, I couldn't answer (and she, unfortunately, didn't bother to explain it to me - which is why I nearly threw the novel in the bin when I got home, and it took me nearly two years to return to it).
But enough whining. Ultimately she was probably right, she just didn't provide any help or suggestions or directions to make me feel that another few drafts would see me right.
Still, here I am, and it's Draft Nine, and I think I'm finally seeing the light. I sure hope so anyway. I'll get this novel right, any way I can.
In the meantime I have other writing to do. Finished my short story for a competition in the UK and nearly forgot to email it off (got too excited about finally finishing it!). Have written an article - too short and not sure yet how to expand. Was planning a book review but haven't got there yet. Too much mulching going on.
And finally (yaaayyy!) got a copy of Best American Short Stories 2005. Went right to the Joyce Carol Oates story first - really good letters story. It's hard to use that form these days and do it well, but then JCO, well...
Have read 3 other stories so far, and they've all been good. I especially like the bit in the back where the writer says what inspired the story. I never read that until I've read the story first.
I see there is a Kelly Link story - must read that next! Have heard a bit about her.

Being a bit short of spending $$ (the kind that don't have to go towards bills), I've been a regular visitor to my local library lately. And found it very disconcerting to try out a new crime writer, whose book is apparently their fifth, and put it down after less than ten pages because the writing was so bad.
I see problems with tense changes in students' writing all the time. They don't even see half the time when they've done it. Usually they slip from present into simple past and vice versa. Now when I see this in a published novel - and there was no way it was any kind of style thing or neat device - I cringe. A lot. It was so awful in this novel that I kept wincing, and wincing doesn't encourage me to keep reading.
Forty winces later, I chucked it. In case you're interested, the book was "Broken Bodies" by Sally Emerson. Maybe someone out there who has read it can tell me what was going on. It just looked very sloppy to me, or at the very least, a style thing that did not work.
Only writing this week was the rewrite of my friend's fantasy novel - one scene that I cut from about 8 pages down to 4, just like she did for mine. The first thing she said was that I had taken out a lot of her description and she was right. I had felt that the problem with the scene was it was too long and the tension was not maintained, nor did I feel inside the viewpoint character's head and emotions. It was too distant. Again, just what she'd said about mine!! A very interesting exercise to do, and to see the outcome when someone else does it on your work.
Classes start on Monday. Prep continues.