sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Writing Children’s Poetry – a Useful Article

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As you’ll know, if you’ve been following my blog, I love to write poetry for children. From a quick rhyme to a verse novel, I love the way that poetry allows a depth of expression it’s harder to capture in prose. And kids like reading and listening to poetry, too.

I find that when I’m busy in my non-writing life, I can often catch ten minutes to write a first draft of a poem, wheras I may not have time to write something longer. Of coruse, whilst it sounds easy to use thsoe ten minutes to write a poem there is always a need to then take time later to revise and rework. No first draft is ever complete.

If you are trying to get your children’s poetry published, you may find this article useful. Whilst it does not focus on technique, it has good general advice about getting started and finding markets. Well worth a read.

Blog Tour Stop Three

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The blog tour to celebrate the release of Snowy’s Christmas continues today. If you’ve just tuned in, every Sunday for eleven weeks David, Snowy and I are visiting a different blog to talk about Snowy, about writing and about illustrating.

Today both David and I are visiting the Soup Blog to share five things you may not already know about Snowy’s Christmas. In actual fact it is ten things in total – because I shared five things about writing the story and Dave shared five things about illustrating. So, head over to the Soup Blog to learn more. And, while you are there, you can enter Rebecca’s competition to win yourself a copy of Snowy’s Christmas.

In the meantime, some more sightings of Snowy’s Christmas have been reported. It has been spotted on sale in two Kmart stores (in Cannington, WA and Kalgoorlie) and also in Myer and David Jones in Perth city. Am guessing this means it will be in more Kmart, Myer and David Jones.
If you see Snowy in a store, drop us a line and let us know.

Blog Tour Day 2

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Today is the second Sunday in my eleven-Sunday blog tour. Today’s stop is at Write and Read With Dale where Dale Harcombe has some lovely things to say about Snowy’s Christmas.

In part she says: “This is a cute Christmas picture book with a positive message,” going on to say ” It’s lovely to see an Aussie Christmas book that reflects the wildlife, colour and landscape of Australia.” To see the full review, though, you’ll need to visit Dale’s blog here.

Have a wonderful Sunday. I know I will.

Off on Tour

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The virtual launch may be done and dusted, but the celebrations to mark the release of Snowy’s Christmas are still in full swing. Today marks the beginning of our eleven week blog tour. Each Sunday for the next eleven weeks we’ll be visiting a different blog to talk about Snowy, about the writing and illustrating life, about Christmas – in fact about whatever the blog owners ask us to talk about (and perhaps some things they don’t, lol).

To get started, today David and I are both visiting Dee at Deescribe Writing Blog. So hop on over and see us there. And, while you’re there, scroll down to read Dees’ lovely review of the book.
Want more? Well, here’s the schedule for the rest of the tour. And, while we’re not there yet, all of these blogs are wonderful places to visit at any time.

Week One: October 4Deescribe Writing Blog www.deescribewriting.wordpress.com
Week Two: October 11Write and Read With Dale http://livejournal.com/users/orangedale/
Week three: October 18Alphabet Soup Blog www.soupblog.wordpress.com
Week Four: October 25Let’s Have Words www.letshavewords.blogspot.com
Week Five: November 1Sally Murphy’s Writing for children Blog http://sallymurphy.blogspot.com/
Week 6 November 8 Aussiereviews Blog http://aussiereviews.blogspot.com/
Week 7 November 15 Samantha Hughes’ Blog http://samantha-hughes.blogspot.com/
Week 8Robyn Opie’s Writing Children’s Books Blog http://www.robynopie.blogspot.com
Week 9Stories are Light http://sandyfussell.blogspot.com/
Week 10The Aussie Christmas Blog http://aussiechristmas.wordpress.com/
Week 11Tales I Tell http://belka37.blogspot.com
I’ll keep you updated with each new stop – love to see you there 🙂

Christmas is Coming – and my Christmas PB is here!

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What a wonderful day! Take a look at the cover of my new picture book which was released today:

Snowy’s Christmas tells a very Australian Christmas story about a little kangaroo (Snowy) who gets to help Santa out as only a kangaroo can. And, if you look closely at the cover you’ll see that the illustrator’s surname is also Murphy – because it was illustrated by my wonderful brother in law David, making it a real family effort.
If you have a moment or two to spare, pop over to the Aussie Christmas blog where we are holding a virtual launch right now. There’s lamingtons and Vegemite sandwiches and cordial and even a nice white wine, a few speeches, some links and lots of great company. Drop by and join in the fun.

Happy bookday Snowy!
sallymurphy.com.au