sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

My capers

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I’m delighted to be visiting my friend, and talented author, Dee White, over at Kids’ Book Capers today, talking about my books and the highs and lows of the writing life.

And, if that isn’t enough for you, you can also hear a podcast I recorded with Sydney Writers Centre a month or two ago here. When I heard I was going to be interviewed (and recorded) for half an hour, I wondered what I would say to fill in that time, but I needn’t have worried because the time flew by and the final interview was actually 43 minutes long!

the more I am interviewed like this, the more I am surprised at how different every interview is. Each interviewer brings their own experience, their own take on the world, to the interview, giving it that difference. Wonderful!

Featured Blogger Friday: Dee White

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It’s time once again for
Featured Blogger Friday.

Today I’m pleased to welcome Dee White, here to talk about one of her blogs (yes, she’s a busy lady with multiple blogs),  http://deescribewriting.wordpress.com. Thanks for dropping in, Dee.

Firstly, why do you blog?

I set up deescribewriting.wordpress.com because I wanted some way to communicate with the readers of my books. Blogging seemed a good way to tell them what I was up to, and give them a chance to respond and tell me about themselves.

What do you blog about?

I wanted to be a writer since I was seven so I am a keen advocate of young writers. I also know what a difficult journey it can be for adult writers trying to break into the market.

So my blog has kind of evolved into something that I hope all writers; whatever their level of experience can get something from. I provide a lot of tips on writing techniques and how to get your work published.  Some of my information is about agents and publishers and I also interview other authors and share their tips with readers.

Who is your target readership?

Writers of all ages, styles and levels of experience.

How often do you blog?

A lot. When I was doing my May Gibbs Fellowship, I blogged every day for 28 days. Now I try to blog at least two to three times a week.  Every Tuesday, I have my Tuesday Writing Tips and on other days I talk about things I have discovered about my own writing.

How much time do you devote to blogging?

For this blog, about five hours a week.

Do you have a favourite blog post?

My favourite blog post was called How Not to Scare Away Agents and Publishers  and it was published in February this year.

This post was read by over 400 people and there was over 50 comments. So apart from being fun to write, it was great to generate so much discussion.

I’ve done around 180 blog posts so it was hard to narrow it down – can I mention another one? It was a post I did on the day of my Cyber launch of Letters to Leonardo (1st July 2009). Matt Hudson, the main character from the book interviewed me about why I used Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings to tell his story.

What do you see as the benefits of blogging?

As well as connecting with my readers, I get to read lots of great new books and meet some fantastic authors and other industry professionals.

Blogging helps get your presence out there and raise the profile of you and your books. I had direct sales of Letters to Leonardo relating to my cyber launch of the book on my deescribewriting blog. People who had followed my cyber launch came up to me at a writer’s festival and bought copies of my book. They also said how much they enjoyed the online launch and blog tour.

Blogging also enables you to connect with other bloggers and take your books on blog tours. It is a great networking tool and source of links to other fantastic blogs.

Blogging is something you can do from the comfort of your own home at a time that suits you, so it doesn’t have to interfere with family or other commitments.

When I do school and author visits, teachers often comment on how much useful information there is for young writers on my blog, so blogging is also helping me to support the next generation of authors and creators.

What blogging platform do you use and why?

I use WordPress because I can run it like a website with multiple pages. As well as the home page which has current information, I have pages on writing tips, how to become a writer, blogging and blog tour tips and information about me and my work.

Do you have a favourite blog to visit (other than your own)?

I have many blogs I enjoy visiting, but probably my favourite one at the moment is Steph Bowes, Hey Teenager of the Year.  It’s always so vibrant and beautiful to look at, and constantly evolving visually.

I love how Steph writes and what she talks about. Steph is a 16yo author whose debut novel, Girl Saves Boy is coming out in September this year. Steph’s blog is always well written, entertaining and sincere.

She tackles teen issues with honesty and humour and she also has some great author interviews on her blog.

Lastly, when you are not blogging, what else do you do?

When I am not blogging I am writing novels for children and young adults. I also do writing coaching, author visits and run a blog for Boomerang Books called Kids’ Book Capers

Thanks for inviting me to visit, Sally. Talking about blogging is almost as much fun as well…blogging.

Thanks for dropping in. I hope you’ll come back and talk about Kids’ Book Capers some time.

What Dee White likes about Children’s Poetry

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As part of my celebrations for the release of my verse novel, Toppling, I have invited some of my friends – writers, poets, bloggers, teachers and more – to drop by during March. I will be asking each visitor the same question – what do you like about children’s poetry? – but am expecting some real variety in their answers.

So, without further ado, I’d like to welcome my first visitor for the month. Dee White is a wonderfully talented YA and children’s author. Thank you for dropping by Dee. Over to you:

THERE’S SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT VERSE NOVELS

Congratulations, Sally on your beautiful new novel, Toppling. It is such a moving book. I was reading it in the car park at school pick up and totally embarrassed myself by crying – luckily my car windows are tinted.

Thanks so much for inviting me here today – and what a wonderful topic to discuss – verse novels – a particular favourite of mine.

My first introduction to verse novels was through the work of bestselling YA author, Ellen Hopkins. Her novels, Burned, Impact and Crank, just to name a few, hook you right into the story from the first page.

I was lucky to meet Ellen and hear about her books at a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference. Inspired by her work I moved on to devour the wonderful writing of Australian authors, Sherryl Clark, Lorraine Marwood, Steven Herrick, Catherine Jinks and Margaret Wild.

There’s something about the rawness of verse novels that gets right to the heart of the emotions – it draws the reader straight into the main character’s world.

Verse writers have an amazing talent to tell us so much in so few words. They take the reader on an intimate journey, make you feel that you are there by special invitation – that it’s just you and the main character taking this path.

The power of verse is that it doesn’t have time or space for adverbs and adjectives. The reader has to visualise using his/her own imagination. They come to understand the main character’s world through the way that the main character acts and reacts to what’s happening around them/to them.

My current YA novel, Street Racer uses verse to establish a distinct voice between two characters. I have discovered that verse has more versatility than you think – and it gives your story pace, moving the reader along – not allowing them to become bogged down by excess detail.

A good verse novel is like an exquisitely decorated Christmas tree – balanced and striking with no excess baubles – beautifully simple.

Sally, your new novel, Toppling, is a perfect example of this. Right from the first page John’s character hooked me into his story.

The domino theme is so powerful in symbolising the precarious state of John’s world. The language is so simple yet tells us so much.

Works like Toppling are the very reason I love verse novels and poetry. Congratulations, Sally on your beautiful new book and thanks for inviting me to your place to talk about verse.

Dee White has a review of Toppling at her blog http://deescribewriting.wordpress.com/

Thanks so much for your kind words, Dee, and for sharing with us today.

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 🙂

Letters to Leonardo Blog Tour Day 1

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I am really thrilled to welcome Dee White to my blog today, on the first day of her blog tour to promote her new YA novel, Letters for Leonardo. Dee is busily preparing for the launch of Letters on July 1, so I asked her to pop in with a guest blog about how she plans to promote the book online. So, welcome Dee.

Thanks so much for inviting us to visit you Sally. Matt, (the main character from my new YA novel Letters to Leonardo) and I are thrilled to be here.

When I first told Matt we’d be touring the world to talk about his story, he was rapt. But when I mentioned a June/July tour, he groaned, “But that’s exam time.” So, we agreed on a compromise – a blog tour! What a great way to meet people without having to even leave your own computer/desk.

Matt’s shy, so I’ve promised to take most of the heat, but every now and then, he’ll be popping up on tour to have his say.

I was a complete dunce when it came to travelling in Cyber Space, so Matt had to teach me all about it. I discovered that a blog is not a weird form of Cane Toad – and that Facebook is not a bizarre beauty routine.

It has been a fair and fun exchange. I’ve fed Matt’s obsession for Leonardo da Vinci and he has taught me all I need to know about the internet.

Matt told me that setting up a blog is just like planning a painting – you have to think about what you want to say, who you want to say it to, and how you want to say it.

As soon as I set up my blog Matt couldn’t wait for me to start telling his story. We found that blogs are great because you don’t have to just use words, you can also use pictures, videos and audio to talk to people.

Once the blog was set up, we were ready to go on tour. Now we just needed blog hosts. Lucky for us Sally that you’d already set up Aussie Blog Tours so we already had a list of people who might be interested in hosting us.

Matt’s the creative one; he said we needed to come up with different things to do at each blog stop. Our conversation went something like this:

Matt: We can’t just talk about the same thing every day. That would be lame.

Dee: Good point. So, what do you think we should talk about?

Matt: We should talk about our tour of course – and the story.

Dee: It’s your story, what do you want people to know?

Matt: You know, all sorts of stuff.

Dee: What stuff?

Matt: Things like how you did the research for the book and where your ideas came from…

Dee: And why art was important in telling your story…and how we ‘both’ became obsessed with Leonardo da Vinci while we were writing it.

Matt: People might be interested in the themes in the book too…

Dee: And how hard it was to get it published…

Matt: And what it was like working with a publisher – with all the editing and rewriting…

Dee: They might be interested in how I turned the facts into fiction…
Matt: It would be good if somebody could interview me too.

So once Matt and I agreed on all the different things that could be in the blog tour, we asked the blog hosts to choose their topics, which they did with great enthusiasm.

Next, we had to think of some way to celebrate Letters to Leonardo coming out.
The Cyber Launch was my idea. Matt wanted a party to launch the book, but Dave (Matt’s dad) was worried that it would interfere with his exams and like Dave said to Matt, “If your mum finds out about it, she could turn up and there might be trouble.”

I said, “What about an online party – a Cyber Launch?”

Matt thought it was a great idea. “That way, people from all over the world could come.”

The next big job, was organising the Cyber Launch at http://deescribewriting.wordpress.com/ on 1st July. Planning the Cyber Launch was a real team effort. We had to come up with activities – and work out who was going to do what, when.

Matt made a movie preview of the book, telling a bit about his story. Then we asked Margaret Hamilton if she’d Cyber Launch the book because Matt and she had sort of clicked right from the start. Our wonderful publisher Walker Books Australia had agreed to provide a piece and Matt suggested we get some YA readers to review the book. The publisher also said we could publish a Sneak Peek from Letters to Leonardo on Cyber Launch day.

And because Matt and I both became obsessed with Leonardo da Vinci during the writing of Letters to Leonardo, we decided that Matt would interview me about how I incorporated Leonardo’s works into the book. The parent in me said that we needed to include some classroom writing activities for the Cyber Launch and Matt wanted a word search and some tips for young writers to be included – so we’ve got all that as well.

So basically, there’s heaps of interactive Letters to Leonardo reading and writing activities happening over the next two weeks and we are just so lucky to have people like you Sally who have invited us to drop in to talk about our book (which of course we love doing).

Thanks so much for having us Sally. We’ve had a blast. Hope to catch up with you in Cyberspace at our Cyber Launch on 1st July.

We’re also going to be visiting some other fantastic author, reviewer, book lover, YA and literature blogs, so feel free to come along for the ride. Here’s our hectic itinerary:

24th June 2009 http://sallymurphy.blogspot.com/
Dee and Matt talk about promoting Letters to Leonardo online.

25th June 2009 http://spinningpearls.blogspot.com/
Author interview

26th June 2009 http://thebookchook.blogspot.com/
How art has been used in Letters to Leonardo

27th June 2009 http://belka37.blogspot.com/
The research process involved in writing Letters to Leonardo

28th June 2009 http://weloveya.wordpress.com/
Guest blogger – talking with Vanessa Barneveld – interactive discussion with bloggers

29th June 2009 http://www.livejournal.com/users/orangedale
An author interview covering things like inspiration and perspective

30th June http://www.letshavewords.blogspot.com/
Mentors in YA fiction, and Leonardo da Vinci’s involvement in the book

1st July Cyber launch http://deescribewriting.wordpress.com/ including cross to Robyn Opie’s blog http://robynopie.blogspot.com/ – hurdles overcome on the way to publication.

2nd July http://persnicketysnark.blogspot.com/
How the author’s life paralleled Matt’s – her growing obsession with Leonardo da Vinci

3rd July http://bjcullen.blogspot.com/
Working with a publisher and the editing process

4th July http://sandyfussell.blogspot.com/
Interview with the elusive Matt Hudson

5th July http://teacherswritinghelper.wordpress.com/
Class writing activities based on Letters to Leonardo

6th July http://tips4youngwriters.wordpress.com/
Tips 4 young writers on how Letters to Leonardo was written

7th July http://www.jenniferbrownya.com/
An overseas stop before heading home

Thanks for sharing with us, Dee. If you’d like to learn more about Dee or about Letters to Leonardo, you can visit her online at http://www.deescribe.com.au/ or http://deescribewriting.wordpress.com/. Letters to Leonardo will be available from all good book stores from July 1, and can also be purchased online at

What to Do If You Get a Bad Review

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Amidst the whirl of celebrations for the release of Pearl Verses the World, and some wonderful feedback in the form of reviews and emails and nice comments from lots of sources, I have to confess that the book got a bad review.

I’m not naming the publication or reviewer (though will say the review is not, to my knowledge, online), because obviously I don’t want to send you off to read something which basically says my book is not worth reading and also because I recognise, as a reviewer myself, that a reviewer must write honestly about their response to a book. The review is not intended to stroke the author’s ego, or the reviewer’s, but to inform potential readers and purchasers.

Anyway, in this instance I was able to get over the negative review fairly quickly because:
a) I’ve been fortunate to get lots of positive reviews for the book.
b) I’m a reviewer myself so do understand that sometimes a negative review is needed.

But I wanted to reflect a little on what an author can or should do when they receive a negative review. Let’s assume that the reviewer has said your characters are one-dimensional, or your plot is thin, or that your rhyme is forced (I had a review like that once and it hurt till I remembered I had used that phrase myself for someone else’s work). Anyway, the reviewer is not a huge fan of your book, and now s/he’s shared that message with the world.

The first thing to do, if it will make you feel better, is to tear the review into tiny little pieces and burn them, or (if it is an online review) throw things at the monitor. Whinge to your mother, your husband or your best friend. Drink a glass of wine and eat a block of chocolate.

Then get over it.

The truth is, every writer gets a bad review sometime. And a heap of bad reviews could affect your sales. However, the truth is the success of your book does not depend on glowing reviews. Not every purchase decision is made based on reviews there are many consumers, librarians and booksellers who do not have the time to inclination to read reviews. There are also many people who will seek out a book and read it because of, rather than in spite of, bad reviews. They want to see if the reviewer is right.

There are two more things you should do. Do consider, once you’ve calmed down, whether the negative comments the reviewer made have any relevance. Can you learn from the comments they’ve made to avoid making the same mistakes next time? Also, have you read the review thoroughly? The negative review may, in fact, just be a negative sentence or phrase. The reviewer who said my rhyme was forced, also, if I remember rightly, said she liked the storyline. She didn’t hate the book – she was just telling it as she saw it.

Can you get the reviewer to change their mind? No. It is considered bad etiquette to contact the reviewer about a review . Remember a book review is one person’s opinion, not a personal favour to you, the author – and it is also not a debate. Unfortunately, you are going to have to accept that this particular reviewer doesn’t like your book. Sending hate mail or even a perfectly reasonable note explaining why they are wrong won’t change their review once it has been published, and may further alienate the reviewer so that they feel negatively towards you, rather than your book. I will mention one exception to this – and that is, in the very rare instance where a reviewer may contact you about a review they have written. Again, it is generally considered a breach of reviewing etiquette for a reviewer to contact the reviewee directly, but it does happen, and if a reviewer has contacted you and asked you about your response, then a carefully considered reply, pointing out why you disagree with their comments, may be appropriate.

Lastly, the best thing you can do about a bad review is to seek out, and reread, some positive feedback on your book – another review, the acceptance letter from the publisher, whatever you have. Remember, a publisher has invested time and money on your book, so it must be good. Pick it up. Look at the beautiful cover with YOUR name on it, and feel good.

And, back to Pearl Verses the World, because it is May and I am spending May celebrating its release, here are just some of the positive reviews Pearl has received:

Susan Whelan wrote As much as this story is about loss, loneliness and the need to connect with others, it is also a celebration of the beauty and power of poetry and the ability for emotion to be expressed with honesty and passion through this form of writing. You can read all of Susan’s review here.

Dee White wrote: This effortlessly crafted story will appeal to anybody who knows what it’s like to feel as if everyone else belongs, but you are just ‘a group of one’. The author uses simplicity to convey great depth, and it’s clear that each word has had to earn its place in this story. You can read the rest of Dee’s review here.

and The Book Chook wrote: it’s important to offer books to children that allow them to consider the big issues in life. Death and dying, feelings of abandonment and lack of power are all issues kids must eventually face. Books like this are empowering, they help a child know she is not alone, and that there are ways of coping, and being strong. Pearl Verses the World would make a great acquisition for libraries, and be an excellent choice for study in the primary school. It is a novel that offers a voice to every child who needs one. You can read the full review here.


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My heart sings every time I read these reviews and others like them. Life is good.