sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

School Magazine: 100 Years

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It was great to find a big yellow envelope in my mail today. Inside were contributor copies of the latest Countdown Magazine, with my poem Kitten inside, illustrated by the amazing Matt Ottley.

School Mag

It’s always exciting to be included in one of the four School Magazines. I’ve posted before about the fact that School Mag is celebrating 100 Years of publication this year. When I was in Sydney recently I was able to help celebrate this event at the CBCA National Conference.

School Mag 2

Once again, happy birthday School Magazine!

SCBWI, Matt Ottley and Harry

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I spent three days in Perth over the weekend, partly doing family stuff, but I also attended a meeting of the Western Australian branch of SCBWI (The Society of Children’s Book Writer and Illustrators). It’s always wonderful to connect with other authors and illustrators – both the well established and the aspiring. We were lucky enough to have Matt Ottley speak to us about his latest book, Requiem for a Beast, which is an incredible offering – part graphic novel, part multimedia performance, it really defies categorisation. If you get a chance, check it out, but don’t be fooled by its picture book size – this one is really for young adults and would be a wonderful classroom tool.

Among other things, the meeting discussed the upcoming SCBWI state conference, planned for February 17 2008, which will be a wonderful opportunity for West Aussie authors and illustrators to meet with publishers and with each other to learn and to network and for fellowship. I can’t wait!

After the meeting, I took the new Harry Potter back to my children. Murphlet three grabbed it and read it in one gulp. I took a little longer, but had finished it my midnight Saturday. Am still digesting it, really, but I think I liked it.

As always, it was nice to come home and back to my desk and my home comforts. Lots of writing and reviewing to do this week.

sallymurphy.com.au